FBSD Episode 24: Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!

Great show, as always. I loved “Rocky Balboa”. No, I’m not trying to say it was the best movie ever, but, as you stated in the show, it fits great with the rest of the franchise. Either you like Rocky movies, or you don’t. And, if you do, you will love this movie. I agree that the first one is the best. #2 was good, but didn’t do it for me like the original. I also liked #3. Yes, it was a campier movie, but it had Mr. T! You’ve got to love it. #4, in my opinion, is where the series just got stupid. The whole “Russia bad, USA good” mentality just didn’t do it for me. Would I stop and watch it if I’m channel surfing? Yeah, I probably would. Rocky V is the only one of the bunch that I dislike strongly enough to say “It shouldn’t have been made”. I absolutely hated the ending. I can’t believe the Rocky character as a street brawler. Yeah, he was pushed in to it, but I still didn’t believe it.

Which brings me to “Rocky Balboa”. I felt it was the perfect ending to a great, if somewhat blemished, franchise. There’s pretty much only one thing that really bugged be about it, and I feel the need to preface it with:

***SPOILER ALERT***

My problem is with the character of Mason “The Line” Dixon, played by Antonio Tarver. I agree with you about his story, that the parts where goes back to his old coach and let’s his current bosses have it was great. I felt his character was making a great Rocky-esque turnaround…until the end. The look he gave when it was announced that there was a split decision showed me his characters true colors. After what was probably his toughest fight in many years, his look said (at least to me) “WTF? Are you people nuts? There’s no way there should be a split decision.” After that one look, I lost any hopes I may have had for him.

One could probably look at the statement Mason made to Rocky before the fight in the same way, but I could buy that one. You can take it as either Mason talking smack, or as the warning it was meant to be. However, after making a comment like that and then having your butt pretty much handed to you by a 60 year old “has-been”, I think I would have learned a little humility. I don’t feel Mason did.