[Alex]

I'll put this in its own thread since it is a new movie and I can also see some dicsussion happening around the entire series.

When this project was accounced I, along with every other sane person, rolled my eyes and felt embarrassed for Sylvestore Stallone's sad grasp at the last few straws of fame.

Well, I'm shocked, but this is a good example of why whenever I hear about dubious projects my inclination isn't to say "that's a horrible thing to do" but rather "let them try, maybe it'll be interesting."

Rocky is an example of what we discussed recently. I love Rocky and that isn't diminished by the awefulness of Rocky IV and Rocky V (and mediocrity of Rocky II and Rocky III). I think many people look at what the series became and come to the conclusion that Rocky must have sucked as well. And for film buffs, since it undeservedly won Best Picture instead of Network (a much superior film) it is derogated as a bad movie instead of just a good movie that wasn't as good as another film.

As we were out wandering last night we ended up near a theater and the only convenient thing showing was Rocky Balboa. Despite the relatively good reviews I still wasn't super interested and Lani wasn't interested at but we decided to go anyway.

It isn't a great movie, but it is a satisfying one. First of all it does the smart thing and completely ignores the existence of Rocky V. Then it acknolewledges but doesn't dwell on the third and fourth movies. In an ideal world we would have had Rocky and Rocky II and then Stallone would have left it alone for 25 years to finish the trilogy here.

It isn't a great movie, and if you don't like any of the Rocky movies then you aren't going to like this one. But otherwise you might want to overlook your very reasonable distrust of such an endeavor and check it out.