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CREED Movie Review – A More Than Worthy Successor To ROCKY

“But I was like, ‘It’s all good”.

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It’s has been a long road from obscurity to legend for Sylvester Stallone. Building off of the previous six films, Stallone builds upon that wealth of experience to take Balboa into uncharted territory. And Stallone? I didn’t know he could disappear into a part.

“During this fight, I’ve seen a lot of changing, in the way you feel about me, and in the way I feel about you. You might have heard of it – we did $200 at the box office'”.

I have no idea how the Rocky series got handed over to the director and star of Fruitvale Station, but oh my god is that what I am thankful for this week.

Now that your Hunger Games hangover has finally subsided it’s time to figure out what movies you should check out this holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, Jordan (Fantastic Four) gives a committed performance that required more than just physically bulking up. Rocky has fallen into a hole and Apollo Creed takes him under his wing to help him find his fire again.

Indeed, as the popularity of boxing has waned over the decades, some may wonder whether the almost 40-year-old franchise has the resonance it once did.

Creed is not only a great movie, it’s one of the year’s best.

“How confident were we?” For the “Rocky” franchise, however, time has yet to make that knock-out move. My kids played “Eye of the Tiger” in their assembly when they were in the school band. There’s nothing in the story to shock or surprise you. “It’s so huge I don’t think anyone could really miss it”. “That’s a testament to Sly and this guy”, he said, pointing to Coogler. “There were these things that existed for us as millennials, like “Star Wars.’ “Rocky” was like “Star Wars” for the underdog, like ‘Star Wars” for the street”. This sixth sequel in the Rocky franchise is also a spinoff, focusing on the son of Apollo Creed as opposed to just Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa. Unlike so many zero-to-hero sports movies since, “Rocky” had ended on a surprisingly bittersweet note, with Balboa losing his title bout to Creed but proving himself a worthy contender.

Coogler is probably best known for “Fruitvale Station, ” the true story of Oscar Grant III, a young black San Francisco Bay Area man who was shot in the back by transit cops. “It’s something in between, which is how life is”. There are a few options, but one of the big-ticket items is the continuation of the Rocky saga, “Creed”. Perhaps because of Bill Conti’s intrepid score, Rocky’s inspirational qualities have tended to overshadow its existential ones, but they’re equally vital. “It was cool to take on this character with such deep roots”, he said.

When Creed was first announced, it nearly sounded like a bad joke. When a computer simulation shows that his younger self would beat the reigning heavyweight champ, he comes out of retirement for an exhibition match to prove that he can still go the distance. He laughed. “He’s still in shape”. Done. For Ryan Coogler, his dream project was … a Rocky film. He puts into this performance as Rocky one of the best of his career.

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Rocky needed every break he received in that original classic; Adonis was already handed the break he needed so why ignore that and seem ungrateful to a woman who could have hated him and totally ignored him his whole life.

Movie Review: Creed