Entertainment, Movies - Air Force Times

‘Rocky Balboa’: Last bout is fitting finale

Admit it — when you heard Sylvester Stallone was making a sixth “Rocky” film, your first reaction was to snicker, right?

Snicker no more. Reaching back to his signature character’s roots, Sly erases the sour taste of II, III, IV and V and brings it all full circle in “Rocky Balboa,” which portrays the Italian Stallion as a contemplative lion in winter seeking one last, blazing hurrah.

Things have changed since we last saw Rocky. He’s badly adrift; his beloved Adrian has been dead several years; he’s estranged from his son (Milo Ventimiglia); and he’s still dragging around ever-crusty Paulie (Burt Young) to revisit the crumbling haunts of his youth.

Then ESPN stages one of those “virtual fights” in which punchers of different eras square off, and a computerized Rocky knocks out the reigning champ, undefeated Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver).

The real Dixon, a Tyson-esque lout rapidly losing his fan base, looks to regain his pride and engender good will by staging an exhibition bout with the still-beloved Rocky — who sees this as a way to finally shed his ghosts.

The film takes its time getting to the fight, spending time on introspective riffs about growing old amid faded memories.

Along the way, old friends return from the original “Rocky,” including Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the adult version of the potty-mouth girl from the block, as well as Spider Rico (Pedro Lovell) — and if you don’t know who Spider is, you have no business seeing this movie.

But when the bombs finally start dropping, the urge to shout, “Go for it, Rock!” proves tough to resist, making “Rocky Balboa” a rousing capstone for one of the greatest film underdogs ever.