The Ultimate American Success Story....Just in Time for America's 100th Birthday

Rating: 7/10 (28 August 2007)

"Rocky" is one of those quintessential "right place/right time" movies. Movie-going America, beleaguered by bleak and cynical tales of everything their country was doing wrong, were ready for this underdog success story, which illustrates that living in America ain't so bad after all.
But come on. If people were being honest, they would admit that "Rocky" just doesn't hold up very well now. Director John G. Avildsen's only notable film since this one was "The Karate Kid" in 1984, so that tells you something right there. There's nothing wrong with loving "Rocky" for the inspirational fairy tale that it is, but the fact that it looks gritty and real like all of the other serious socially-themed films from the same time period has allowed it to join them on the list of important cinematic achievements so abundant in the 1970s, and it's just not an important film.
With, of course, Sylvester Stallone in a star-making performance, one that he's been trying to recapture ever since, and Talia Shire, fresh off the "Godfather" movies and ready to have a leading part of her own. But the scene stealer in this film is Burgess Meredith, who plays Rocky's coach and agent like a cranky pirate.
Grade: B