Rocky will touch your heart with one punch!

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2013)

In the 1970s, a film had to emerge to squash all the Italian American stereotypes perpetuated by The Godfather. Instead of murdering criminals, we get a much more dignified depiction of this ethnic group in the slow-minded, loan shark enforcer who looks like he probably smells. Rocky is a simple, lovable, and soon to be heroic type who only has two talents – ice skating with no ice skates and boxing. When cheerful champ, Apollo Creed seeks to stroke his ego by stroking an amateur boxer across the face, Rocky is the one with the lucky number. Apollo is appropriately named considering that his ego is certainly of God-like proportions.
Burgess Meredith plays the gravely-voiced, gnome-like trainer, Mickey. This is a guy who looks like he would shank you sooner than thank you after you toss him a towel. But over all, he's got sort of a fatherly, Gandalfy vibe about him. If he had a magic staff, he would most certainly whack you on the head with it after bestowing some wisdom upon you.
Rocky falls for the bespectacled pet shop girl Adrian. Adrian may stand out as the one sane person in this story, simply because she is obviously not happy living in a dank-looking, quasi-dilapidated Philadelphia. The love story between these two is a charming tale of what happens when glum meets goon.
In one of the movie's classic scenes, Rocky takes out his frustration on a piece of dead animal. Meat packers beware! Your tenderized cuts will be pulverized if you let this guy into the locker. When he's done sparring with his food, you won't know whose blood has been shed, Balboa's or the bovine's.
You will not be underwhelmed by this underdog story. Rocky is and forever will be a classic. It's a reminder of a time when films could be heartfelt without being sappy. The character is obviously a lovable dope, but if you're looking for the truth about the human condition, you will find it in Stallone's puppy dog-eyed performance. The fear and desire in those soon-to-be swollen eyes reveal what is ever present in the hearts and minds of us all, the need to be a champion.