Rocky still packs a punch!

Ah the good old days… Talk about an evening of nostalgia. That’s what you feel when you watch the final installment in the Rocky series, “Rocky Balboa”. Those lovable characters, those memorable places, and of course, that goose bump inducing musical score.

To a lot of people, Rocky had knocked himself out with the fifth film. Although I have only seen the first Oscar winning classic and Rocky II, from what I hear, the last film was a major flop and a living example of the Theory of Diminishing Returns. Rocky, the eternal underdog that we’ll always root for, definitely deserved a better farewell. And “Rocky Balboa” manages to do so in style. Balboa is crafted with veritable love for the character, and Stallone makes sure that Rocky remains a cultural icon for underdogs the world over.

Yes, I know Sylvester Stallone is old by any measure, but what makes Balboa so believable is that he doesn’t make any effort to cover that up. All through the movie, we see not too flattering references to his age, and he takes it with grace. He is retired, runs a restaurant while posing for fake punches with kids for photos, and wallowing in sadness over the death of his beloved wife. He needs to let those demons out, and a fight back into the ring is just the way to prove something to himself. Whoever wins doesn’t really matter anymore, but fighting back does.

No Rocky movie is complete without that oh-so-inspiring training sequence, with Bill Conti’s legendary “Gonna Fly Now” playing in the background. This iconic scene is basically what we have paid to see, and not surprising that the entire crowd in the theatre erupted in sheer energy when it started, culminating in Rocky running up those steps of the Philly Museum. Classic.

And then the fight itself. Rock-eeeeee, Rock-eeeeee goes the crowd, both on the screen as well as off it, when the man takes on someone half his age. He loses, yes, but he fights all the way through. And that’s what Rocky is all about.

The film is filled with odes to the previous films, and almost in waves, nostalgia rushes upon you with every reference. The most of course in the final scene when Rocky places a bouquet on his wife’s grave and paraphrases that immortal quote, “Yo Adrian! We did it”. During the closing credits, we see tourists from all over the world trying their hand at running on the famous “Rocky steps”, and of course Rocky himself doing it for the last time as the screen fades away.

Thanks for the ride, Rocky, for helping us underdogs believe in ourselves. We owe you one.