Viewed in
2008
Premise
Life goes on for Rocky after of the biggest match of his life.
Who should watch
Fans of the first film.
Thoughts
Not bad for a sequel.
I really liked the first half, thanks to Sylvester Stallone's writing. The aftermath of Rocky and Apollo's lives were handled with interesting and plausible complications. Life can be hard for an uneducated, aging boxer whose fifteen minutes of fame are ticking away. Stallone's character remained flawed and human, and I rooted for him to have a successful family and working life, as if he were in the ring. Adrian's hospital scenes were quite moving.
However, once Adrian's complications were done, I felt the movie went on auto-pilot and become a typical boxing movie. It jumped the shark when it repeated the training montage scene from the first film, but added an army of kids.
Another thing that bugged me was boxing inconsistencies. The trainer made an issue about how Rocky needed to be a right-handed fighter to protect his damaged left eye, but in every training scene, he still used his left hand. Rocky taking 88 punches to the face in a row seemed a bit implausible too.
What I would change
Kept going with the storyline of Rocky adjusting to his normal life. But then, we wouldn't have Rocky 3 through 6.
Random
I found Stallone's attempt to give his brother, Frank, his second big music/acting break to be hilarious.
