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He should have quit while he was ahead with Rocky III

posted 8 years ago by Tiggersmom77
30 replies | jump to latest

Apollo Creed Becoming Rocky's manager and friend would have been the ideal ending for what could have been the perfect trilogy. Rocky IV was very entertaining, but I agree with the sentiment that it was almost a caricature of the franchise. I also think the character of Apollo Creed deserved a better ending than what he got.

Rocky V felt incredibly amateurish compared to the previous 4. It was almost like watching a TV movie due to the awful sound track, and poor acting by the actor playing Tommy "The Machine " Gunn(easily the WORST sound track of the 6 films). I appreciate Stallone trying to take Rocky V back to the magic of the original, but it just doesn't work here. They tried taking Rocky back to the sweet dim wit he was in the original. The problem with that is that somewhere between Rocky II and III, his IQ shot up about 25 points(one of my few gripes with III). I get the brain damage from the Drago fight excuse. It feels forced though, and only accentuates the fact that they took Rocky out of character in the last two films, and now they need an excuse for why he's a dullard again. I do like the street fight ending of V. It was a fresh ending for a painfully mediocre film.

I enjoyed Rocky Balboa, and I think it was everything Rocky V was trying to be. I know V was technically a segue into RB, but I think they could have done RB without IV and V.

"I saw it move too!"-Mo Rutherford

[–] LTUM (978) 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MaximRecoil (4088) 4 years ago

"To me, the idea of a 60 year old ROcky getting approved by doctors to fight in a real fight (not a staged fight) was completely ludicrous."

Steve Ward retired in 2017 at the age of 60. He was fighting in a veteran's division of the WBC, but they were still real, sanctioned fights, so he obviously got doctor approval for them. Stallone was 59 during the filming of Rocky Balboa.

Also, did they even state Rocky's age in the movie? Actors and the characters that they play aren't always, nor even usually, the same age (for example, Stallone and Rocky were the same age in the first movie, but Stallone was ~3 years older than Rocky in the second movie). If his age wasn't stated to be 60 in the movie, then Rocky may have been in his early or mid 50s. Stallone could have passed for it in 2006; he was in far better physical shape than the vast majority of 60-year-olds.

[–] LTUM (978) 4 years ago

okay but what has more weight is the viability of a premise as over against the reality that something could actually happen, factually.

IMO the plausibility of a 60 year old fighting was a huge stretch. and moreover, shy would one WANT to do it. I see the same issue with 'maverick' still flying jets in top gun 2. it comes off silly that a 58-60 year old man in the navy would still be flying missions.

my .02

[–] MaximRecoil (4088) 4 years ago

"okay but what has more weight is the viability of a premise as over against the reality that something could actually happen, factually."

You originally said it was "completely ludicrous," and it's not just something that could actually happen, it's something that actually does happen. Also, I rewatched this movie last night and Rocky is said to be "in his fifties," which could mean any age from 50 to 59. There are / have been lots of professional boxers in their fifties, and there's this too:

Evander Holyfield ready to come out of retirement aged 57 to fight Riddick Bowe for fourth time

https://sportlife.news/2019/boxing/evander-holyfield-ready-to-come-out-of-retirement-aged-57-to-fight-riddick-bowe-for-fourth-time/

[–] LTUM (978) 4 years ago

"Evander Holyfield ready to come out of retirement aged 57 to fight Riddick Bowe for fourth time"

umm, this is a decade after rocky 6. so at the time of the movie, we didn't yet know this fact.

same for steve ward in 2017. a decade AFTER the film came out.

so you see at the time, it was a different flavor

[–] LTUM (978) 4 years ago

...also, what happened to the brain problem that retired him in rocky V? did it get healed for rocky 6? I guess that is what made it implausible to me.

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 5 years ago

Well that would’ve sucked as I got 4th as the best and fifth as my personal favourite.

[–] ThrillerTalk (1118) 5 years ago

Well I think it added to the story just fine. The first two movies brought up the fact that Apollo was getting older and that he would eventually need to think about retiring but he was always stubborn about that.

Then in Rocky IV the early part of that movie put even more spotlight on it by showing that Apollo really couldn't deal with walking away from the sport because he loved it so much. Boxing was his life.

Sure he could have became a trainer and helped some younger guys similarly to how he helped lift Rocky back to reaching that eye of the tiger in III but instead he just wanted to fight. Probably one more time and it caused him when that fight he took was against someone who was hungry to make an impact by any means necessary (Ivan Drago) with a team of people screaming for him to make that impact.

Then of course Rocky had to get payback for his friend. I think it worked well. Especially the part where he wins over the foreign crowd in the middle of the fight. I think the movie had great messages.

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 5 years ago

"I think it worked well. Especially the part where he wins over the foreign crowd in the middle of the fight. I think the movie had great messages."

Yeahhhh but... I mean, I see what you are getting at with "great messages". Although, this would never happened in real life and it just seemed like another "america, fuck yeah!" thing rather than a message of "we are all the same and should support eachothers".

[–] GordonGartrelle (1267) 4 years ago

But there's no easy way out.

There is no shortcut home.

There's no easy way out.

Giving in can be wrong.