Latest / Off The Shelf With Phil and Dave- A Movie Review Podcast / 2006's Rocky Balboa

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2006's Rocky Balboa · Off The Shelf With Phil and Dave- A Movie Review Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to Off the Shelf with Phil and Dave, Movie
• 0:06
  talk Show, where each week one of us takes a movie off our
• 0:08
  shelf, present it to the other, and discusses it at length.
• 0:17
  This week we've got Coming Off of My Shelf, 2006's Rocky
• 0:22
  Balboa, the 6th entry in the franchise.
• 0:25
  David, welcome back to the couch.
• 0:27
  Thank you. What are your initial
• 0:29
  impressions now of the couch, The couch assurance I.
• 0:33
  Think I've made it clear I like the couch, the three CS colour
• 0:36
  comfort couch. Couch.
• 0:40
  Yes, I missed the days in which I had wit Rocky six, if I can
• 0:45
  call it that, because sometimes we'll refer to Die Hard as Die
• 0:50
  Hard 1 and I think we've done it on other movies as well and I
• 0:54
  think it's OK to refer it to that in this sort of context.
• 0:58
  Would you say am I OK? 6 Rocky.
• 1:01
  One. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:02
  Die Hard 3. Rambo, even instead of, you
• 1:05
  know, the last blood. Yes, Were Last Blood was not a
• 1:09
  good movie, no. No.
• 1:11
  I would see it in the theater though.
• 1:12
  Yeah, First blood. Sorry.
• 1:13
  First blood. Is last blood part of the Rambo
• 1:16
  series? Oh, it is.
• 1:17
  OK. The last last.
• 1:19
  Yeah, strangely, right around this time, Stallone was
• 1:22
  presumably reimagining his career or whatever, and this was
• 1:27
  such a hit that I think his next movie was John Rambo.
• 1:31
  OK, the fourth in the Rambo series got you.
• 1:35
  And then came back many years later with Rambo Last Blood.
• 1:40
  Got you. I have a weird, you know, 'cause
• 1:43
  I'm sicko, as you know. It's been documented.
• 1:45
  Yeah, the John Rambo movie. I actually enjoy it, if for no
• 1:50
  other reason. It's really bloody and gory.
• 1:52
  He's taking like big 50 cow rounds and like just murdering
• 1:56
  hundreds of people. That's a big cow.
• 1:58
  Yeah. Like that's a high.
• 1:59
  Cow. Then you could probably yeah,
• 2:01
  handle. I I can barely handle a single
• 2:04
  cow. Sure looks to me like you're
• 2:05
  eating all the cows. You can.
• 2:06
  I've been working out everyday however.
• 2:08
  I'll tell you this, it does bother me as a connoisseur of
• 2:13
  the the physical media. Yeah, you got Rocky, Rocky 2345,
• 2:19
  and then you've got Rocky Balboa.
• 2:21
  That works, I think it does. The reason you've got it all on
• 2:24
  your thing. But you've got First Blood,
• 2:27
  Rambo. First Blood, Part 2, Rambo 3,
• 2:31
  John Rambo. Then you've got Rambo Last
• 2:34
  Blood. Yeah, that's a problem.
• 2:35
  That's an alphabetical nightmare.
• 2:36
  It is good. That's a good point, Philip.
• 2:38
  I think this one works. One through 5.
• 2:40
  And then you cap it off. I think it's people talking, I
• 2:43
  think. I think that's what it does.
• 2:44
  It gets people talking. Well, it's pretty hyped for I
• 2:46
  saw it opening weekend, really jacked up and saw it two more
• 2:49
  times theatrically because it brought some friends with me.
• 2:53
  Lawrence No, this is Vancouver. Life so really in 2006 in
• 2:57
  Vancouver. Here till 2009.
• 2:59
  Okay, I just I thought it was great, a really fitting
• 3:03
  culmination of a story that manages to hit the tropes and
• 3:07
  the formula and some of the the stuff we know, but hit it in
• 3:11
  such a way that it feels a little fresh.
• 3:14
  A different take, you know. So I I was really taken by it.
• 3:17
  Good for you. Makes me wonder what a movie
• 3:19
  would look like if it was starring Sylvester Stallone.
• 3:23
  Directed by M Knight Schimmelan because he loves Philadelphia.
• 3:27
  Born and raised. But I knew this wasn't directed
• 3:30
  by him because he wasn't in the movie.
• 3:33
  That's true. Yeah.
• 3:34
  No twist either. No.
• 3:35
  No twist. Do you like Philadelphia?
• 3:37
  I've. Never been do.
• 3:38
  You like any of their sports teams?
• 3:40
  Oh, absolutely, yeah, Phillies, Flyers, 76ers.
• 3:43
  I enjoy the Flyers for pre period of time.
• 3:46
  I really was a fan of Ron, Ron, Ron Axtell.
• 3:49
  Yeah, I loved the his the cut of his jib, just like a no
• 3:52
  nonsense. Yeah, he had a bit of an anger
• 3:54
  issue. Yeah, yeah, I respected that
• 3:56
  back in the day. Excellent.
• 3:59
  Now, I personally don't know the reasons why he decided to
• 4:01
  resurrect the character, but if I recall, he did not direct
• 4:05
  number 5. That is right.
• 4:07
  John G Alvinson yes, that's right, that I do.
• 4:11
  I do now. So he gets back behind the
• 4:13
  camera, which is not easy to do to star in a movie and to direct
• 4:17
  it. Ask Bach.
• 4:18
  Ask Spock. Ask Kirk.
• 4:20
  They both, they both took a stab at it.
• 4:22
  Yeah. Kirk did 5 different degrees of
• 4:24
  success. Well, Amy, Kirk didn't have a
• 4:26
  budget. That's what they say.
• 4:27
  That's what that's what they say.
• 4:29
  That's the cover story. Yeah, but correct me if I'm
• 4:31
  wrong, He has written all of them.
• 4:33
  Correct. Yes, yes, yes, that makes sense.
• 4:35
  Yeah, The inventor of the character has always been the
• 4:37
  guy that writes in, and we've talked before about how it kind
• 4:39
  of mirrors his life. What's he doing around 2006,
• 4:43
  Phil? What's he bringing off the off
• 4:45
  the shelf himself? Well, he had a real bad stretch.
• 4:48
  He didn't make a movie called Shade in 2003, which I liked, a
• 4:52
  card movie, Gabriel Byrne, but get Carter and driven and detox
• 4:58
  and coming back and saying, OK, well, maybe I'll go back and
• 5:00
  play the hits. And his next movie was that same
• 5:02
  John Rambo movie. So and then he, you know, comes
• 5:05
  back with The Expendables in 2010.
• 5:07
  I never watched any of the other ones but I was like excited
• 5:09
  about. That one of them has, and I
• 5:10
  think it's the third one, Frasier Crane.
• 5:13
  Oh my God, pretty big character in it and I love action
• 5:15
  superheroes and I know that Frasier Crane is one of them
• 5:18
  surprisingly well fit in quite well yeah is a fun character
• 5:22
  It's. It's coming off the shelf,
• 5:25
  buddy. Maybe not in 2025, but it's
• 5:27
  probably got a spring 2026. It's got a time range there
• 5:31
  where that'll come off with your history.
• 5:33
  You'll take Part 3 off the shelf.
• 5:36
  The problem is I I love Kelsey Grammar and just probably my
• 5:40
  only opportunity to really talk about him.
• 5:42
  Since you refuse to turn this into ATV show podcast.
• 5:46
  You're adamant. If he had a 2 hour NBC Peacock
• 5:50
  TV movie maybe. It already would have.
• 5:52
  We've already would have. Done.
• 5:53
  It would. Have been out in season 1, my
• 5:55
  friend. That's right now Phillip.
• 5:56
  We both know it's very tough to have any sequel be as good as
• 6:02
  the original. They typically, and I've gone on
• 6:06
  record several times, get progressively worse with a few
• 6:11
  exceptional. Points in the middle maybe?
• 6:13
  Maybe if you're if you're lucky. I would argue that this one
• 6:17
  possibly best Rocky movie, 3rd at worst.
• 6:21
  Just want to give you a little bit of an idea where I'm at.
• 6:23
  Respect it, I respect it. I think that the the qualities
• 6:26
  of this movie brings certainly elevated beyond just the carbon
• 6:30
  copy sequel repeat of, you know, the same and I think 5 does
• 6:33
  something similar. Now your sort of mileage may
• 6:36
  vary on your acceptance of five. You know, we were both on record
• 6:39
  as having enjoyed it, but it's definitely trying to do
• 6:43
  something different than what the previous three were doing.
• 6:45
  I think we both said there was a good framework, A designation to
• 6:48
  work with there. Yes, execution and some
• 6:50
  performance issues held it. Back a little bit but what I
• 6:53
  like about this is that as I mentioned it it it does the
• 6:56
  things that you want I think that I want from a Rocky movie
• 7:00
  while still elevating it beyond the usual Rocky movie not only
• 7:04
  is it the 6th movie in the series, it'll come 16 years
• 7:09
  after the last one in a series that's already 30 years old.
• 7:13
  So it's got so many layers working against it almost from
• 7:16
  being fresh, interesting, compelling, unique.
• 7:19
  You know, we're in that prime age where we're getting the
• 7:23
  Ghostbusters recoil. I call it recycling.
• 7:26
  Sure, it's part sequel, but it's part rebooting the franchise and
• 7:30
  full garbage and it all garbage. Hey, you remember that movie you
• 7:33
  liked 40 years ago? Well, we'll repackage it in just
• 7:35
  a way. And here it goes again.
• 7:37
  And now people will eat it all up like it's a, you know, a
• 7:40
  beautiful little treat. It's frustrating.
• 7:42
  But we still want it. Churn it out every time.
• 7:45
  We still get the that dopamine hit of, Oh my God, it's coming
• 7:48
  back. Yeah.
• 7:48
  Like, I imagine like the thought of a MacGyver movie.
• 7:52
  You get pretty high about that. I think about a movie like The
• 7:54
  Flash, which came out three or four years ago now, and it had
• 7:58
  Michael Keaton returning to the Batman character.
• 8:01
  That'll get you in the. Theaters and anybody that went
• 8:03
  to see that movie, I'm convinced was just to see.
• 8:06
  I went to see Miller. Oh, OK.
• 8:08
  He's a little misunderstood. Sure, big fan of The Perks of
• 8:11
  Being a Wallflower here, available in the archive.
• 8:13
  That's right, To see what he's up to, see what he's up to.
• 8:17
  Questionable, but yeah, so just like the the idea that you're
• 8:19
  recycling this stuff to the to the masses, this movie in 2006
• 8:23
  feels like that's on the horizon and it kind of sees it coming.
• 8:27
  Yep, absolutely. Now, Phillip, I couldn't help
• 8:37
  but notice Rocky waking up alone.
• 8:41
  Yeah, and the camera specifically on a picture of
• 8:45
  Adrian. Tips his hand a little.
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  Bit I got the impression she has passed and just to sort of
• 8:52
  confirm what I what I believe your suspicion, my suspicion
• 8:56
  that possibly, yeah, Adrian's no longer on earth is we get a
• 9:01
  scene at the cemetery. Yeah, yeah.
• 9:05
  Quiet scene, beautiful landscaping.
• 9:06
  Of course, always, always the finest.
• 9:08
  Really. Absolutely.
• 9:09
  I really think this is sweet. I think you have to address and
• 9:13
  acknowledge early that Adrian is gone.
• 9:16
  She don't want to be in the movie.
• 9:18
  And I think the story is that he had written her in it and then
• 9:21
  realized he needed a bigger emptiness that this would have
• 9:25
  to fulfill. So.
• 9:27
  I got checks that box. Taking something out and the
• 9:30
  lack of her is all over this movie.
• 9:32
  So I think she still gets a lot of kind of credit for being
• 9:35
  here. She's literally in the credits,
• 9:37
  literally, literally, and in the photos and just sort of like the
• 9:40
  idea of Adrian is in the restaurant, like she's there.
• 9:43
  I would say the screenplay for this movie is near perfection.
• 9:46
  When I say that, I mean more about structure and set up some
• 9:51
  payouts and building a world around it and just three lines
• 9:54
  of dialogue. We establish it.
• 9:56
  Rocky is hung up in the past. Polly is unhappy with the
• 9:59
  situation. Polly is unhappy.
• 10:02
  Yeah, hard to believe. That's yeah, that's a tale,
• 10:04
  character growth, and we establish that there's some
• 10:07
  estrangement. Yes, the sun is now 50.
• 10:11
  How do you like how this relationship starts off at the
• 10:13
  beginning of the movie? The idea that Rocky Junior, as
• 10:17
  it were, is trying to find something for himself.
• 10:20
  You know, my father is an auto mechanic.
• 10:22
  And somewhere in the mix of that, I decided, unconsciously I
• 10:26
  would suggest that I don't want to know anything about cars at
• 10:30
  all, ever, or even I don't even want to drive.
• 10:33
  That's. Why license?
• 10:34
  I don't have anything now. I don't know.
• 10:35
  Those things are all immediately related, but when I think about
• 10:39
  my dad being a hands on trades person, making his living using
• 10:44
  his grit and and such. You're more of a Lex Luthor.
• 10:47
  And everything that I did in my life was all around the arts on
• 10:51
  some level, You know, I never worked at really, quote UN
• 10:53
  quote, I never worked a day. My hands are.
• 10:55
  I can tell. You know, so there is some
• 10:57
  element of I can appreciate that, Robert says.
• 11:00
  OK, my dad is a lunkhead boxer who never learned how to sing or
• 11:06
  dance or do whatever right? So he is pivoting into something
• 11:10
  else completely different that Rocky wouldn't have any
• 11:13
  knowledge of now, ironically. Finance, yeah, definitely not
• 11:16
  exactly as you found 05. Exactly.
• 11:19
  But ironically, a lot of the movies I love, or even the love
• 11:23
  of movies comes from the fact that my dad and my mother were
• 11:26
  big movie fans and we rented movies every weekend and we did
• 11:29
  the thing. So I, I, I kind of appreciate
• 11:30
  how Rocky Junior's like, you know, you cast a large shadow.
• 11:33
  You're a big hero, man of the man of the hour.
• 11:35
  And we also get his first funny line too, I think.
• 11:38
  Use an eraser. Yes, that's right, Stick.
• 11:41
  That in there with no context whatsoever.
• 11:43
  Erasers. Thank you.
• 11:46
  Yeah. Now, did you recognize Spider
• 11:48
  Rico from the first movie? Rocky one, if you will you.
• 11:53
  Know I will. I had no idea who this guy was.
• 11:56
  OK, just the guy getting some. Free meals, sure.
• 11:59
  I didn't recognize him for sure, but they do mention Spider Rico
• 12:03
  and again, I lived with these movies for a long time.
• 12:05
  I recognize the name. Yeah, not too many people with
• 12:07
  the name. Spider.
• 12:07
  No, no, just in Return of the Living Dead.
• 12:11
  There's a spider character in that one which I would love to
• 12:14
  take off the shelf one of these days, but I don't think you
• 12:15
  could. No one's stopping you, I.
• 12:16
  Don't think you can handle it. Bullshit my way through it as I
• 12:20
  do most of your movies. Falsely Fast forward.
• 12:23
  Yeah, I saw. That pay people to watch your
• 12:25
  movies and note it for me now have you ever worked in this
• 12:29
  sort of restaurant environment yourself?
• 12:31
  Like can you connect to this? Yeah, my first job taking away
• 12:34
  the Penny Saver roots and such. First real job, though, is a
• 12:38
  restaurant. Yeah, OK.
• 12:39
  Five years. Italian or.
• 12:41
  Chicken. Chicken.
• 12:42
  Yeah, the old Saint Jubert. OK, any Mexicans in that
• 12:45
  kitchen? Or none that were documented.
• 12:49
  I think it's Paul. Yeah.
• 12:50
  Yeah. Nothing special about Italian
• 12:53
  food being made by a bunch of Mexicans in the basement.
• 12:56
  Like, OK, yeah, I don't like Donald like that too much.
• 12:58
  No, no ice would be. It used to be all over all.
• 13:02
  Over that it be Adrian's quick ridiculous.
• 13:06
  I dabbled a little bit into the semi fast food.
• 13:10
  OK, I don't know if you remember Lick's home burgers and ice
• 13:12
  cream. I have a vague recollection.
• 13:14
  Absolutely. It was on a bank in Alta Vista.
• 13:16
  It's a Hertz, I think now, like a rent a car.
• 13:18
  Yeah, there's only the one in Ottawa, but I managed that for
• 13:21
  maybe a year and a half. Two years.
• 13:23
  Long hours, free food, though. It was sort of like a fancy
• 13:28
  Harvey's. You had your big lunch rush,
• 13:31
  your dinner rush, but you had real good burgers.
• 13:33
  It took a little bit longer, sure, but they were more like.
• 13:36
  That's what, you know, that's what I call the same, which was
• 13:38
  slow fast food. Yeah.
• 13:40
  And I would, I would put licks as you describe it in that same
• 13:43
  category where it's not really fast food, but it's not really.
• 13:47
  Like restaurant dining, so it's like that slower fast food.
• 13:49
  It had a bit of a 5060 sort of vibe to love that we we would
• 13:54
  sing songs like part of the job was to cook the meat on the
• 13:58
  grill as the griller, yes, and sing and as a manager, I had to
• 14:02
  motivate them to sing and I had to sing my. 50s and 60s.
• 14:05
  Songs but switching the lyrics. To the burgers and the fries and
• 14:10
  the onion rings. I really wish that that was I
• 14:13
  did a very poor job. That's what I want to say.
• 14:15
  That too did not too confirmed. Confirmed.
• 14:19
  That's a real trip down memory lane.
• 14:21
  You know who likes trips down memory lanes?
• 14:24
  Not Polly. Not Polly.
• 14:26
  Not Polly. Used to maybe?
• 14:28
  What? He's drinking for a reason.
• 14:30
  That's right. He's not celebrating this scene.
• 14:32
  We've got Rocky kind of makes an illusion earlier that it's the
• 14:34
  anniversary, you're coming tonight, let's do it.
• 14:37
  And turns out what it is is basically just a trip down
• 14:41
  memory lane. Just.
• 14:41
  Going to all the hotspots? Visit the.
• 14:43
  Old haunts when you're going back home to the country.
• 14:47
  Just did it last weekend. Do you have any of that?
• 14:49
  Are you ever away long enough to to feel something like that or a
• 14:54
  desire to kind of visit the old Licks restaurant?
• 14:57
  You know these things that you have a memory of and history of.
• 14:59
  Not really, no. I would say I, I like just the
• 15:03
  Country Life. Sure, generally.
• 15:05
  And when I, when I go out there and I and I drive through the
• 15:07
  towns, I, I have a brief moment where I think about the kids I
• 15:11
  used to hang out with and wondering what they're up to and
• 15:13
  who's still hanging around. Some memories kind of pop in
• 15:16
  here and there, but it. Quickly passes, but people more
• 15:19
  than places, clearly. Yeah, I would say people more
• 15:22
  than places. You don't visit the old gas
• 15:23
  station and wonder and think about.
• 15:26
  It, well, I do pass it every time, but it's changed so much.
• 15:28
  Like it's got a Tim horton's now.
• 15:29
  It's got a a touchless, touchless car wash.
• 15:33
  The owner has since retired that I knew, but yeah, other than
• 15:36
  that, not much. This is ultimately what I do
• 15:39
  every time I visit Vancouver. A version of this now obviously
• 15:42
  less melancholy, but a little bit.
• 15:43
  So I go and visit the first apt I lived in, walk the same
• 15:47
  streets, the old beach I lived in, the old apartments.
• 15:49
  Do they let you in the apartment?
• 15:50
  Just see, I used to live here just the.
• 15:52
  Buildings in general and like kind of the vibes of the city
• 15:54
  and that's happening there. And I remember the restaurant
• 15:57
  around the corner I used to go and eat with, you know, friends
• 15:59
  or dates. I went on to Subi's, this
• 16:01
  restaurant and bar across the street, the diner, the, you
• 16:05
  know, so I am very familiar with what this might be and I think
• 16:08
  in a different context, in a different part of the world, a
• 16:11
  different set of circumstances, I fully kind of, I kind of I get
• 16:16
  even in 2006 because I would do the same when I would visit
• 16:20
  Ottawa. I'd already been away for six or
• 16:22
  seven years at that point. So coming back would be to visit
• 16:25
  the places I went to see SO. You're getting it coming and
• 16:27
  going. Yeah, it was a strange time to
• 16:29
  have kind of two homes. So anyway, this scene I think is
• 16:32
  perfectly executed. I think it allows Paulie to get
• 16:37
  a little bit off of his chest. We get Rocky feeling the things
• 16:41
  around Adrian, and we get a little flashback to Rocky.
• 16:43
  The original, we talked about the blades going skating and
• 16:46
  walking around and feeling the electricity, the old apartment
• 16:50
  he visits. I think it's a really powerful,
• 16:53
  powerful scene. In previous movies, Paulie's an
• 16:55
  asshole and we just accept it as being an asshole.
• 16:58
  That's just the way it is. And I think what this movie at
• 17:01
  least does is explains maybe why he is a more curmudgeon.
• 17:05
  So curmudgeon. Yeah, By giving him the
• 17:08
  opportunity to say things like, I don't like this.
• 17:11
  They were your good times. They're nothing but pain in
• 17:14
  there. You were good to her.
• 17:16
  Yeah, he was not. You gave, you know, you brought
• 17:18
  good things into the world. That's why you can look and
• 17:20
  remember these fun times. But I threw a Turkey out the
• 17:23
  backyard, right? In a drunken rage.
• 17:26
  Yes. So why don't why?
• 17:27
  Why would I want to revisit that?
• 17:29
  And you have lost ten years of your life.
• 17:31
  Like if you went to that bar, as it were, that you went to every
• 17:33
  night, that's your bar. Why you want to go back there?
• 17:36
  Absolutely. But I'm like, but Dave, that was
• 17:38
  such a great time we had, you know, not for me it wasn't.
• 17:41
  Yeah. So it's, I like the perspective
• 17:43
  that it's two different people looking at the same events in
• 17:45
  the same circumstances and saying you enjoyed your time and
• 17:48
  I, I blew it, I fucked it up and I don't want it back.
• 17:51
  This is where he shines for just a brief moment.
• 17:53
  Yeah, camera kind of comes in a little bit closer on him.
• 17:56
  Yeah, he's in front of the headlights.
• 17:57
  That's the car. I can't do this no more.
• 17:59
  That's this. I think that's exactly the
• 18:01
  moment. And he kind of has a crack in
• 18:03
  his voice. Yeah.
• 18:04
  And see him welling up a little bit little.
• 18:05
  Bit just enough. I mean, this guy's got some
• 18:07
  chops. Yeah.
• 18:08
  This Bert Young guy? Sure.
• 18:09
  Yeah. He did a lot of movies up up
• 18:12
  until recent, Yeah. I was surprised when I quickly
• 18:14
  looked at his filmography. Yeah, he got around.
• 18:16
  He was doing it. Yeah, nothing like huge, but he
• 18:18
  kept busy. Yep, A. 100% Yep, never got
• 18:20
  fired for acting. Nope.
• 18:22
  Absolutely not, no watches there, but I loved it.
• 18:26
  And we ourselves get a memory from watching the original Rocky
• 18:30
  Rocky, one of a character named Marie, Lil Marie into a You
• 18:35
  almost do a good Stallone there. A good Rocky voice there.
• 18:38
  I've dabbled. He walks in this old dive bar
• 18:42
  that he went to in the original Rocky and Rocky 5.
• 18:46
  And Rocky, that's where the big finale in Rocky 5 takes place.
• 18:48
  That's the same bar. Yeah.
• 18:49
  Different camera angle, different camera angle,
• 18:52
  different lens different. Lut I.
• 18:54
  Vaguely remembered him walking somebody home in Rocky.
• 18:59
  And here we have that person, Marie, tending bar.
• 19:04
  That's right, as they say in the biz.
• 19:06
  And then you have some hooligans.
• 19:08
  Yeah. What do you think of the
• 19:10
  Hooligans? Let's we'll have we'll have time
• 19:12
  to to talk about Marie because she's in the round movie, but
• 19:15
  this is really the only opportunity we get to talk
• 19:18
  about. The the Hooligans.
• 19:19
  It's terrible. It's the least favorite part of
• 19:23
  the movie. I think it's the most expendable
• 19:25
  play. I think it's silly almost to
• 19:27
  it's cartoonish over the top. It's buffoonery, it's poor
• 19:31
  writing, it's poor performance. Whoa, whoa whoa, don't don't.
• 19:33
  This is almost near perfection for writing, so just don't.
• 19:36
  You're right, but don't say the word.
• 19:38
  That your man or something, right?
• 19:40
  That's just all terrible and you don't even need it.
• 19:42
  It's so unnecessary. It's just there.
• 19:44
  I don't know why it's bad. In my director's cut of this
• 19:47
  movie, this scene would be complete.
• 19:49
  Because they can just have a conversation and you know, it's
• 19:52
  bad. It's.
• 19:53
  Challenging to cut that out completely because what it leads
• 19:56
  to is Rocky being nice guy to Marie and gets in the van and
• 20:01
  then just has to. Make it right, if you will, to
• 20:04
  the guys from the bar. He always stands up for people
• 20:07
  that might not be able to stand up for themselves.
• 20:09
  That's why it's been one of his things, totally.
• 20:10
  That's what he was trying to do with Marie 30 years ago, right?
• 20:13
  There we go, whore. They remember your Rep.
• 20:17
  Well, she's not a whore, no, but she is a single mom.
• 20:21
  That's right. Visited Jamaica, apparently.
• 20:23
  Which is in Europe. According to to Rocky, a brief
• 20:27
  meeting with her son steps short for Steven Stevenson.
• 20:32
  He's a fine young lad, just needs a little bit of guidance.
• 20:35
  Totally. You know, she's busy working.
• 20:37
  Not the best home. Like her house is like beside a
• 20:39
  burnt out place, so crumbling. They're not rich.
• 20:42
  They're not. Really.
• 20:43
  Not. Now who is rich, however, is
• 20:45
  Mason so. He's doing well.
• 20:47
  We get a sense from him. This is the sort of flip of the
• 20:49
  point, if you will. So he's at the peak of his
• 20:52
  success, except he's plateaued, as we experienced in the opening
• 20:57
  moments. He's not respected, He's not
• 20:58
  anything. He doesn't know why he's
• 21:00
  confused, why he's not. He's like, I'm the champion of
• 21:02
  the world. What's up?
• 21:03
  So he ends up going in this sort of crisis of confidence, goes to
• 21:08
  visit his original manager. Now, what are your thoughts on
• 21:10
  this scene? What?
• 21:11
  Wouldn't be a Rocky movie without, you know, a coach
• 21:15
  manager trying to, you know, give some good advice.
• 21:19
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 21:19
  And it loses something that you, you know, need to be tested.
• 21:22
  I didn't get a whole lot of the scene.
• 21:23
  I thought it was shot well though.
• 21:24
  Oh yeah, This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
• 21:26
  Really. Yeah, I think that it's it goes
• 21:28
  a long way to establish Mason's character.
• 21:31
  I guess it does that in a in a very.
• 21:32
  It's a truncated. Again, we're talking about
• 21:34
  beautifully executed screenplay. This is 4 minutes or whatever
• 21:38
  else, but it tells you everything you need to know.
• 21:40
  No pride, no fire, no heart. This is not unlike what we
• 21:44
  experienced. Not only Mickey talking to Rocky
• 21:46
  in first one, but also Apollo talking to Rocky in three.
• 21:49
  But it's not the crux of the movie The way 3 was where it's
• 21:53
  built into the structure. This is like I have 4 minutes to
• 21:57
  tell this quick story to establish why it matters that he
• 22:02
  fights Rocky because otherwise if it's just rich guy, why am I
• 22:05
  wasting my time with some old guy?
• 22:07
  And I think the performance of the trainer is fantastic.
• 22:10
  They're always good though. Yeah, I guess.
• 22:12
  So I just, I think it's a really great short scene now.
• 22:15
  I don't know what your thoughts on it.
• 22:16
  Well, I was just wondering why this Dixon kid wouldn't give him
• 22:19
  some money. That's the question.
• 22:21
  He's like, what can I do to help you out?
• 22:22
  He's like, give me some of your money.
• 22:24
  He's like, I don't like you that much.
• 22:26
  Why not like? You're a millionaire.
• 22:28
  Give him 50 bucks. Give him something.
• 22:30
  Yeah. You know I would.
• 22:31
  Throw him a bone. 1000 bucks, Sure.
• 22:33
  I think it's reasonable, totally reasonable.
• 22:35
  Yeah, I'd give you a couple K Yeah, I'd do that.
• 22:38
  I'd do that. If I thought you were going to
• 22:40
  ever be successful, I would I would cash that in.
• 22:45
  Now if it was 2006 and someone gave me money, I would probably
• 22:50
  end up in an Irish pub. Watching some TV, some
• 22:56
  pay-per-view maybe, Yeah, whatever is to do that in the.
• 22:58
  Bar absolutely, absolutely shoot some stick, as they would call
• 23:01
  it, and have many, many pints of beer.
• 23:05
  Now this scene. I was not expecting this to be
• 23:07
  in this movie. Interesting.
• 23:09
  Okay. But we have a computer generated
• 23:12
  match and we have some commentators talking about it.
• 23:16
  If you took each of them in their prime, what would happen?
• 23:20
  But I was impressed that in 2006 this existed, and I was further
• 23:25
  impressed this apparently existed in the 60s or whatever.
• 23:29
  Different program, obviously wasn't a computer, you know,
• 23:32
  generated thing, but it was a computer generated thing.
• 23:34
  Yeah. It's kind of fascinating.
• 23:35
  Yeah. I used to play a DOS based
• 23:38
  wrestling game. You'd type in your two
• 23:40
  wrestlers, and it would randomize, like, line by line.
• 23:44
  Yeah. Goes into the corner, beats him
• 23:46
  up, hits the finisher, finishes it, You know, Loved us.
• 23:49
  Yeah. And so you get this whole kind
• 23:51
  of story using your imagination to kind of create, and it's
• 23:53
  basically a coin flip. But in the moment, it's like,
• 23:55
  oh, Dave pins Phil and he's the champ.
• 23:58
  You know, like, OK, I guess Dave's the champ now.
• 24:00
  I guess it's not really that hard to do because I dabbled
• 24:02
  with some programming on a computer which included like
• 24:06
  randomization, certain things and putting a little bit of, you
• 24:10
  know, equations and odds in there.
• 24:11
  I guess really they're just showing it in a graphical form.
• 24:15
  That's right, it's like an AI generated.
• 24:16
  Thing exactly. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:17
  With the world we're living in, there it is.
• 24:19
  Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, now Rocky wins this
• 24:22
  particular battle. He did.
• 24:23
  It was close but knocks him down.
• 24:25
  Knocks. Him out, knocks him out in his
• 24:26
  prime. That's right.
• 24:28
  Let's be clear now, when you're watching this, obviously we get
• 24:31
  to it later, but this is ultimately the culmination of
• 24:35
  the first act. We're talking about structure of
• 24:37
  the of the screenplay, but in terms of conceptually as a plot,
• 24:41
  is this sufficient to get us where the next thing is?
• 24:44
  Yes. Really.
• 24:45
  Yeah, OK. You know, as much as I may have,
• 24:48
  I don't even know if I criticize the Rocky movies that much when
• 24:51
  it comes to the formula of this movie.
• 24:54
  Sylvester Stallone has always been a pretty good writer, I
• 25:00
  would say. And this is a hot take.
• 25:02
  This is just right now a better writer than George Lucas.
• 25:05
  Wow. Yeah, Bold.
• 25:06
  I think you're right. I think the world building,
• 25:08
  Lucas obviously wins, of course. Yeah, But the writing of this
• 25:12
  dialogue in those movies is terrible garbage.
• 25:14
  Yeah. Whether it is.
• 25:15
  Yeah, there it is. So I think this movie is
• 25:18
  constructed very well and I think he shows some interest in
• 25:23
  the outcome of this CG, this this game, and sparks something
• 25:28
  that possibly might be deep inside that basement.
• 25:31
  Yeah, it sort of sparked a little thinking.
• 25:33
  He wants to, maybe. Dabble.
• 25:36
  Dabble small time locally, not Vegas.
• 25:39
  Not Vegas exactly, looking for a little small couple of fights
• 25:42
  and like any good idea, you want to get some feedback, you want
• 25:44
  to bounce it off somebody. Who better in this instance than
• 25:47
  Robert? Yes.
• 25:50
  So he tracks him down and he says hey I'm thinking of
• 25:53
  fighting. What?
• 25:54
  What are your thoughts? Robert is not on board.
• 25:56
  I don't really blame him. No.
• 25:58
  I think that's the response I probably sure.
• 26:01
  Why are you doing this? Yeah, You're living in the past.
• 26:05
  You're an old on. Is it?
• 26:06
  Exactly. And none of it strikes as like
• 26:08
  contrivance. I would have that same issue.
• 26:11
  Absolutely. What I do like about it is Rocky
• 26:13
  turning to him and saying at some point like I just want you
• 26:16
  to get involved like home team, which is a nice call back to
• 26:19
  five. Was hoping forget about that.
• 26:22
  But also just be involved, right?
• 26:24
  Like they're obviously not connecting, right?
• 26:25
  So he's like, I want you in on this.
• 26:27
  And so he's not in it. So it's another gap in between
• 26:30
  the two. Sad.
• 26:31
  So now he needs another opinion. Yes, who else?
• 26:35
  He can always rely on Polly. Yeah, he's going to cut it too
• 26:37
  straight. Like a cut of meat.
• 26:38
  Yep. So he goes to see him at the the
• 26:40
  butchery or the slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouse would be a better
• 26:43
  a better term for it. And we find out Polly paints.
• 26:46
  Yeah. What are your thoughts on that?
• 26:48
  You like that? Yeah, I do, I do.
• 26:50
  They never really address. It Nope, he just carries it
• 26:52
  around. When?
• 26:53
  He I think it just shows that everybody, no matter what, has a
• 26:56
  talent. Yep.
• 26:57
  It's just on how you nurture it totally.
• 27:01
  And this also gives Rocky an opportunity and us as the viewer
• 27:05
  to have a bit of a emotional moment.
• 27:08
  You can see in his eyes the vulnerability, if you will, with
• 27:12
  the character. You.
• 27:13
  Thank you. And then they talk about the
• 27:14
  basement, and I love the basement.
• 27:16
  Sure, we're on one right now that we are.
• 27:18
  And then when I'm at home, I try to spend as much time in the
• 27:20
  basement as I can. It's cooler, sure.
• 27:23
  Absolutely. It's nice.
• 27:23
  Balmy. Yeah.
• 27:24
  Better TV, OLED. Yeah.
• 27:26
  Why would I be on a on AQ LED when I'm gonna be on an OLED?
• 27:29
  Useless. Yeah.
• 27:31
  This is an incredible scene. Top three scenes.
• 27:35
  What I like about this movie is that it it feels like on its
• 27:37
  own, it can exist as just a movie, but part of the history
• 27:41
  of this character for 30 years. It doesn't betray anything for
• 27:46
  retconning or for like. Halloween does.
• 27:48
  A little bit right where they'll kind of mutate the story to a
• 27:51
  comedy. Five never existed.
• 27:52
  Exactly. They kind of play around with
• 27:54
  with the timelines the character needs to change just so because
• 27:57
  we need to establish something else.
• 27:59
  This is an extension to me of the Apollo and Rocky
• 28:02
  conversations in the middle in the end of part three that lead
• 28:05
  to part 4 with Apollo dying, right?
• 28:08
  He's like, I still am a fighter, but I can't fight anymore and I
• 28:11
  haven't fought in X amount of time, 16 years.
• 28:14
  So the fact that that it's still burning is not surprising and
• 28:18
  not just a reason to have this movie happen.
• 28:22
  Exactly. It's like, I totally believe it.
• 28:24
  And because I believe it, his performance delivering that line
• 28:27
  or those lines adds even more weight to it.
• 28:30
  It must be easier for Sylvester Stallone to play this character
• 28:36
  because he wrote it. Sure.
• 28:38
  Yeah, he's living it. And I think again, if we look at
• 28:40
  it as an extension of his life and his career, this is maybe if
• 28:46
  you want to stretch a little bit.
• 28:47
  I'm happy to stretch. This is him saying like I still
• 28:50
  have more things to say. You know, I've released 7 movies
• 28:52
  in a row that have been bad or ignored or whatever the case,
• 28:56
  doing straight to video, but I still have something in the
• 28:58
  basement. I still have something to say
• 29:00
  even if it's an old character. And I thought this scene
• 29:02
  delivers all that perfectly. 100% buddy, 100%.
• 29:05
  Now, it's not often that we get back-to-back good scenes in any
• 29:09
  of your movies. You know, you're crazy.
• 29:12
  I jest, I jest, but we'd get another strong scene inside of a
• 29:17
  what? I want to say a.
• 29:18
  Courtroom. Sure.
• 29:19
  Like a hearing room. A hearing room.
• 29:21
  Yep, Yep, Yep. Someone who wants to hear it,
• 29:24
  and this is where I could if I wanted to and I'm not gonna
• 29:26
  because I didn't think of it until I read about it later, is
• 29:30
  I couldn't nitpick the fact where he didn't get cleared to
• 29:33
  box in five. This is the retcon.
• 29:35
  A little bit, a little bit, yeah. 16 years later, he gets a
• 29:40
  clean bill of health. Plast with flying colors, they
• 29:43
  say. Absolutely.
• 29:44
  Now things have changed. Technology requirements, maybe
• 29:48
  what we consider obese now is much different than what we
• 29:52
  considered obese, you know, 50 years ago.
• 29:54
  Totally. I am probably considered obese.
• 29:56
  Yeah. So are you.
• 29:57
  Yeah. But really, we're not, you know,
• 29:59
  the cows. But we got a really showcase
• 30:02
  moment here. Again, great dialogue.
• 30:05
  These old white men are are pretty much saying, sorry, even
• 30:09
  though you passed the test, we're not going to let you box.
• 30:12
  Yeah. And, and I know this is your
• 30:14
  second favorite scene. It's high up there.
• 30:16
  Second's pretty high up there. Yeah, no, for sure.
• 30:18
  I don't. I think it's probably my third
• 30:19
  to be honest. OK, well, I mean.
• 30:21
  It's not your favorite, no. That's yet to come.
• 30:23
  I got to call it out. I'm.
• 30:25
  Curious to hear what you're. I sort of got it wrong right
• 30:27
  last time. Did I get it right?
• 30:29
  Got it ish close. This isn't the right chapter,
• 30:32
  but I think it's emotional. I think he has a very good
• 30:36
  point. He says what he wants to say
• 30:38
  about the pursuit of happiness. That's right, starring Will
• 30:41
  Smith. He's pursuing something and no
• 30:43
  one's too happy about it. It is great.
• 30:46
  It's a great line and it's a rocky line like it is.
• 30:48
  Like there's just not enough of in this.
• 30:49
  If you said it, yeah, you would. Like what the Hell's this?
• 30:53
  Kind of, Yeah. Like, you just wouldn't have an
• 30:54
  idiot. Yeah.
• 30:55
  But when Rocky says you're like that, that's a Rocky line.
• 30:58
  Like fits his character and he walks out.
• 31:00
  We don't really know. I mean, we're going to assume.
• 31:02
  The next moment is the scene where the, you know, the
• 31:05
  newspapers. Yeah, Rocky is cleared.
• 31:07
  Now Rocky has indicated that he wants to fight small time.
• 31:11
  Just looking at a little outlet. I think deep down in that
• 31:14
  basement he may want bigger. The managers, Dixon's boys come
• 31:19
  to the restaurant to pay Rocky little visit and try to sell
• 31:22
  them on this big Vegas event. The complete opposite of really
• 31:26
  what he wanted to do. Totally small, biggest thing
• 31:29
  possible. And Rocky listens.
• 31:31
  He's he's a very good listener. He'll always hear people out,
• 31:34
  but he's still not sure. So we need somebody to convince
• 31:39
  him. And why not it be ATV Marie?
• 31:43
  I'm not trying to knock her. I'm not.
• 31:45
  Sounds like you're sounds like a no respect for little Marie.
• 31:48
  But this scene she does well in. Yeah, I love van scenes because
• 31:53
  there are no trunks yadda yadda yadda.
• 31:57
  And you can. Find a fill in some of the
• 31:58
  yadda, sure, but more or less like fighters fight Phillip.
• 32:01
  Yeah, she gives the speech that Adrian would have yes right.
• 32:04
  The club they're in. What I thought it was ironic is
• 32:07
  that usually Adrian's role in these movies is don't fight,
• 32:12
  you're too old, you're too sick, we don't need you to fight,
• 32:16
  please stop fighting. And she takes the opposite path,
• 32:20
  which is this is something you need to do.
• 32:22
  You want to do it, you feel it, do it.
• 32:31
  This leads us to your favorite scene.
• 32:33
  I know it is, I'm just kidding. But every Rocky movie has to, by
• 32:38
  law. It's in the Constitution to have
• 32:40
  a press. Conference, yeah.
• 32:43
  And here it is. It's an exhibition conference,
• 32:45
  that's right. My only question to you, why is
• 32:48
  steps on the roster here, on the roster of this, What do you call
• 32:54
  that? Podium?
• 32:54
  Not the whole thing's a podium, but the panel.
• 32:57
  Panel. Yeah.
• 32:58
  I don't know if he's earned that yet.
• 33:00
  It's fair. Just saying it's fair.
• 33:02
  He needs something to do as my guess.
• 33:04
  I suppose I get him being part of of the team, the entourage.
• 33:07
  Absolutely, for sure. I get that culture.
• 33:09
  I understand it. I've been a part of it.
• 33:12
  I've been ringside, buddy. But he has not earned panel
• 33:15
  status. Status.
• 33:16
  That's fair. Bullshit.
• 33:19
  I'm out and I like steps. Don't get me wrong, I like
• 33:21
  steps. I think that he doesn't have a
• 33:24
  lot to do in the movie. And I guess it's, yeah, put him
• 33:26
  up there. But I agree, it's it's he
• 33:27
  doesn't really belong. Polly's there.
• 33:29
  In all the press conferences, he's chirping, but he's family.
• 33:33
  The only thing he's earned is to be on that panel, buddy.
• 33:36
  But what I do like who is on the panel is Duke, who we haven't
• 33:39
  seen since the very beginning of Part 5.
• 33:42
  So it was nice to see him back here 16 years later, right there
• 33:44
  on the rostrum. Yeah, he's the second best Duke
• 33:47
  in the series. Less charisma than George
• 33:51
  Washington Duke, I'll say for sure.
• 33:53
  Now, just to give Dixon some time, as we haven't give him a
• 33:55
  lot, this guy's doing this role pretty darn well.
• 33:58
  But if you think about his situation, it is AI want to say
• 34:01
  a Kobayashi Maru. No win.
• 34:04
  He's a no win. He beats up an old guy or he
• 34:07
  loses to an old guy. So it's a bit of an issue and
• 34:11
  this, this movie handles it. So well-being considered an
• 34:15
  exhibition is a sort of a nice safety blanket for the film to
• 34:18
  to have it portrayed that way as it should be.
• 34:21
  Totally should be. And I think you're right.
• 34:22
  I think the Antonio Tarver is good enough playing a version of
• 34:27
  himself. Yeah, but I like that the press
• 34:29
  conference that kind of sets it up for what is to come.
• 34:34
  We get a sense as to the team like you're saying, but and
• 34:38
  really has a great little kind of line.
• 34:40
  It's a bit of a throwaway. It's off screen even, but Rocky
• 34:42
  talks about how you know he'd rather do something he loves
• 34:45
  badly than to feel bad to not do it.
• 34:48
  And and I like that sentiment here.
• 34:50
  I like the overall sentiment of the movie.
• 34:52
  It's life, yeah. It's not boxing.
• 34:55
  That's it. And you don't need to like
• 34:57
  boxing. You don't need to watch boxing
• 34:59
  or know anything about the. It's a metaphor, really.
• 35:01
  Right, it is, it is about life and we'll get that more in this
• 35:04
  chapter. Well, that comes right now
• 35:06
  because he goes to see Robert. Oh, is this that scene?
• 35:09
  Already. Yeah, Talk to me about your
• 35:11
  experiences with young Ron. Well, I will.
• 35:13
  Talk about what is your favorite scene?
• 35:15
  Every Rocky movie has a street scene with some great dialogue.
• 35:19
  Yeah, here it is, right on schedule.
• 35:22
  Sure. And this is his showcase scene.
• 35:25
  Now, I did a little research and some people did criticize his
• 35:29
  performance in this scene specifically.
• 35:32
  OK I think, and this is not a hot take cause I've been
• 35:36
  thinking about this for about 24.
• 35:37
  Hours been percolating. I think he played a kid living
• 35:41
  in the shadows of his father. Very well.
• 35:44
  Agreed. That was the whole point.
• 35:45
  Yeah. This is where he gets a chance
• 35:47
  to be a little more vocal. And I think he succeeds.
• 35:51
  And I think he has a strong performance in this scene.
• 35:53
  And I'm not sure if I'm wrong or they're wrong or.
• 35:57
  Well, it's subjective opinion. So that is true.
• 35:59
  That is very subjective, so. But between the both of us,
• 36:03
  yeah, I think we can come to a conclusion here.
• 36:05
  Philip. Yeah.
• 36:05
  So I'm thinking he delivered it pretty well.
• 36:08
  Yeah, I think Rocky delivered it even better.
• 36:10
  What are your thoughts on the scene?
• 36:12
  Well, I'll say that. Does he deliver?
• 36:13
  Not my favorite scene. Whoa.
• 36:15
  Damn it. Yeah, really tough call.
• 36:18
  Yeah, top three, it's in the three.
• 36:20
  I I really like it because it is that rabble rousing kind of
• 36:24
  moment Rocky gets to impart all of the sort of Rocky is
• 36:28
  everything right right here Rocky is talking about, you
• 36:32
  know, you keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.
• 36:34
  It's not about how hard you hit. It's how hard you can get hit.
• 36:37
  It's all hard, you know, All hard, you know, think for
• 36:39
  yourself, be your own man. I am, I am Pop.
• 36:42
  So this is culminating into that moment.
• 36:44
  It's, I think a really powerful kind of scene.
• 36:46
  No qualms, no qualms. Good.
• 36:48
  That relationship feels legitimate.
• 36:49
  It feels honest when Rocky's sort of speechifying and Roberts
• 36:53
  pushing back at him for that, I think it's exactly right.
• 36:58
  Was it enough Rocky speech to have the very next scene, him
• 37:02
  come to the cemetery the next day and say, dad, I'm on board?
• 37:07
  Yeah, let's do it. This is, to me, the little
• 37:10
  quick. It's the only kind of.
• 37:12
  Knock. Knock.
• 37:14
  It has to happen, so it doesn't matter.
• 37:16
  If if that's the biggest knock though, I think we can but.
• 37:18
  Contextually, this is like a Dave moment for me where I'm
• 37:21
  just like, OK, like, yeah, have the scene, respect it.
• 37:25
  Have one more scene in between, we have another.
• 37:27
  We had the same scene. Similarly, last movie, the kid
• 37:30
  blows up at Christmas time and then two minutes later, home
• 37:34
  team, big hugs, Earring goes out, cigarettes get put out and
• 37:37
  the kids live in a happy life. You know, doesn't.
• 37:39
  Stand out as much exactly because.
• 37:41
  Because the kids performance is better, right?
• 37:42
  So I think here is longer. Yeah, but he slept on it
• 37:45
  totally. It's the next day.
• 37:47
  And I think ultimately, sometimes you have to have the
• 37:49
  balls to do that they did. One time lapse of it showing
• 37:52
  basically the next day, that would have been a good spot for
• 37:54
  it. Then it maybe would have sunk
• 37:55
  in. Maybe.
• 37:56
  So a misused time lapse. There it is put, put in the
• 37:59
  notes, put in the record. It's in the record, buddy.
• 38:01
  We get Duke's shining moment, talking about all the
• 38:05
  limitations that Rocky has. Oh yes, it's in the trailer, so
• 38:09
  you get a little hype from it there.
• 38:10
  It's happening in the movie and it delivers.
• 38:12
  He needs horsepower. Yep, doesn't have the speed.
• 38:15
  Nope. So we can't run.
• 38:16
  But he still has the ability to potentially rattle Dixon's
• 38:20
  ancestors. It's a great line.
• 38:22
  It's a great line. So good.
• 38:23
  Let's just put a little note beside that, All right?
• 38:25
  It's a good line hurting bombs just as another term thrown out
• 38:30
  there. I mean, we have to understand
• 38:32
  this is a a gentleman in his 50s fighting someone in his prime.
• 38:37
  How they going to navigate this? Yeah, I like that they call it
• 38:39
  out Exactly. He only build power.
• 38:42
  That's all he can do. That's it, and that's what he's
• 38:43
  going to do. Yeah, and we get another
• 38:46
  montage. It's a montage this series does
• 38:49
  incredibly well. Do you think it was long enough?
• 38:51
  No, but I think it was appropriately long.
• 38:54
  I could watch this. No, but yes, got.
• 38:56
  It forever. I could watch it in training
• 38:57
  montage for six hours. I'm with it.
• 38:59
  It's not my favorite scene because it doesn't have the.
• 39:02
  Emotion. I don't know what your favorite
• 39:03
  scene is at this. Point a basement scene.
• 39:05
  I love that the really the exchange between Paulie and he
• 39:07
  is the best and this is probably my third OK there because I
• 39:11
  think Duke celebrating and sort of explaining that calling it
• 39:14
  out. Let's start building some heart
• 39:16
  and bombs and then bam, smash to the music fanfare hitting going
• 39:21
  to fly now and we're in it. I am jacked up.
• 39:25
  My question to you around this montage, one thing is there a
• 39:29
  difference between punching A punching bag or punching meat?
• 39:34
  Do you really need to break in to the slaughterhouse or can you
• 39:37
  just use the punching bag that you already own?
• 39:39
  Well, I mean, the whole thing was the first movie, if you
• 39:41
  recall, beating the meat, so. Is it better training?
• 39:44
  I think so. OK.
• 39:46
  That's why we're getting out. I don't know.
• 39:47
  I think it's tougher, stronger, so you're punching bone as
• 39:51
  opposed to a sand or a water bag.
• 39:53
  OK, there's give. I think it's better training.
• 39:56
  This is why I ask the expert. Right here.
• 39:59
  But I think to myself around this time, I'm just like this
• 40:01
  formula is easiest thing in the world.
• 40:04
  Yeah. Layup.
• 40:04
  It's last 30 minutes of the movie.
• 40:06
  We're peeking like it's just, I'm like, this will work
• 40:09
  forever. Beginning of the montage, you
• 40:11
  can't lift the weights. Yep, he struggles.
• 40:13
  Can't, Can't breathe. By the end, you know he does it.
• 40:17
  It's just take your pick. Can't get up the stairs?
• 40:20
  No problem, he'll get up the stairs.
• 40:22
  Can't lift the weight? Can't beat Apollo on the beach?
• 40:24
  Run, Don't worry. Like it just doesn't matter what
• 40:27
  it is. But I will say, if this happened
• 40:30
  today, Rocky would not have fared as well because he
• 40:34
  wouldn't have been able to afford those eggs.
• 40:37
  He's pounding them back. It's true. 4-5 yolks.
• 40:40
  Willy nilly. Yeah, like that's, that's 30.
• 40:44
  $5.00 an egg, right? Now, yeah, his kids not working.
• 40:46
  He's not paying for the eggs. It's true.
• 40:47
  Unless the restaurant's doing well.
• 40:49
  Maybe. Yeah, I don't know.
• 40:50
  Now, as you can tell from that last sequence, I am jacked up.
• 40:55
  And what continues that really drags it out a little longer is
• 40:58
  right after this sort of bleached out montage that we've
• 41:01
  seen from the training, we go to Vegas, my man.
• 41:04
  Absolutely in HDHD Vegas, Mandalay Industries, big sign.
• 41:11
  We have some some pre match chatter and there is a great
• 41:15
  moment and you can elaborate on it or bring something else to
• 41:18
  the table. What really stood out for me
• 41:20
  though, in this little pre match hubbub, as my mom would say, is
• 41:24
  what Dixon says to Rocky. Yeah, we'll carry you for a
• 41:28
  while, have a little fun. I think that's the right thing
• 41:31
  to say. Totally.
• 41:32
  I think it's the mature thing to say and that's really how it
• 41:35
  should go. Good sportsmanship, which you
• 41:37
  know I love. That's right.
• 41:38
  I won most sports, like player a couple years in hockey.
• 41:40
  So I'm all about this. No goals, but also no goals, no
• 41:43
  goals. Couple helpers, couple helpers
• 41:44
  here and there, but I think this guy delivers it.
• 41:47
  I agree perfectly. Yep, this guy.
• 41:48
  Is certainly more than serviceable.
• 41:50
  Yeah, he's given the straight goods.
• 41:52
  I like that. Absolutely.
• 41:53
  And Rocky, who's got pride on the line.
• 41:56
  I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know.
• 41:57
  I can't relate, can't relate. I don't understand.
• 41:58
  I can relate to Polly a lot of this, but I can't relate to
• 42:01
  anything pride related. But I think it's a telling scene
• 42:04
  between the two, right? Because if you remember in Rocky
• 42:07
  5, when Stallone is trying to train Tommy, he keeps talking
• 42:11
  about your best friend's Frankie.
• 42:13
  Fear. Fear lives on your shoulder.
• 42:14
  Fears what drives you, fears what motivates you, fears.
• 42:17
  What's this? And he asks Harvard as he kind
• 42:19
  of starts to walk away. Aren't you even scared a little
• 42:22
  bit? And the guy's like, no, I don't
• 42:24
  get scared. And then, you know, because
• 42:26
  Rocky kind of turns around. It's like, you know, I always it
• 42:28
  always worked pretty well for me to be to be scared.
• 42:32
  And you get a sense, OK, Rocky's in it to win.
• 42:34
  Like it Rocky's in it to play. And he says a lot of people come
• 42:37
  to Vegas to lose. You know, I I didn't.
• 42:39
  And he says it's already over, Which another one I like, right.
• 42:41
  The Tarver is just kind of like, yeah, it's it's done.
• 42:44
  That's a well handled scene that motivates Rocky, but also puts a
• 42:47
  little doubt. And Rocky, he's a washed up bum
• 42:49
  that never amounted to anything in the first one.
• 42:52
  And now he's over the hill and he's past his way past his
• 42:55
  prime, but there's still that echo of self doubt to the point
• 43:00
  where he's sitting in the chair when when Marie kind of looks
• 43:02
  for him later. So I just, I like that there is
• 43:05
  a through line in this movie. 16 Years later, he's tapping
• 43:08
  directly into the Rocky vein in a way that if you watch a
• 43:13
  rebooted 16 Year Later Force Awakens or something, you're
• 43:16
  changing the things you remember to fit a new storyline.
• 43:20
  Mark Hamill's like, what did you do with my character?
• 43:23
  Sure. In that second of the.
• 43:25
  Yeah, The Last Jedi, The Last Jedi.
• 43:27
  I liked it. Sure.
• 43:28
  I recognize that it may not be true to that character.
• 43:31
  To me, it's just the character's change.
• 43:33
  Yes. You got to know what to change
• 43:35
  and how to change it. Change it.
• 43:36
  Agree. And.
• 43:37
  I see growth in this movie. It's not carbon copy, but it's
• 43:40
  enough connected where I'm like, you just tap right into it again
• 43:43
  and that's impressive to me. Now expanding on the the self
• 43:47
  doubt that Rocky has just a little bit, he's getting the
• 43:49
  jitters. Yeah, a little bit.
• 43:51
  I would say, but who's there to give him a little pep talk?
• 43:54
  Little Marie. Little Marie.
• 43:57
  And has some words to say. Phillip, tell me, what did she
• 44:00
  say? Well, she kind of just gives him
• 44:03
  a whole lot of pep. But the one line that stands out
• 44:05
  is you're going to go out there and you're going to show
• 44:07
  everybody the last thing to age is a heart.
• 44:09
  Yeah, that's it. I knew it was heart related.
• 44:11
  Yeah, and that's a good line. And that's the character, and it
• 44:14
  gets him sufficiently excited because what's next is the big
• 44:18
  fight. The big fight, David, we're
• 44:20
  here. It's the it's the sort of
• 44:21
  culmination of the movie. Here we go.
• 44:23
  The culmination of all of these movies is to come to.
• 44:25
  Some high expectations for this fight.
• 44:27
  Totally. It's not the street fight.
• 44:28
  He's back in the ring. Yeah.
• 44:30
  What I like about it, the choice, the stylistic choice, is
• 44:33
  to basically present this fight as a professionally presented
• 44:38
  HBO Saturday night Fight Night shot, an HD camera shot at
• 44:42
  Mandalay Bay, shot in a real ring like shot during a regular
• 44:45
  boxing event. I think all of those things are
• 44:47
  really good choices. It's what we want people hyped.
• 44:50
  And I wonder if you caught, and this is something that really
• 44:52
  stood out to me at the beginning when I first saw it in 2006, the
• 44:56
  montage at the beginning of the fight, the hype package where
• 45:00
  it's going through Rocky's history, illustrious history.
• 45:04
  There is 0 footage of Apollo Creed, there's Clubber Lang,
• 45:09
  There's Ivan Drago. And Creed's in two like he's.
• 45:12
  In both, he's in both. He's in all.
• 45:14
  He's in four movies, in two fights.
• 45:16
  Yeah. And I did a little research.
• 45:19
  Carl didn't sign off on it. Carl did not sign off on it.
• 45:21
  Why? Carl apparently spotted a larger
• 45:24
  role in the movie, but he's dead.
• 45:27
  But he's dead, so I don't really understand.
• 45:29
  And at the time I thought. Carl's so petty.
• 45:32
  If you're going to talk about the legacy of Rocky Balboa, the
• 45:34
  history of Rocky, and you don't have Apollo Creed, something's
• 45:38
  missing. So it was really disappointing
• 45:39
  to me. Doesn't hurt the movie entirely,
• 45:42
  but something's missing. Yeah, but I'm curious to know
• 45:44
  how this fight's going to go, because it's what I understand
• 45:48
  to be the final fight in a Rocky movie.
• 45:51
  So that's pretty big shoes to fill.
• 45:54
  Yeah, Considering all the fights that we've been along for the
• 45:57
  ride with and being the last one, I'm concerned, OK.
• 46:02
  I am concerned. It's not going to fulfill my
• 46:05
  expectations. Are you hyped for it?
• 46:07
  Like, are you excited to watch it?
• 46:09
  Yes. OK, that's the problem.
• 46:10
  So the bar is high, Yeah. Like, I'm pumped.
• 46:12
  I want it. Are you going to give it to me?
• 46:13
  Exactly. OK.
• 46:15
  And, well, the bell rings. Yeah, Ding, Ding.
• 46:18
  The song choice? Sinatra.
• 46:19
  Sinatra Yep, Yep. Crowd loves them.
• 46:22
  Yeah, they really do. They really do.
• 46:23
  What are you thinking about stylistic?
• 46:26
  Because there's a lot happening. It's fairly quick cutting and
• 46:28
  there's use of blacks and whites heightening the Reds and the
• 46:32
  Blues and the yell, right? There's a lot happening, yeah.
• 46:35
  Slow MOS at times a little bit as it goes has the progresses.
• 46:38
  What are your thoughts as the fights kind of going on without
• 46:40
  getting too technical? The editing I think fits what
• 46:45
  it's trying to do. Where it's not jarring, there's
• 46:48
  no gyration. I think it starts out nice and
• 46:51
  slow. They still haven't figured out
• 46:52
  blocking. Yeah, I know.
• 46:53
  That's still a bit I'm. Sure, you got that written down
• 46:55
  somewhere. Hockey still has not figured out
• 46:57
  blocking. I That still irks me.
• 46:59
  Show me a couple blocks just for show.
• 47:01
  Just for show. I don't know what it is.
• 47:03
  Show me. Sure.
• 47:04
  I guess if they show one block they want to, you gotta commit
• 47:06
  to it. Yeah.
• 47:07
  Why aren't you doing it every time?
• 47:09
  So I guess it's all or nothing with the blocking, but I'm
• 47:11
  wondering how they're going to do this.
• 47:13
  Like, how are they going to take this guy that's in his 50s?
• 47:15
  Obviously he's done some training.
• 47:17
  Sure. That's a good, good question to
• 47:19
  ask going in, which is like, how do you make this believable?
• 47:22
  Do you? Yes.
• 47:22
  Unbelievable and believable would be that he just gets his
• 47:25
  ass kicked, yes, so. What do you do in that
• 47:28
  situation? That's it.
• 47:28
  And what do you think about how they handled it?
• 47:30
  I think hurting, breaking his hand basically.
• 47:33
  I was really impressed, yeah, with how this whole fight went.
• 47:37
  Nice. OK.
• 47:37
  Like it was. I hate to use your term, your
• 47:40
  perfection. The times where Rocky's getting
• 47:44
  beat up, times where he goes hard on him, The hurting on the
• 47:47
  hand is almost like leveling the playing fields.
• 47:50
  That's exactly. And that's exactly what you need
• 47:52
  to do in this to keep it grounded, to make it a fight.
• 47:55
  Right. Yeah.
• 47:56
  Because otherwise he gets his ass kicked.
• 47:57
  As for like the, you know, the the chromatic, is that the right
• 48:01
  monochromatic? Monochromatic and using the
• 48:03
  colors. Yeah, OK, sure.
• 48:04
  Add a little bit of spice to it. The style.
• 48:06
  There's nothing they did in this fight.
• 48:07
  Then I'm like, I wish they didn't do that.
• 48:10
  You know this. Just keep it clean.
• 48:11
  Yeah, like the referee wants. I think the only thing that
• 48:14
  really sticks out to me is a little bit almost too stylish.
• 48:18
  And if it's a little too stylish, I think it may be is a
• 48:21
  little too dated in hindsight. But that's a very minor nitpick
• 48:25
  because again, in the moment I'm locked in, I'm I'm vibing and
• 48:28
  it's totally fine by me. Considering it stands up, how
• 48:30
  many years later, 2020 years later, tell me it's kind of
• 48:33
  ahead of its time, even if I go as far to say.
• 48:35
  And I like that Rocky Juniors, when he's in the corner, he kind
• 48:38
  of says something to like, you know, no one's laughing now,
• 48:40
  right? Like they thought this was a
• 48:42
  joke, including me. Go get him.
• 48:44
  It's a quiet moment between the two where he's promoting like
• 48:47
  hyping his dad up. Yeah, which he doesn't do a
• 48:49
  great. Job.
• 48:50
  Oh no, My least favorite part is when he's talking thinking about
• 48:53
  you don't have any more to prove.
• 48:55
  Go easy and Rockies like what? I'm going to go out the way I
• 48:58
  want to go. Out.
• 48:58
  Yeah, buddy. Yeah, like I'm peeking right
• 49:01
  now. Get that shit out of my face.
• 49:03
  I think he had good intentions. Though I'm sure he did.
• 49:05
  Do you have anything that sticks out?
• 49:07
  One line, The announcer says that his ancestors must have
• 49:10
  felt that one. Yeah, I didn't like it.
• 49:12
  Yeah. I mean, well, Duke saying it as
• 49:14
  a motivation thing, yeah, that was good.
• 49:16
  That makes sense. Now the announcer saying it, I'm
• 49:17
  like, come on, man, you're ripping off Duke here.
• 49:19
  Come on. You're better than and you
• 49:20
  shouldn't have known what Duke said.
• 49:21
  So now you're just. You're being cute, Yeah.
• 49:23
  I don't like it. That's fair.
• 49:24
  There's no place for cuteness in this.
• 49:34
  Man, Rocky at the crossroads. What are your thoughts on that?
• 49:37
  Because it's a real like, bring the movie down to its basics.
• 49:41
  I would say my only issue is maybe a little bit predictable.
• 49:45
  Fair, but this is the formula we're talking.
• 49:46
  About. But yeah, what else do you do?
• 49:49
  Right. So, but I think what is
• 49:51
  predictable is delivered and executed just the way you would
• 49:55
  want it. If you know what's going to
• 49:56
  happen, at least do it well. And that's what they do.
• 49:57
  And that's to me the same because they do something very
• 49:59
  similar to this in Part 5. We're seeing flashes of the baby
• 50:03
  being born Rocky 2. We're seeing fights in Rocky 3,
• 50:05
  we're seeing Rocky 4, we're seeing kind of these clips of
• 50:08
  whatever Carl, his light that that's gone on, and then he
• 50:12
  rises again for this last moment and there's something this
• 50:15
  character just can tap into that thing.
• 50:19
  Emotional power in the simplest of ways.
• 50:22
  And it's the formula that works. He rises, the music swells, and
• 50:25
  we get back into it. Boom, going toe to toe at the
• 50:28
  end of the ring. It's scrappy, very scrappy,
• 50:30
  which we don't usually see, which actually more in line with
• 50:33
  Rocky sort of technique, if you will.
• 50:36
  It was a good fight, just what the referee wanted, totally.
• 50:39
  But All in all, Phil did the most important thing of this
• 50:41
  whole fight is who won. True true. close 9590490495.
• 50:47
  I don't know how the judging works.
• 50:49
  Really tight. They say at first it's a tie.
• 50:51
  Yeah, it was a split decision, that's what's.
• 50:53
  Conveyed to us. But ultimately, in this version,
• 50:56
  Dixon wins. Yeah, Dixon wins.
• 50:58
  What are your thoughts around Dixon's response, How he's
• 51:01
  feeling now? Did he learn anything from this
• 51:03
  experience? I think that is a problem I have
• 51:06
  with the character doing strictly the bare minimum of
• 51:10
  what he needs to do, which I think he does well.
• 51:12
  I have no problems with his performance.
• 51:13
  I think everything is fine. Great to hear.
• 51:15
  But there's a moment where at the end, Rocky, as they're
• 51:18
  hugging, will say something like, you got a lot of heart,
• 51:21
  kid, you're going to, you're a great champ, you're great.
• 51:24
  And I don't know that the character we met at the
• 51:26
  beginning is changed necessarily.
• 51:29
  That part isn't fully conveyed. I can believe it.
• 51:32
  It's fine, but feels a little bit tacked on.
• 51:35
  But again, no real problem with that.
• 51:38
  I like the moment me. Too.
• 51:39
  I just think it's I'm soft. It's easy for it's easy, but
• 51:43
  sometimes I don't mind something easy.
• 51:44
  No, it's formula. It's way like my eggs over easy
• 51:47
  actually. But like we agreed upon and what
• 51:50
  the referee has declared, he did win Dixon, did you think?
• 51:55
  They were better off. Or did you think Rocky would
• 51:58
  have won? First time watching it, I think
• 52:00
  I felt pretty. Is this the right thing?
• 52:03
  Is this correct? I think the answer is he loses.
• 52:05
  I think he's an old man. He shouldn't, shouldn't win.
• 52:07
  But he does the 10, he goes the distance, which is a callback
• 52:11
  and it's close. Crowd loves him for just not
• 52:14
  getting knocked out totally and putting up a good fight.
• 52:17
  Yep, and I think it's all handled really well.
• 52:19
  Yeah, I think it's the right call.
• 52:20
  It echoes enough of the first one that you have this
• 52:23
  connective tissue that feels of a piece.
• 52:26
  And his ambivalence to winning or losing is also the same,
• 52:30
  right? He says at the end of part one
• 52:32
  that he's just looking for Adrian, right?
• 52:34
  They're trying to do his thing and he's like, I don't want to
• 52:35
  rematch. I just want Adrian, like did
• 52:37
  what I want to do low the distance.
• 52:39
  And I feel like he does this again and he just leaves the
• 52:41
  ring while they're still announcing the victory.
• 52:43
  I love that. Well, there is an alternative.
• 52:45
  Cut. Oh, is there?
• 52:47
  That in which he wins. Check it out.
• 52:49
  Check it out. It's a bad call.
• 52:51
  Well, that's why he didn't come to fruition and didn't air it.
• 52:54
  Don't like it? Don't.
• 52:55
  It was shot. It was shot, apparently.
• 52:57
  I don't know. Look into it buddy.
• 52:58
  Do your own research. Don't take, don't take my word,
• 53:01
  buddy. Fair, fair.
• 53:03
  But I, and I think the movie does a great job for the
• 53:06
  character as he departs the ring and goes down the aisle.
• 53:10
  He has this moment because it's not only Rocky the character
• 53:15
  after 30 years, it's also Sylvester Stallone standing in
• 53:18
  the middle of this ring saying goodbye to the character
• 53:21
  himself. That not only gets him, I
• 53:23
  assume, emotional. Didn't even have to act.
• 53:26
  But the crowd around him is also reacting and like there's
• 53:29
  something really kind of magical.
• 53:31
  I think of that moment as an actor, and I feel like all of
• 53:33
  that has conveyed very well. Well, you know darn well I can't
• 53:36
  process it. No.
• 53:37
  It's too much. Too much.
• 53:38
  Yeah. Shut down.
• 53:39
  Shut it down. Yeah, But it kind of ends with
• 53:41
  him shaking hands almost with a fan, which to me is also kind of
• 53:44
  true to his character as the man of the people we talked about.
• 53:47
  So they got paid extra. Sure.
• 53:48
  Yeah, handwork. Exactly.
• 53:50
  Well, Phil, I, I, I want you to, I want you to bring it home,
• 53:53
  buddy. This is your movie.
• 53:55
  I've been just a guest here. I was never a Rocky guy.
• 53:59
  I I've enjoyed parts of it. But I want you to kind of finish
• 54:03
  off this movie, tie it all together.
• 54:05
  Sure. If you don't mind, If you don't
• 54:07
  mind. Hey, you know I signed up for
• 54:08
  this. What I think about when I watch
• 54:10
  the end of this is how appropriate every decision for
• 54:15
  the character and for the movie is.
• 54:17
  And specifically, even at this point, we go back to the
• 54:21
  cemetery. That's right, brings the the
• 54:24
  roses back to the tombstone and quietly whispers to Adrian for
• 54:29
  all 10s of purposes. Yo, Adrian, we did it.
• 54:32
  And that obviously a call back to Rocky 2 and the peak of his
• 54:36
  sort of success. His first title when he beats
• 54:38
  Apollo. All of that is in there.
• 54:40
  The best of these movies have the balancing of really
• 54:44
  beautifully quiet character moments and big raucous boxing
• 54:49
  fights in front of a crowd. And this one, bringing it back
• 54:54
  down to these quiet moments where he gets his piece with
• 54:58
  Adrian, walks off into the distance and disappears from the
• 55:01
  frame as if to suggest, like we're talking about time lapsing
• 55:04
  and time cuts, as if to suggest that this is the end.
• 55:09
  To me, this is an exceptional end to a series.
• 55:13
  It's pitched just right, delivers all the things I want,
• 55:17
  and feels like a beautiful closing point.
• 55:20
  I mentioned last week I didn't mind the Rocky 5 ending.
• 55:24
  If that were the end of the character, I would have been
• 55:27
  probably fine with that. I don't know.
• 55:29
  But there was with the lack of a proper boxing match.
• 55:32
  This is closure. And the stuff with the kid at
• 55:35
  the museum was fine, but not great.
• 55:38
  This, I think, is the perfect encapsulation of that character,
• 55:41
  culminating into that. Now, you say you're not a Rocky
• 55:43
  person, but having watched these movies and perhaps through the
• 55:48
  montage of the end of Part 5 and thinking about the way this
• 55:52
  credits have, the montage of people running up the stairs,
• 55:56
  the cultural legacy, the statue of Phillies, all of this, are
• 56:00
  you a Rocky guy now? Or is there anything that sort
• 56:02
  of stuck stuck with you? Oh heavens no.
• 56:04
  Great. But I do want to know about that
• 56:06
  statue. It's not there anymore.
• 56:08
  No. They moved it to the Spectrum.
• 56:10
  Correct. Right beside Bobby Clark, maybe.
• 56:12
  Does he have a statue? Yeah, he does.
• 56:13
  Yeah. I don't know if it's.
• 56:14
  Bobby Clark's great, great hockey.
• 56:16
  Oh, he's great. He's.
• 56:17
  Fantastic. What I will say, Phillip, to
• 56:20
  summarize this whole Rocky experience that you've provided
• 56:24
  me is I think it ends really well.
• 56:27
  I think it does put a cap on the character and reminds us that
• 56:31
  the series was about more than boxing, where some of the ones
• 56:34
  in the middle were very heavy on the boxing, as it should be.
• 56:37
  This is a he's a boxer, Yeah. But I think it does more than
• 56:41
  scratch the surface overall. And then if you recall.
• 56:44
  Rocky 1, you said. I saw that too late.
• 56:47
  I'm. Too old.
• 56:49
  It's true. I said it and I can't take it
• 56:51
  back. It's out there now.
• 56:52
  Yeah, it's out there. But I know what it's trying to
• 56:55
  do, and it's trying to. This movie is trying to
• 56:56
  recapture some of the heart that the original had.
• 57:00
  It might be just the left aorta, but it's part of the heart and I
• 57:04
  think ultimately succeeds and really finishes strong on a
• 57:10
  series where, you know, 5342. There's some good moments in
• 57:15
  there, but realistically they're not all great movies.
• 57:18
  Like every series, there's going to be some lulls in action.
• 57:23
  What I like about it the most is the not boxing the themes of it.
• 57:26
  Yeah. I think Rocky just has really
• 57:29
  good advice. Yeah, yeah.
• 57:31
  I think it comes from the fact that it's 30 years old, Like,
• 57:33
  like the character has grown, actor has grown, there's wisdom,
• 57:36
  story has grown. That's true.
• 57:38
  It's not. Get it out.
• 57:39
  Yeah. Let's capitalize on this movie.
• 57:41
  There's a little bit of that shirt always, but I think just
• 57:43
  the fact in calling it Rocky Balboa as opposed to Rocky 6.
• 57:47
  Symbolizes that this is more elevated yeah exactly, there's
• 57:52
  some elevation indeed like you're in Denver that's right
• 57:54
  elevated that's right yeah. I couldn't agree more.
• 57:58
  I think it's really really good and even something as subtle as
• 58:02
  I stay this to the credits as I always do.
• 58:04
  But the last frame over credits with just him in his grey
• 58:08
  jumpsuit staring at the top of those stairs out in the snow.
• 58:13
  The snow. You know how to feel about
• 58:14
  holding. That shot, and he looks out over
• 58:17
  a city of Philadelphia that has been iconically connected to
• 58:20
  this character. There's something almost magical
• 58:23
  to me about that shot, even as the last image of the Rocky kind
• 58:28
  of experience. It's it's just a really
• 58:31
  excellent movie. I was really impressed and
• 58:33
  surprised by how much I liked it in 2006 and how much it
• 58:36
  continues to hold up to me. I think the question.
• 58:39
  Is and what we're all waiting for.
• 58:40
  It's good we got to rank them. A ranking will happen.
• 58:42
  A ranking? Was it gonna happen now?
• 58:44
  Well, yeah, OK, we've watched 6 Rocky films if you can imagine.
• 58:49
  Oh, I imagine. And like we did with our
• 58:52
  Halloween series, I think it's appropriate that we put a number
• 58:56
  on these things. Let's go down the line.
• 58:58
  You want to alternate, you want to go just top to bottom, bottom
• 59:02
  to top. What do you you call the shots
• 59:04
  here? Let's start with you and we'll
• 59:07
  start least favorite. All right, and we'll go back and
• 59:10
  forth. All right, there it is.
• 59:12
  These are the rules. Let's do that.
• 59:13
  Least favorite coming in hot #2 I do not care for Rocky 2 as
• 59:20
  much as I wish I did. OK.
• 59:22
  I like elements of it. I like that he's trying to
• 59:24
  revitalize his career, but I just doesn't do it.
• 59:27
  The coma is too much. OK, so my turn.
• 59:31
  What is your least favorite Two. Hey, there it is.
• 59:34
  You just had to say coma, Coma. And I really had some issues
• 59:37
  with that movie. And justifiably.
• 59:39
  Yeah. So 2 That's the consensus here,
• 59:41
  which is a word I often misuse. Neither here nor there.
• 59:45
  That's right. My second least favorite is.
• 59:49
  Come on. 5. That's so no recency bias, you
• 59:53
  know, actually, no, no. It is a really tight call
• 59:57
  between 5:00 and 5:00 and 3:00. I don't love three.
• 1:00:00
  What I like about 3 is the 80s of it.
• 1:00:04
  He just feels there's something about it.
• 1:00:06
  The music, even the vibe, him struggling with his celebrity.
• 1:00:11
  I like the thematic elements of three.
• 1:00:13
  A little bit more, but I think 5 is a very effective version of
• 1:00:17
  what it wants to be. I just think the kid Tommy,
• 1:00:20
  there's enough stuff that isn't great.
• 1:00:22
  But the couple of scenes that I really love of five, I think
• 1:00:24
  really hold up. The rest of it is kind of hit
• 1:00:26
  and miss. Well, I don't.
• 1:00:27
  I don't want to be a copycat you.
• 1:00:30
  Can sense us again. I we are like 5.
• 1:00:32
  I think Tommy really holds back this movie.
• 1:00:34
  Yeah, I think there's good stuff in there, but just not enough.
• 1:00:37
  Yeah, there's. Better stuff than the other.
• 1:00:38
  Ones totally, yeah. So the next one, as you can
• 1:00:40
  imagine is 3 for me. Well, this is where we're going
• 1:00:42
  to go our separate ways. Diverging 4 really, OK.
• 1:00:46
  Yeah, I like Mr. T. Yeah, that's fair.
• 1:00:48
  That's fair. 3 for me as it would mention not really a thing
• 1:00:53
  for you. Tell me about what 4 kind of
• 1:00:54
  fails to do for you. I just wasn't into it as much as
• 1:00:59
  three. I just didn't think it brought
• 1:01:01
  enough new stuff to it. Oh, then the robot, of course.
• 1:01:04
  Well, maybe that was the problem.
• 1:01:06
  It was just trying to be bigger and better like most sequels do
• 1:01:11
  and it wanted something different at that point.
• 1:01:14
  Totally. That's that's my thoughts.
• 1:01:15
  That's reasonable. Next I have part 6, Rocky
• 1:01:19
  Balboa. OK, We just talked about it a
• 1:01:21
  lot, so feel free to listen to the rest of the episode.
• 1:01:26
  It's a movie that I think just sums up perfectly what this
• 1:01:29
  character can do. This is the sort of second best
• 1:01:31
  version of that. Okay, have I said 3 yet?
• 1:01:34
  You. Have not, no.
• 1:01:36
  So it would be 3 would be my third favorite and 3rd least
• 1:01:40
  favorite is that makes sense. There it is, yeah.
• 1:01:42
  Smack dab in the middle, Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can't.
• 1:01:44
  You can't go terribly wrong with a guy like Mr. T.
• 1:01:47
  And and Hulk Hogan, don't forget.
• 1:01:48
  Yeah, and you also can't go. You can't also can't do very
• 1:01:51
  well. So that's right.
• 1:01:52
  It's right smack in the middle. I love it.
• 1:01:54
  But I I do remember getting right into three right at the
• 1:01:56
  beginning. You got the fight with
• 1:01:57
  Thunderlips right away. You've got losing.
• 1:02:00
  It's fun. Like it's.
• 1:02:01
  Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stuff fun.
• 1:02:02
  Stuff in there, yeah. My second favorite is Rocky 4.
• 1:02:05
  That was your first time, your first exposure.
• 1:02:08
  And I think it's also the it's that arcade thing.
• 1:02:11
  It's the most fun. It doesn't really have the.
• 1:02:13
  Heart, which is odd for you because I'm the arcade guy.
• 1:02:17
  Or am I the SIM guy? Here the SIM guy, I'm the arcade
• 1:02:19
  guy. Actually, for me, what Rocky 4
• 1:02:23
  does is it drops the character stuff, which I think I'm, I'm
• 1:02:27
  not usually prone to that, but all of the glitz in the flash
• 1:02:31
  and the style and the music video version of it, it's very
• 1:02:34
  watchable. I'll watch Rocky Balboa and love
• 1:02:38
  it, but I'll put on Rocky four more often because of the the
• 1:02:42
  vibe, the the general flow of it.
• 1:02:44
  So that kind of gives it a little bit of an edge.
• 1:02:46
  It's. An easy watch.
• 1:02:47
  It's an arcade watch versus the SIM watch like you're saying, so
• 1:02:50
  that that's for me. What are your second favorite
• 1:02:51
  here? Second favorites #1 yeah,
• 1:02:55
  despite a rocky beginning, if you will.
• 1:02:57
  Yeah, it's still ultimately if I was going to go back and revisit
• 1:03:00
  all the films again now with some.
• 1:03:05
  Yeah, sure. Exactly.
• 1:03:06
  Knowing what I'm getting into here, ultimately it's the it's
• 1:03:09
  the birth of the character. It's a good introduction and I
• 1:03:12
  like a rags to Richard's story. To a certain extent, sure.
• 1:03:17
  So ultimately, it's my #2. Yeah, for me, it's obviously the
• 1:03:20
  best. It's the one that started them
• 1:03:21
  it all. It's it's so powerful.
• 1:03:23
  I think it's so well written. It's so well performed.
• 1:03:25
  It's so heartful, It's so energetic.
• 1:03:28
  It sets a tone for the characters.
• 1:03:30
  A lot of Mickey. A lot of Mickey, that great
• 1:03:32
  scene where where they're arguing in the apartment, That
• 1:03:35
  relationship I think is so great.
• 1:03:37
  The music, the score, the introduction of those themes is
• 1:03:39
  just perfection. Even though it wasn't the first
• 1:03:41
  one I saw, it just delivers so much of what I love moving
• 1:03:45
  forward that it has to be the the top for me.
• 1:03:48
  Well, recency bias has me picking number six.
• 1:03:51
  I love it. But I'm going to back it up, the
• 1:03:53
  life lessons of it, and it doesn't have a lot of boxing,
• 1:03:58
  but when it does, I think it's just the best it's done.
• 1:04:03
  I agree that part. I agree it's the best boxing
• 1:04:05
  probably in the whole. Series, and I'm glad Adrian's
• 1:04:07
  not in it. There it is, fantastic.
• 1:04:10
  Yeah, I'm just kidding. I.
• 1:04:11
  Want to be clear, I love Adrian. Right.
• 1:04:14
  Well, there it is, David. That's the ranking.
• 1:04:15
  I couldn't ask for anything better.
• 1:04:16
  I appreciate you stepping up to the plate.
• 1:04:18
  Pleasure's mine. Thanks for getting in the ring.
• 1:04:20
  We're gonna mix a little metaphor.
• 1:04:21
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:04:23
  All six movies are watched and done.
• 1:04:25
  We've got all six rounds. All six rounds.
• 1:04:27
  There you go. We can do this.
• 1:04:29
  Well done. Appreciate it, folks.
• 1:04:31
  Thanks for listening. Join us on the Facebook page,
• 1:04:34
  which will be updated shortly. Sure thing, buddy, and rate US
• 1:04:39
  five stars in your pod. Catcher of choice, of course,
• 1:04:41
  and share the podcast. If you can't subscribe to Never
• 1:04:44
  miss an episode and anybody that asks, tell them Spider Rico asks
• 1:04:49
  you to have a listen. That reminds me, I got some
• 1:04:51
  dishes to do. Thanks folks.
• 1:04:54
  Good night.