Rocky Balboa

Theatrical Release Date: 2006 12 20 (USA)

UPC: 043396161931

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations, Profanity]

Summary: Sylvester Stallone returns to the director's chair for Rocky Balboa, the fifth sequel to the film that made him a superstar 30 years before. The movie begins with Rocky (Stallone) still mourning the death of his loyal and beloved wife, Adrian, who died three years previously after losing a battle against cancer. Rocky owns an Italian restaurant and spends his days living in his working-class Philadelphia neighborhood, visiting with his customers, and telling stories about his past. His grown son has a job as a business professional, but the relationship between the two is strained. Rocky's growing dissatisfaction leads him to attempt to purge the feelings of frustration and loss by applying for a boxing license. When the current heavyweight champion, Mason "The Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver), needs to rehabilitate his image as a pretty boy who has never shown any real heart in the ring, his manager offers Rocky an exhibition match. This comeback allows Rocky to get his own life back on track, while also offering him the opportunity to help those around him redeem themselves and once again be a symbol of hope for the common man. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Category: Drama

Rocky Balboa

Format: Universal Media Disc

Release Date: 03/20/2007

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: 2 PCM stereo

Runtime: 102 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Perry Seibert

To paraphrase Thomas Wolfe, you can't go home again, but you might be able to visit for a while and enjoy the nostalgia. Sylvester Stallone has consistently used the character of Rocky Balboa to mirror his own career goals. What started as a sincere desire to make the best movie he could make (Rocky) mutated into a thirst be the most successful filmmaker in the world (Rocky II). The sequels continued with III, a film that finds the character and the director attempting to stay on top of the world by not losing his desire; IV, a blatant attempt at self-mythology wrapped in jingoism; and V, an underappreciated, but still unsuccessful attempt to reconnect with the inspiration for the first film. So this time around, in Rocky Balboa, Stallone has finally suffered enough career knocks that he wants to do right by his best and most defining character. As the film opens, Rocky is mourning the death of his wife, Adrian, and attempting to patch up a shaky relationship with a grown son. Never the most articulate of men, Rocky decides that climbing back in the ring might give him the outlet he needs to purge his roiling emotions -- a perfect conceit for a Rocky sequel. Stallone has found a way to approach the simple but powerful theme of his original film: fighting in order to prove something to himself. The memory of the original film, however, constantly keeps Rocky Balboa from being as enjoyable an experience as you want it to be. Stallone doesn't help by constantly referencing sequences and characters from the original, and by including many scenes directly from the first movie in the form of daydreams. There are some very enjoyable moments for the characters that show that Stallone as a director certainly seems appreciative of his cast, and the film itself is an attempt at a warm embrace for an audience that has maintained its loyalty to the character. Taking the entire series of films into account, the character of Rocky Balboa has had numerous experiences that have made him larger than life. He can never again be the common man he was in the first film. By the end of Rocky Balboa, one is left with the inescapable feeling that this film would have worked so much better if it had been the first and only sequel. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Kevin King  Producer 
Robert Chartoff  Executive Producer 
Bill Conti  Composer (Music Score) 
Sylvester Stallone  Director 
Sylvester Stallone  Screenwriter 
Charles Winkler  Producer 
Irwin Winkler  Executive Producer 
David Winkler  Producer 
Billy Chartoff  Producer 
Sylvester Stallone  Actor 
Burt Young  Actor 
Antonio Tarver  Actor 
Geraldine Hughes  Actor 
Milo Ventimiglia  Actor 
Tony Burton  Actor 
A.J. Benza  Actor 
James Francis Kelly III  Actor 
Lou DiBella  Actor 
Mike Tyson  Actor 
Woodrow W. Paige  Actor 
Skip Bayless  Actor 
Jay Crawford  Actor 
Brian Kenny  Actor 
Dana Jacobson  Actor 
Chuck Johnson  Actor 
Jim Lampley  Actor 
Larry Merchant  Actor 
Max Kellerman  Actor 
Leroy Neiman  Actor 
Bert Randolph Sugar  Actor 
Bernard Fernandez  Actor 
Michael Buffer  Actor 
Talia Shire  Actor 

Country: USA