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".

Rocky II (1979)

This film opens with the fight that was at the end of Rocky (1976).  Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and his opponent, champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) are whisked off to the hospital afterwards to heal their injuries.  Rocky took the worst of the beating.  Once out of the hospital, Rocky marries Adrian (Talia Shire), and he promises her he will not box anymore.

However, life outside of the ring proves to be a major challenge.  Rocky is signed to do a commercial, but the project is scrapped when it is discovered that the boxer can't read the cue cards -- Rocky is illiterate.  A job comes up at a meat packing plant, but due to budget cuts, Rocky is laid off.  Without a high school diploma, opportunities for the former boxer are few.  There are bills due, and Adrian is pregnant.

Meanwhile, Apollo, embarrassed by how Rocky stood up to him during their fight, wants a rematch ASAP. Apollo, with the help of his coach (Tony Burton) and PR team, launch a campaign to lure Rocky back to the ring.  Mickey (Burgess Meredith) is willing to train Rocky again.  Pauly (Burt Young), Rocky's brother-in-law, is willing to support him.  But Adrian isn't happy about the idea, and it causes friction between her and her husband.  Also, Rocky has his doubts -- can he handle Apollo again, or was it just luck?

I love these characters, and the whole film has a realness about how these people interact with each other and live.  This is one of those rare movie sequels that lives up to the original film.  One of my favorite aspects of this movie as in the previous film is Burgess Meredith, who barks orders as Rocky's old school boxing coach.  I remember Meredith mostly from playing the Penguin on the old "Batman" TV series (1966-1968).  In other roles, Meredith was either playing mild-mannered guys, like the bank employee caught up in a nuclear war on a famous episode of "The Twilight Zone" (1959-1964) or sophisticated men.  Meredith does a great job playing a guy whose seen a lot in the boxing world.

The fight at the end is truly brutal.  Even though I knew the ending before I ever saw the movie, I still clapped and yelled as if I was watching a real match.

Rocky Balboa (2006)

"The Italian Stallion" is now a middle-aged man, settled into a quiet life away from the lights of the ringside. He runs a restaurant, named after his beloved wife Adrian, who is now deceased. The film opens with Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and Adrian's surly brother Paulie (Burt Young) marking the day of Adrian's passing. Paulie accompanies Rocky around to the old haunts where Rocky used to hang out with Adrian. It's been a few years, but Rocky is still grieving, while Paulie is trying not to think about it. After a visit to the demolished ice rink where Rocky and Adrian had a date in the first film in this series, Paulie tells his brother-in-law, "I can't do this no more."

There is tension between the fighter and his son Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimilglia). The younger man feels like he's always been obscured by his famous dad's shadow. This is apparent when Rocky Jr. is chewed out by his boss for being late to work. "I don't care who your dad is," the boss snaps. Moments later when Rocky appears to talk with his son, the boss, like everyone else, wants to meet the champ and have a picture taken with him.

Rocky meets a barmaid (Geraldine Hughes) who has a troubled bi-racial son named Steps (James Francis Kelly III). Turns out the barmaid is Marie, a young girl to whom Rocky gave some advice to about staying out of trouble in the first film. Rocky helps her out with a new job at his restaurant, and acts as somewhat of a father figure to her son.

ESPN airs a computer fight between Rocky and the current champ, an arrogant sort named Mason "The Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver). The computer shows Rocky winning. Dixon's manager, L.C. (A.J. Benza) and a promoter, Lou DiBella (playing himself) convince the champ that it would be good business to fight Rocky. Rocky is bitten by the fight bug as well, and he applies for a boxing license. Rocky's desire to put on the gloves again is met with derision by the media, but as he tells Paulie, he has some "stuff in the basement" that he needs to get out of his system.

I liked how this movie tied in with the first, showing flashbacks involving Adrian (Talia Shire), Rocky's late trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) and his late friend and rival Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). I also liked Rocky as an older man. He's basicially the same guy from the earlier films, wiser, a bit sadder, but still carrying around the belief that he can make it. Those who are boxing fans--like myself--will recognize familiar faces including the aforementioned Lou DiBella; boxing historian Burt Randolph Sugar; sports reporters Brian Kenny, Larry Merchant, Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman; referee Joe Cortez, and announcer Michael "Let's get ready to rumble!" Buffer. Even former champ Mike Tyson makes an appearance. Antonio Tarver is a professional boxer, and talks as much trash here in his role as he does in real life before matches. Milo Ventimilglia is one of the people with special powers on the NBC sci-fi series, "Heroes".

"The Contender" (2005-2007)

I grew up during the heyday of Muhammad Ali, "Smokin" Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Sonny Liston. Boxing matches were as regular on TV then as were the big three sports of baseball, football and basketball. Unfortunately these days, boxing has been banished to cable, and is seldom covered in the newspapers and major sports magazines. Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) and former champ Sugar Ray Leonard attempted to change that scenario with their reality/competition show which began its life on NBC. Stallone is an actor, but had much respect because of his Rocky Balboa character, and the boxers idolized him and Sugar Ray.

Sixteen welterweight boxers competed for a chance to win a champion match during the last episode and a boxing contract. The boxers were divided into two camps, a blue team and a yellow team, and during the first season, the teams competed against each other during challenges that gave them one up on each other in terms of priviledges. They also did regular training in a spacious gym, under the eye of several trainers including Tommy, an old school trainer straight out of a 1940's boxing movie. Jackie Kallen, one of the first female boxing managers, was also on hand, but her role in the series was limited. She appeared to be more of a house mother, someone the guys could whine to when things weren't going their way.

While the competitions, which some said had nothing to do with actual boxing were cut out after the first season, the backstories about the boxers and their families remained. Scenes featuring family members encouraging their boxers, along with their tears, fears, and hopes were a staple of the show.

Each episode ended with a match. The matches were cut in an quick, music video fashion that made them more intense and exciting. The winner advanced further towards the big championship bout. The loser hung up his gloves up in the darkened gym, and takes a long walk into the night on his way home and out of the show. It's was a sad moment, especially when the boxer has previously expressed that the show may be his last chance to get a shot at becoming popular, and being able to make life better for his family.

Even though the show brought in decent ratings for NBC, the network canceled it. ESPN picked it up for the second season. Stallone no longer appeared on the show, but he remained an executive producer. Jackie Kallen left the show, but Sugar Ray and Tommy remained on board.  In later seasons, the series jumped to yet another network, Versus (now Spike TV).  Tony Danza ("Taxi"), a former boxer himself, took over as host.  The final season featured MMA fighters instead of boxers.