Rocky III (1982)

As Good As It Gets

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Rocky IIIThere is a sense of wanting more for the character but at this point it seems obvious that they are stretching their way down the road where box office is given more importance than quality of it. Rocky III is flat out predictable and a typical sport movie filled with cliched action sequences to complete the run time of the movie. Sylvester Stallone seems to be working hard on it since being aware of the platform he has got and gets a good supporting cast on screen. Rocky III is of course made for the audience with more action sequences and fan boy moments but looses the touch of originality and the soul of it.

If Rocky and Rocky II are the crown jewels of this franchise, then Rocky III has to be its gold plated pinky ring, complementing a faux Gucci wardrobe spritzed with bad cologne.Rocky goes Hollywood in the third installment of the series as he tries to find himself while training in LA to battle Mr. T, who at least looks good as a sports movie villain. It's not a terrible movie. You get what you've already come to expect from Rocky movies- good action, Rocky's ongoing conflicts and also a little more insight into Apollo Creed who was always one of the most interesting characters in the series. The only problem here is that Rocky III just screams "80s movie" louder than anything you've ever seen- with juiced up bodies, oily training montages and Eye of the Tiger kicking in all over the place. You could be forgiven if you thought you tuned into Miami Vice by mistake. So, it's a little tackier than the first two but probably the last one that was really any good.

Our protagonist(Sly, charmingly everyman as ever, in spite of greater fame and wealth than before) is challenged by the up-and-comer, Clubber Lang(Mr. T, his tough image not yet tempered with a fear of flying. He's fortunate assault laws clearly don't exist for those who take the ring in this). Will he return to his underdog status? Mickey's(still intense Meredith) health is failing. Might he return to the great big cold continent in the sky? And Adrian(Shire, sweet, smart and shy) is still here. They just don't know what to do with her this time. It's too bad, the love between the two is one of the elements that work best, especially for those of us who don't care about the macho crap. What? I recognize the original as amazing, and the first five were on sale. Well, they have her support him, because that's what they default her to. Paulie's(Young, still gritty) racism comes to the forefront, as Creed(Weathers, less showy) and Duke(Burton, determined) become unlikely allies.It was a matter of time before they'd cast at least one actual fighter, not an actor and/or former football player. And here we get two. Wrong sport, of course, but at least it's the right direction. A little in the fights does legitimately play out as wrestling. At the time of writing this, I've only watched up to this point in the franchise. This didn't change my mind on what I thought watching the second installment: there never shoulda been more than one movie here. And apparently I still have the worst ahead of me. Part of the point of 1 was that he couldn't possibly keep doing this, it was his last chance! The problem with a series in this genre is that we know it has to have a climactic showdown. Action flicks, thrillers, dramas... it doesn't have to be public, planned, the consequences can be purely personal. Meanwhile, here... one way or another, it needs to be set up and have emotional, not only physical, stakes. We know where it's going, and are seeing the signs. Anything that happens that isn't related to that, we know it won't prevent that from happening. You can also only go so far, intending to top what came before, without getting unrealistic: "that wouldn't be allowed, it's against the rules". And this does get into that territory. This runs 92 and a half minutes without credits, and 95 and a half with.There is a lot of brutal boxing and some strong language in this. I recommend it to completionists. 6/10

Here in France we consider Sly as a gentle dumb but watching this 3rd round I think he is really underrated ! I discovered Rocky as a teen so at the start of the 90s and the movies really punched me then ! But now i realize that those movies were much older and if we watch them with contemporary eyes, we see that they are really forerunner of the modern American movies ! First of all, if Sly hasn't invented sequels, he is among the first authors to believe in it : back then, we had only Coppola (Godfather), Lucas (Star Wars) and a few others… Next, he is also the first author to illustrate scenes with just a song and no dialogues, and what a song : « eye of the tiger ». Still today, it's a rock classic and this song editing is used by everyone now ! Next, as a director, i found Sly has great inspirations with striking angles, close-up, news editing, all things that we see everyday now but back then were original. As an author, we can say whatever but Rocky has a special place in our heart as the movies are true to deep values : efforts, getting up after a blow, friendship, marital life, education, citizenship… Here, Rocky is still bound to Philly, he spends some nice time with his son, he has to deal even more with celebrities and fame, and for sure, the punching winner is also a crying man ! But we got also minorities friendship and one more time, there is not a lot movies with that question ! As for acting, all the cast is wonderful as they are totally into their characters and if they don't have much to do, they always achieve to be real ! Talia is fantastic as a supportive wife and newcomer Mr. T spills fury forever ! Finally, i didn't write about the fights and that's why Rocky movies are important and true classic because they tell us so much in addition to boxing !