This is easily one of the more pleasant surprises that I have encountered on the big screen in a while. I was among those who scoffed at the very idea of a new Rocky movie. I remember really liking the original, and having a childhood enjoyment for IV (loved Ivan Drago), but I really don't have any solid memories of any of them, and I know I skipped the fifth one. My interest in the character is minimal, and I was not impressed with the trailers I saw, but I dutifully made my way to the cinema to take in this sixth, and hopefully final, story of the perennial underdog. What I found was a movie that was heartfelt and genuine, a movie that was well worth my time and made me care for the battered pugilist.
Like I said, my memories of the previous Rocky movies are slight at best, so I went in with a relatively clean slate. I found that knowledge of those earlier films was not an absolute necessity, and Rocky Balboa is a movie that succeeds on its own merits.
It is a film that is more than Stallone looking to make a quick buck off the franchise, or trying to rekindle his career with one of his more famous characters. This is more of a love song to the film that rocketed him to fame, a movie that isn't about the boxing, but about flawed individuals trying to retain their integrity and keep moving forward.
Rocky Balboa finds the aging Rocky living a modest life in Philadelphia; he runs a restaurant where he shares his stories with the patrons. His closest relationship is with Adrian, dead for a few years, while his relationship with his son withers. He is a man seeking personal connections who is left sadly unfulfilled. He tries to reconnect with his son who doesn't have the time, and until he fortuitously encounters a woman, Marie, he knew years earlier as a young girl, it would seem he is doomed to loneliness.
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