Rocco goes down hard...

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2014)

Suffering from what's come to be known as "boxing dementia," our hero Rocco (like filmmaker Stallone himself) coasts along, milking his name for all it's worth. Everything's fine until a menacing challenger appears on the horizon- "Mr. T," as Clubber Lang (an Ernie Shavers type of puncher; hence, the moniker "Clubber"). Clubber threatens the franchise, ridiculing Rocco's mixed martial arts bout with the infamous Thunderlips ("Hulk" Hogan). When he runs out of places to hide, Rocco gives in and takes his medicine. You can't take that many shots to the head and walk away unaffected; it's fantasy to think so. Just look at what happened to fighters like Jerry Quarry. (Many of the greatest fights ever fought can be found on YouTube, but almost NONE of them can be found on DVD. Maybe Stallone could help some of the real life fighters who fought the fights by starting a line of high-quality dvds showcasing them and donating some of the proceeds to their retirements.) I just recently revisited this one (hence, the updated comments) and I realized that it's not as bad as I'd originally remembered it being- it's WORSE. This is a comic book made for the Big Screen- and not in a good sense: it's chock full of the kind of know-nothing s--- one finds in television shows (ESPECIALLY those that purport to be "boxing" stories). Originally, I thought that Stallone had asked Carl Weathers (as Apollo Creed) to teach him to "fight like a black man" in the movie. I was mistaken. Wherever I heard that statement, it wasn't in ROCKY III- but it STILL stands as one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.