Hasn't aged well at all

Rating: 4/10 (12 September 2015)

This is "Rocky", a boxing movie that is gonna have its 40th anniversary soon and is widely considered a classic. Maybe my title for this review is even incorrect as I am not entirely sure if this movie could have been a quality film back in the 1970s and 1980s. It runs for pretty much exactly 2 hours and takes us on a journey with Rocky Balboa, a formerly very talented boxer, who just fights for little sums of money these days, and also a debt collector with fairly violent methods. The first hour of the film is basically about the title character's relationship with a friend and his sister, who he has been crushing on for a while. The two become a couple around the 1-hour mark, so the second half has more focus on the actual fight that is about to happen. The second half is also when Burgess Meredith and Burt Young have their great Oscar bait moments, even if I found them both a bit over the top, especially Young. This is mostly though due to the weak writing for the characters.
This film was a huge success that year with the Academy. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and managed to score many more nominations, including no less than 4 for the actors (one of them Stallone, who was obviously trying to channel Brando from "On the Waterfront"). I think the acting is certainly not the worst aspect of this movie, but I am quite baffled by how much love they got. Also it is debatable if Talia Shire is lead or supporting. Anyway, this film has one big weakness: Stallone's script and it is really a joke that this one was Oscar-nominated as well. The first half is okay, maybe a 6/10. There are no moments of greatness, but it is bearable to watch in terms of the story and the acting. The second half, however, has some very bad moments and it all accumulates in the final fight where an athlete who is almost a complete nobody is on par with the best boxer in the world for 15 rounds, almost knocks him out in round 1. Are you kidding me? Imagine that happen to Mayweather or Klitschko these days? Not a chance. Realistically, he could not have survived a single round in there. Now the only thing that could have made it worse would have been Rocky actually winning the fight, but it was all so nonsensical that it almost didn't matter anyway. The ending with the big love confession was pretty cheesy and cringeworthy too. The scenes of Rocky fighting pig halves at the slaughterhouse or running alone with his arms up in the air were not really as epic or memorable as I would have liked them to be either. This film was Stallone's big breakthrough and he built a great career (including more Rocky, Rambo, Expendables...) on the film's success in the decades after that. Good job on him for doing so. However, "Rocky" is not even close to being as great or epic as it is considered by many. A definite contender for Worst Best Picture winner of all time. Not recommended.