Sub par acting on b-movie script

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2004)

I half enjoyed dragging myself through this but quite honestly I do feel its sub par acting on a b-movie script. Burgess Meredith could do this in his sleep and all he can attempt with this stuff is chew the scenery (after all he has to get us past the idea he was meant to be a great boxer in the Twenties!). The love interest is appallingly laughable - could they attempt to make her more unappealing in that damn coat and evoke our sympathy more? The film Marty covered much of this ground twenty years earlier. The positive side is not actually part of the film - the fact that Stallone wrote this and managed to get it made, low budget to huge success is a commendable achievement. That very success, initially, is explicable only in a 1976 post Watergate, energy crisis, worries about urban decay, Vietnam, everything is awful, America needs to feel good again way. Its continued high marks by viewers I can only find inexplicable. There are some well put together scenes (technically speaking) especially considering the low-budget (I am assuming it was low)and the overall message is indeed a pleasant one but truly this is a b-movie elevated above its rank. The alcoholic meat factory brother who throws the thanksgiving turkey out of the door is a caricature 'life is grim' sort of human. The 'I'll fight this nobody because everyone else is busy and I like the name 'Italian Stallion'as a competitor' plot line is risible. And so on. There are good things dotted about here, but in the way you admire bits of a good school play, give a round of applause and wish them well. Yo.