Rocky III (1982)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Mr. T

Time: 99 minutes

After defeating Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa is the new Heavyweight champion. He goes from rags to riches. Big house. cars, motorcycles, money, commercials, fans; he has it all. He goes into a series of 10 successful title defenses, but, unbeknownst to him, his opponents were hand-picked by his management. When Clubber Lang, an absolute monster of a fighter, comes along, Balboa is highly unprepared and loses his belt. Rocky also loses his manager and friend, Mickey. As he is looking to gather the pieces of himself, the fallen boxer gets a bit of unlikely help from a former enemy, namely Apollo Creed.

Just like the character of Rocky, the Rocky franchise lost a bit of its edge with this particular installment. There is a lot of good here. In spite of his limited acting skill set, Mr. T offers a great on screen bad guy. He is convincing as Clubber Lang. Though his mom must have been upset to see him being so mean and all. Stallone is still pretty good as Rocky. The last scene between the title character and his dying manager is really solid. It was also nice that they gave Adrian even more of a voice and an importance here.

Unfortunately, the script felt a little weaker here. It felt as if they were going through the motions and forgot to add a little more substance. Some of the dialogue and action was a bit cheesy too. That bit where Apollo and Rocky run on the beach, then jump and hug in slow motion on the beach made me laugh and cringe at the same time.

Overall, while this is not a perfect offering, Rocky III remains a very entertaining film.

Rating: «««