William_Cutting
09-07-2004, 10:20 PM
TNT or one of those damn stations keep on showing Rocky III and IV. I watch movies like this now and realize how bad they are, how cheesy they are, and how poorly made they are. I normally hate sequels like these, that take a good low budget character driven film, and blow it up into an unbelievable Hollywood cliche.
BUT...
I grew up on the Rocky movies. There's something about watching Rocky climb that mountain in part IV, and when he gets to the top and yells, "Drago, Drago," over and over again that makes me want to stand up and cheer. I'm mean come on, what the hell is he doing climbing a goddamn mountain?
I overlook the fact that part IV has a hookey, ridiculous plot that is out of the age of the Cold War, I overlook Rocky’s speech at the end where he addresses the Soviet audience after he takes a beating for 14 rounds and miraculousy comes back in the 15th round to take down a man at least 1 foot taller than him, and says, “I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, maybe everybody can change.” I can’t help myself, I get this feeling of cheer inside.
I overlook how in Part III, really II, that the boxing turned into what we can now term, “Rocky boxing”—a total movie creation that is nothing like real boxing at all. I can’t help but laugh at how Rocky kicks the shit out of Clubber Lang for most of the 1st round in the first fight, then Clubber hits him once and he almost falls. How Clubber took quite a beating, but it’s Rocky who is all bloody, in just one round.
I overlook all this because I grew up on these movies. There’s something about seeing these as a kid that, while I know they're bad, there’s some kind of sentimental value in them. That I’m sure if generations now, who never saw them before, watched them for the first time, would think they were total crap, just like I think most of the big budget sequels are crap.
So I pose the question: is there something that makes the Rocky sequels more than just a Hollywood attempt to cash in on a namesake. Even though they are unbelievable in storyline, in ringside, do they possess something that can’t make us hate them?
Or are there people out there that seriously think III and IV (and I guess V too), are absolute garbage, “Absolutely," that you seriously hate watching them, and find no redeeming value whatsoever?
(BTW, I know I didn't talk much about II or V, but II was a half decent follow up, and I haven't sat down and watched V in awhile)
BUT...
I grew up on the Rocky movies. There's something about watching Rocky climb that mountain in part IV, and when he gets to the top and yells, "Drago, Drago," over and over again that makes me want to stand up and cheer. I'm mean come on, what the hell is he doing climbing a goddamn mountain?
I overlook the fact that part IV has a hookey, ridiculous plot that is out of the age of the Cold War, I overlook Rocky’s speech at the end where he addresses the Soviet audience after he takes a beating for 14 rounds and miraculousy comes back in the 15th round to take down a man at least 1 foot taller than him, and says, “I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, maybe everybody can change.” I can’t help myself, I get this feeling of cheer inside.
I overlook how in Part III, really II, that the boxing turned into what we can now term, “Rocky boxing”—a total movie creation that is nothing like real boxing at all. I can’t help but laugh at how Rocky kicks the shit out of Clubber Lang for most of the 1st round in the first fight, then Clubber hits him once and he almost falls. How Clubber took quite a beating, but it’s Rocky who is all bloody, in just one round.
I overlook all this because I grew up on these movies. There’s something about seeing these as a kid that, while I know they're bad, there’s some kind of sentimental value in them. That I’m sure if generations now, who never saw them before, watched them for the first time, would think they were total crap, just like I think most of the big budget sequels are crap.
So I pose the question: is there something that makes the Rocky sequels more than just a Hollywood attempt to cash in on a namesake. Even though they are unbelievable in storyline, in ringside, do they possess something that can’t make us hate them?
Or are there people out there that seriously think III and IV (and I guess V too), are absolute garbage, “Absolutely," that you seriously hate watching them, and find no redeeming value whatsoever?
(BTW, I know I didn't talk much about II or V, but II was a half decent follow up, and I haven't sat down and watched V in awhile)