With sequel, Stallone goes one more round

The fifth sequel to 1976's 'Rocky' is actually pretty good.
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
If the original "Rocky" taught us anything, it's that it isn't always about winning. Sometimes it's just about finishing the fight with your head held high.
Thirty years and five sequels later, it still holds true.
"Rocky Balboa" could have been a painful disaster, a pathetic attempt by a once-potent movie star to resurrect his faded glory.
That it's not a gosh-awful mess is reason for celebration. That it's actually a pretty good movie is little short of a triumph.
Written, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, "Rocky Balboa" faithfully follows the formula of its predecessors. Forty-five minutes of setup is followed by 15 minutes of training montages and capped with 30 minutes of bone-jarring combat.
The fight unfolds with the comfortable predictability of an old-style Catholic Mass -- it starts with Rocky taking a whupping, and just when the ringside commentators have run out of adjectives to describe the pounding the Italian Stallion is taking, our man lashes out and floors his younger-stronger-taller-meaner opponent. Then the brawl begins in earnest.
What makes "Rocky Balboa" noteworthy is what happens in that first hour, before the slugging begins.
Sad life
We meet a wrinkled, puffy Rocky who spends a couple of hours each day at the grave of his beloved Adrian (he's there so often, he keeps a folding chair in the branches of a nearby tree).
He's moved out of the mansion and into a working-class row house, having sunk all his money into Adrian's, the Italian restaurant where he regales his Philly clientele with fight stories told so many times he could do it in his sleep.
His son, Robert (Milo Ventimiglia of TV's "Heroes"), isn't exactly estranged from Rocky, but he keeps his distance. The kid carries a big chip ... a common condition among the children of famous men.
"You cast a big shadow," Robert glumly observes.
And then there's Rocky's brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young), an embarrassing slob finally beginning to take stock of his wasted opportunities.
If the original "Rocky" was equal parts boxing movie and love story, "Rocky Balboa" comes close to being an elegy. A genuine sadness and sense of loss percolate through "Rocky Balboa's" opening hour, and Stallone takes an unhurried, quiet approach that may leave longtime fans of the series a bit restless.
Lured back to the ring
Then a TV sports network has a computer decide the outcome of an imaginary match between Rocky and the current heavyweight champ, Mason Dixon (real-life fighter Antonio Tarver). Rocky wins, which not only bugs Dixon -- who has never faced a significant opponent during his title reign -- but gives Rocky the idea of taking up the sweet science once again.
As he explains to Paulie, he's still got "stuff in the basement" that needs to come out.
The upshot is a Las Vegas charity exhibition match between Rocky and Dixon. It doesn't remain an exhibition match for long.
Along the way, Rock is reunited with son Robert and builds an extended family with a barmaid from the neighborhood (Geraldine Hughes) and her teenage son (James Francis Kelly III). There's a hint -- but just a hint -- that Rocky may have a romantic life after Adrian.
Technically the film is surprisingly creative, with some really impressive editing by Sean Albertson. The fight itself has been captured with digital cameras, and in many shots, you can see another cameraman recording the action from a different angle. In fact it appears that the first two rounds were shot in real time with multiple cameras while Stallone and Tarver wailed away on each other.
The decision: "Rocky Balboa" is the best "Rocky" movie since the original and a fitting final (we hope) tribute to one of the great American movie characters.