Rocky II

Rocky II
1979 - MGM
Directed By Sylvester Stallone



SYNOPSIS

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) has retired from the ring and married his beloved Adrian (Talia Shire.) Rocky has trouble holding down a steady job and Adrian gets pregnant and has complications, leaving her in a coma. When Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) demands a rematch, Rocky must decide if he should do battle or stay retired.



MY THOUGHTS

The exciting second round in the Rocky series.

Sylvester Stallone never gets much respect as a director, but he's far more accomplished than most realize.
The fight scenes and training montages are the highlights and hallmarks of the series with Bill Conti's score pumping throughout, and work well in this film. They are a stark contrast to Rocky's home life, much of it being spent at a hospital as Adrian lays in a coma. These home life scenes are much slower paced, yet equally as interesting and we see the characters of Rocky and Adrian further fleshed out from the first film.
The script, also by Stallone, blends action, drama and humor effortlessly and for the most part is fast paced, though some early scenes drag on a little. The script remains very faithful to the feel and tone of the first and is not merely a continuation. Further developing the Rocky character, adds much more to the story... from his spending spree... to driving

Stallone and Shire, along with Burt Young, Carl Weathers and Burgess Meredith, solidify their performances from the first Rocky and build upon them.

The climactic battle is very well shot. I'm not sure if Stallone or Weathers actually took the hits to the head in the ring or not. The perfect camera angles are used to fudge it if they don't actually get hit. The fight is suspenseful, even though having seen this film 20 years ago, I knew how it ended.

Rocky II is a surprisingly good sequel, but I won't call it a 'knockout' because that would be too corny.