Rocky III

Rocky III once again is a strong representation of Stallone himself as his fame rose so did the ridiculousness of some of his prospects. Rocky III is the first step in a most curious transition for the series, a transition that somehow the series successfully performs, as the series moves away from the harsher realities of the first film to become more of well a bit of cartoon. Now Rocky III's leap is a bit lighter in this step than its sequel, but hey you have to lead to that. As now instead of a charismatic three dimensional opponent of Apollo Creed we get Mr. T's absurd, yet enjoyable so, monster man Clubber Lang who solely seems to exist in order to destroy Rocky and call him a "sucka". Rocky in his spare time wrestles with Thunder Lips and gets giant statues of himself. There is still some reality to this series here, anchors for the film in the final scenes of Burgess Meredith's Mickey and still in the character of Apollo Creed. Rocky's emotional journey still exists but now it is far more operatic in tone in his major declarations, and his sunset runs along the beach with Apollo in order to perfect himself to fight his physically realized demon. I would be lying if I didn't say it kind of works. In fact it is a whole lot of fun, if not even occasionally rather emotional. Not only that it introduced all to the "Eye of the Tiger" a song that successfully primes one for action almost as well as "Gonna Fly Now". It is a major change, but you know you have to change with sequels. This film successfully does so. Is it a bit silly yes, but the entertainment value more than makes up for that.
3.5/5