Creed (2015)

After I saw this movie, I was talking to one of the staff persons at the theater.  "That's not my type of movie.  I'm not into boxing," she said.  I'm assuming that a lot of people feel this way about boxing movies.  However, the reason these type of movies keep being made is because the sport of boxing is a metaphor for life.

Everybody in the latest entry in the Rocky movie series is fighting against or for something.  Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) is fighting to be his own man apart from the shadow of his late father, Apollo Creed.  His adoptive mom Mary (Phylicia Rashad) fights the idea of her son participating in a sport that took the life of his father.  A neighbor of Adonis', Bianca (Tessa Thompson), fights to fulfill her dreams of musical stardom before circumstances make her unable to do so.  A contender, 'Pretty' Ricky Conlon (Tony Bellew), is fighting to stay out of jail after a gun charge.

Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) is fighting illness and old age.  We learned in the last movie (Rocky Balboa) that his wife Adrian had passed on.  Now Paulie, his brother-in-law, has passed on as well.  His son, Robert, has moved out of the country to start a new life with a girlfriend.  The former champ has to deal with loneliness, too.

I loved how the fight scenes were filmed.  They took the audience right into the heart of the ring.  The training scenes were highly entertaining as well.  Just like the last movie in the series (Rocky Balboa), there are echoes of moments in Rocky's past.

As usual, the film is peppered with real life people from the world of boxing. Tony Bellew and Andre Ward are actual boxers.  Boxing commentators Max Kellerman and Jim Lampley are at ringside, and Michael Buffer is on hand to announce, "Let's get ready to rumble!"  Also, actor Liev Schreiber can be heard as the voice on the popular HBO boxing series, "24/7".

Spectre (2015)

The latest 007 adventure begins at a Day of the Dead festival.  Bond (Daniel Craig) is aiming to kill an Italian terrorist.  Mayhem takes place when a building blows up and a fight on a helicopter takes place.  Back at headquarters, M (Ralph Fiennes) isn't happy with the fact that Bond went on that mission without permission.  Bond is relieved from his duties, then injected with a tracking device to make sure he won't take it upon himself to do anything else.

Bond receives some items from Skyfall (the spy's ancestral home featured in the last film).  Someone from Bond's childhood appears to be connected to a mysterious organization that has not only done crimes around the world, but is tied to people Bond has had to take down in the past.  In addition, the secret service agency that Bond is a part of is in danger of being shut down.

Spectre is okay, but not as good as Skyfall (2012) was.  But I did like the theme about privacy and surveillance issues.