Underrated Sports Movies Part I: Rocky Balboa

With my Mets getting hurt at every possible opportunity, I honestly haven’t been paying as much attention to baseball as usual. You add that to the fact that there hasn’t been much else going on in the world of sports, and I really haven’t had much to write about. So, I decided to turn my attention to something else I am unhealthily obsessed with and combine it with sports : pop culture. So today, and probably every week until the NBA season, I will review underrated sports movies. To start the series, I begin with the movie I normally refer to as Rocky V, since there never really was a true Rocky V.

The main reason why I consider Rocky Balboa underrated is because a lot of people, myself included, refused to see it. I was so jaded by the movie that shall not be named that I was actually scared to see this movie. I thought it was going to tarnish the series even more than the 5th one did. I was wrong.  Although it may not rate high in the Rocky series, that’s still a hell of a series to rate low in. I honestly have it ranked 4th, behind Rocky I, II, and IV, yet still above III and V (my full rankings will be covered later). Rocky V never actually happened in my opinion, and Rocky III tried too hard with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

There were no expectations going into viewing this movie. Most people thought it was going to be awful – you had a movie that had a great run, and then, it went one movie too far. Sixteen years later, they decide to go one movie further!?  This could only end in disaster, right? But, it didn’t. And there are several reasons why:

• They didn’t try to make it out to be completely legit. They made Rocky over the hill, but not too over the hill, and I would actually believe him in his early 50’s. Even though he’s in his early 60’s, he sure as hell doesn’t look like your normal 60 year old, and yes I know there may be some PDA’s involved, but if most of us don’t care in sports anymore, why the hell should we care in movies?
• To add to the believability factor, they don’t make it a legit match against the champion. Instead, they make it an exhibition. In reality, who in the world would give a title match to a man who hasn’t fought in years? However, if a champion couldn’t find a legit contender, why not fight a match against a big time former champion for charity. Of course, this was if he was cleared to do so.
• They make it clear. The only reason Rocky lasts so long is because the champion hurts himself in the second round. Yeah, the odds are long, but you could actually believe it.
• The subplots. They aren’t that strong, but you can sort of believe them and kind of enjoy them. You can see the subplot with his son – who wouldn’t struggle with being Rocky Balboa’s son? You can see the pressure he’s under,  you know, the feeling that you were only getting where you were because of who your father was. That would be tough to live with. We also see the “dramatic speech” outside of his father’s restaurant (we do need some unintentional comedy to make a great sports movie).
• The chills. Tell me you didn’t watch Rocky Balboa and not get chills when ‘Gonna Fly Now’ started up. If you didn’t, I don’t know who you are anymore.
• The best line of the movie is where, coming out for the 10th round, Dixon says to Rocky, “You’re a crazy old man” to which Rocky responds, “You’ll be there one day.” I love that line. Of course, I’m still a kid who tries to run every once in a while after being a great runner at one time (Note: My friends will tell you that I remind them that I used to be a good athlete at one time. All the time.), and now due to bad ankle I can barely run 5 miles. I love that shit.
• And finally, Antonio Tarver. I think he puts in a good role in this movie. Granted, he is no Jesus Shuttlesworth, but I still like his performance as the cocky undefeated fighter, Mason “The Line” Dixon, who gains respect for his opponent as the match goes on. Let’s also not forget that the fight scenes are pretty damn good.

I definitely think that this movie did not only meet expectations, but in my opinion, it actually ended up being a pretty good movie. It was not amazing, but definitely underrated in my opinion. And I would love to hear yours – let me hear it in the comment section

I have several other movies that I will write about, and I do plan on milking this series once a week until the NBA season starts. So, if you have any underrated movies you would like to see reviewed, email me at TheNotoriousMOB@aim.com.

Tags: American as Apple Pie, Drunken Ramblings, inspirational, Rocky Balboa, The Notorious MOB, TYER's bane of lists, underrated sports movies
Categories: Domestics, Drunken Ramblings, Mixed Drinks

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Domestics, Drunken Ramblings, Mixed Drinks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.