overrated piece of cheese

Rating: 2/10 (19 August 1998)

grubby late-night fare achieved way too much success with a primitive story out of 1912. A silly promotional song, laughable script and performances. I have no clue why this picture, wearing its heart on its sleeve, ever achieved the critcal appreciation that it did. This high -concept film is decently enough made, but it helped herald the wave of no -brain feel-good fare of the eighties to the present. It is also incredibly racist, and seems to suggest that a boxing champ "should" be white, even though Apollo Creed does win the bout, the audience is supposed to be aghast. More ghastly is this idiot in the ring who has his eyelid cut with a razor blade so he can keep on fighting. I never bothered with the sequels, but Aki Kaurismaki's _Rocky VI_ ought to be even more laugh -provoking than this film.