I've lost track of how many Rocky movies have been produced (the last mental picture I have is a "Rocky IV" in huge fonts). Then I learn the latest is the 6th, the making of which I got absolutely no news about the whole time it was being filmed. But I still get a kick out of hearing "Eye of the Tiger" to this day; it sure puts me in a gung-ho mood in an amusing kind of way.
Here's an excerpt of a review of the movie from Spero News, followed by a funny piece by Dilbert creator, Scott Adams. Great for weekend reading, both.
Movie Review: Rocky Balboa
by John Mark Butterworth I have rarely seen a sequel that has pulled off paying homage to its predecessor without being sickening and treacly. This movie references the first many times in establishing itself yet, does so in a way that's warm, confident, and reassures us that it intends to be as good as the first. You do worry about that going in, after all.
Adrian, Rocky's wife, has died and on the anniversary of her death he visits her grave and all the various spots we saw them in the first movie where memorable scenes occurred. Rocky's son, Robert, is grown up, a white collar guy who's a bit alienated by his Dad's fame and achievements.
This movie goes back to the grimy, dirty, eastern city and Rocky's roots with the same music and cinematography. Many familiar things are reprised but updated: the training montage to the classic Rocky Theme, the run up the steps of the museum where we see a much older and slower Rocky. Even his two little pet turtles, Cuff and Link, make an appearance in the opening scene but they are grown up and bigger now.
The movie is filled with wonderful details and some very amusing quips and remarks. We find Paulie, the brother-in-law, painting on canvas weird cows in an empty meat warehouse. It's totally unexpected yet somehow not too surprising considering that Paulie always was a kind of a freak. Then we have Mike Tyson make a cameo appearance at ringside of the fight in Las Vegas. A perfect little scene.
Full review at Spero News
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My Innocent Look
Apparently the airport security people are trained to look at your face to see if you are twitching like a terrorist. I don’t know this for sure, but they always take a deliberate look at me after checking my boarding pass. I figure they must have taken the one-hour course on identifying bad people by their body language. So I try to put on my most natural expression – the one that says “I am not a terrorist. I am just passing through. There is no reason to detain me.” I also think those thoughts really hard just in case I’m a Jedi and no one ever told me.
Read the whole thing at Dilbert.blog
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