Is this the last time we’ll see Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa? Michael B. Jordan steps in as lead, playing Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, Adonis Johnson.
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Rocky Balboa is back to knock out all his rivals in the box office in a film that is not Rocky-centric, but he still does it so amazingly through mentoring Adonis Creed. The seventh film in the Rocky franchise should be another cliche-ridden overstayed welcome of a sequel, but something amusing happened along the way: Creed got a real director. “Creed” has plenty of the original Rocky color and feel. Balboa avenges Creed’s death by defeating Drago in Russian Federation.
I adored this movie, with special recognition going to Stallone’s supporting turn and the visuals from Alberti, who deserves a citation in Best Cinematography (it’s some of the best camera work of the year to me, and I’ve seen The Revenant, though I’m embargoed from saying anything about that one right now).
Along with Sicario, this has to be one of the most impressively shot movies of the year.
Six Rocky movies later, the franchise gets the reboot it deserves in Creed. It doesn’t get any more basic than this bloody brawl. It reminds me of what truly made Rocky great, and how special it really was. It culminates with this street fight between teacher to student … and let’s just say, the teacher didn’t teach his pupil all of his tricks.
The boxing sequences make up the film’s most visually intense moments. On many occasions the fighting seems so visceral and intense, you’d swear it was you throwing Creed’s punches. Adonis/Rocky tries to convince Rocky/Mickey to train him.
In May 1982, Mr. T was a bonafide Hollywood attraction – not to mention, a true American bad ass in every sense of the phrase. He bounces around youth detention centers until he’s adopted by Creed’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), who raises him, until as an adult, he leaves his career to pursue his dream of boxing. Nonetheless, it is Stallone who takes the cake as well as the bakery here. Still, there’s no denying that boxing is in his blood, so Adonis heads to Philadelphia, the site of Apollo Creed’s legendary match with a tough upstart named Rocky Balboa.
The Italian Stallion versus The Ultimate Male, Thunderlips – Sylvester Stallone and Hulk Hogan.
STALLONE: (As Rocky Balboa) Apollo, yeah, he was great. Who said pro wrestling is fake?
Creed is a near ideal popcorn flick which succeeds in paying homage to the past Rocky films as much as it sets up its own distinct path for future installments.
There is an expectation that perhaps Creed will become a new Rocky series. A retired, aging Rock shows all heart against Dixon, who’s in his prime, with the bout ending the way it would had the same transpired in real life – with the younger lion winning. Out of all the fights that Rocky has had over the course of the series, this one remains the most classic.
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When Los Angeles transplant Creed (Jordan) has his first cheesesteak with love interest Bianca (Thompson), she asks for “some peppers on that jawn”. Rocky wins the title back.
