There's a lot to cover in this review of my Rocky III rewatch, with a view to the arc of the character as a whole across the 8 movies.
Let's get to it...
Stallone looks great. The chiseled body now that he was famous, wealthy and able to train with Franco Columbu - not to mention some fairly extensive plastic surgery and perhaps some training 'juice'. The way they explain it away is hilarious - and again when he looks like he'd struggle to weigh more than a light middleweight never mind a heavyweight.
Mr T does an incredible job of portraying a frighteningly brutal opponent. And for perhaps the only time, he looks muscular not chubby. The fact Clubber Lang is long remembered means his performance was excellent.
The choreography and camerawork in the final fight is fantastic. Kudos to Stallone for making some fantastic shots. The use of big cat roars for Clubber's noises made the whole thing intense. And the nods to real boxing matches and real-world thrown punches are excellent. (Think rope-a-dope. Hagler's comments about silk pyjamas.)
However, this is the start of cartoon fight sequences. Whilst the first two films had over-the-top 15 rounders, these fights are homicide if they took place in reality!
The plot and pacing for this one are a step up. You'll never recreate the gritty magic of the first film. The second proved that. But this one jams a load of plot in and fires at it really quickly.
The acting ability of Talia Shire starts to creek. The beach scene is one-sided to Stallone for quality and believability.
Overall this is excellent though.
It's the start of Rocky the superhero and tellingly the first of the 80s Rockys... But it uses montages and flashbacks so well that it gets away with it. The emotions it pulls out of the viewer means it's one of the most rewatchable and effect instalments in the canon.
The Rocky saga mirrors Stallone's own life and its clear to see the parallels here. This is peak Rocky and peak Stallone. The good of the 80s was just beginning, not yet weighed down by the excesses of that decade.
Final note - the believers who question why Rocky gets smart in 3 and 4 and is thick in all the others, look again. He has a nice haircut here but his verbal abilities are no different to the first 2. It's just a guy exposed to more of the world and more comfortable operating in it.
7.75/10
Review by drqshadowBlockedParent2020-10-17T15:35:03Z
Now a heavyweight champion with multiple defenses under his belt, former street-level everyman Rocky Balboa has fallen into complacency, having extinguished the untamed fire that once propelled him to such unlikely heights. In a way, that metaphor works for the film as well as the man. Where the original Rocky was an existential rumination, a study of self-doubt and critically flawed individuals set against the backdrop of a crumbling American metropolis, this third chapter is missing a certain raw edge, a grounding sense of confused humility.
If the first film is less about the fight than the sheer weight of its influence, Rocky III finds the opposite position. It's all rock'n'roll training montages, baby-oiled biceps and cinematic haymakers. In that sense, then-unknown costars Hulk Hogan and Mr. T make ideal dance partners. Clearly, neither were recruited for their acting chops. They're here to grunt angrily and look intimidating opposite a ludicrously-shredded Sly Stallone, to give and take a few slow-motion slobberknockers as the story clumsily approaches its final bell. There were hints of it in Rocky II, four years earlier, but at this point the franchise has completely transitioned into a new genre. It's fist-pumping adrenaline whenever possible, with perhaps a few moments set aside for a quick dose of scrappy character intrigue. The charming lo-fi personality of the first film having completely given way to a posh, polished (if mostly soulless) Hollywood gleam.
It's not without moments. Carl Weathers is still around, now cast as an ally, and shares an unspoken chemistry with Stallone that's badly needed. The plot's key selling point - fear of replacement - has the inkling of something deep and meaningful, although that remains largely unexplored. The fight scenes all look appropriately powerful, if excessively reliant upon hard-hitting offense. Even as a standalone film, though, I'd see it as thin and watery, to say nothing of its relevance to the groundbreaking original. The big-screen equivalent of a throwaway episode from a long-running TV drama. The pieces are all in place, but they aren't really doing anything interesting.