bluetoast

Pushing 30 is fine, he was around 13 in the intro scene which was in 1998. Rocky was also around 30 in the first movie.

Cardsfan111

Caught it today and thought it was great. Both Stallone and Jordan were excellent. It's interesting reading everyone's thoughts on the fight sequences. As I watched, I kept thinking it was unique in the way they were shot.

johnnysd

True, so he was supposed to be the correct age. He played much younger.

Guru Askew

I think it's pretty safe to say that he legitimately wasn't able to do it, probably health/age reasons. They cleared footage of him and Adonis's trainer early in the movie in LA was said to be Duke's son which would make it pretty likely that the part was written as Duke and slightly re-written when he wasn't available.

The timeline in these movies is all messed up. Before RB the sequels tended to pick up where immediately after where their predecessors left off but with the characters aging in real-time. The most obvious example of this is Rocky returning from Russia in V to find his son has aged 5 years.

JZ1276

Just saw this tonight. I guess they put Rocky's statue back up (in RB, Paulie had mentioned his statue was taken down). Also, they made Rocky seem like he aged 20-30 years since RB, which was less than 10 years ago.

Artman

Wondered that myself, here's the Rocky statue wiki pg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Steps

Apparently, they had removed it, but just before Rocky Balboa came out...they relocated it at the bottom of the steps.

Rocky looked 9yrs older (from the last film) to me.

devilshalo

My only complaint was that Rocky really dismisses his son. I understand it was a somewhat stressful relationship as seen in Rocky Balboa, but I can't imagine him wanting not to tell him about the cancer.

Oh and the Karate Kid ending where Conlin passes the mantle. I'd rather see it where Conlin is still an asshole and vacates the titles setting up Creed/Stuntman to for the interim championship. Probably a rematch after that and then Conlin again when he gets out.

It's funny, haven't had the theater really into the boxing like that since Rocky IV. The fight with Sporino being a highlight.

DJariya

Sly turns 70 next year. I thought he looked his age. When he filmed Rocky Balboa he was 59-60 years old. Only when Rocky went into treatment for the cancer did it appear that he aged a little more (the hair got grayer), but I think that comes with the territory with the treatment.

Yeah the timeline for Rocky III through V is all jacked up. The films were released over 8 years, but they all seem to take place within a year of each other.

Only now Rocky Balboa and now Creed seem to take place in the time they were released.

DJariya

I tried looking up the timeline of the Rocky series, but there are no definitive articles. This is what Wiki claimed the timeline was:

Timeline
Rocky: November 25, 1975 - January 1, 1976
Rocky II: January 1, 1976 - November 27, 1976
Rocky III: Spring 1981 - Early 1982
Rocky IV: Early 1982 - December 25, 1985
Rocky V: December 25, 1985 - January 1990
Rocky Balboa: January 11, 2005 - Early Spring 2005

The time jumps in IV and V seem huge. An article I read said that Apollo died around August 1985 at age 42. And I recall Rocky's fight with Drago did take place during Christmas.

I re-watched Rocky III last night and Mick did pass away in 1981 according to his memorial plaque.

Adonis was approx. 13 in 1998, so that does jive with the timeline that Apollo died in 1985.

Mondo Kane

BTW, regarding the result of the secretive Balboa/Creed 3rd fight:
Anyone else think that Rocky lied about who the winner was? The way he paused to give the answer was an indication. Plus, he must have thought that answer would be capable of swaying Adonis away from training him.

JZ1276

In Rocky Balboa, his age was never mentioned, and neither was the year it was supposed to have taken place. I remember the only clue as to the time it took place was hearing that Killers song in the bar that his son was in so it took place in 2004 or after.
Assuming Creed takes place 8 years after Rocky Balboa, IMO not only did he look much older (before he started getting treatment), but at one point he said he couldn't hold the pads while training Donnie, but his last fight was just 8 years ago. Anyway, I'm nitpicking, thought the movie was great.

DJariya

Creed takes place in 2015. When Adonis was in Mexico, there was a graphic that said it was 2015



Adrian died in 2002 as seen on this tombstone and Paulie died in 2012. It's believed that Rocky Balboa took place around 2005-2006. 20-30 years older is a little exaggerated. I thought Rocky looked liked someone in his mid to late 60's.

Only Rocky III, which took place around 1981 (which I re-watched last night) It was mentioned that Rocky was 34. Thus, that would make him 68 in 2015.

JeremyM

I'm a little off on what happened when in the film, but I think the deal with him not being able to hold the pads and so forth was supposed to be a subtle sign that he wasn't feeling well, and for those of us up on our Rocky, we might think the same way you did, that he was just fighting 8-10 years ago.

One little cheat was that the restaurant was always empty--in Rocky Balboa, it's clear that he has good relationships with his staff. But to show that on screen would've given him one potential reason for wanting to live--and I like to think that Little Marie is still working there, with Spider doing dishes. I know that's not the same as losing your family, but I assume they kept the place empty for a reason.

The relationship with his son was definitely an awkward part of the movie.

One funny thing about the Rocky world--Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson exist in it.

Shannon Nutt

I don't think it was a matter of wanting to live versus having a reason to. He saw what Adrian went through with her treatment and didn't want his last days to be like that. I had a friend when I was a kid who's mother died of cancer and the father got cancer a few years after her death...he refused treatment for basically the same reasons, he didn't want to go through it.

boredsilly

Saw this today and loved it. I agree that the boxing scenes, which I enjoyed, left me wanting a little bit. They almost looked too choreographed. When Creed and Ricky were trading blows in one of the later rounds it felt a little video-gamey. But this is only a minor complaint, but I do think the boxing in the older Rocky movies was better, however the boxing in Creed was definitely exciting.

A very personal complaint I have is that they didn't use Victory by Puffy/Biggie for Creed's training montage. Maybe it would have been too on the nose, but it would have made me so happy if they did. For those that don't know, it samples Bill Conti's Going the Distance, and is just a hard ass track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJAgGB7jKZU

Otherwise, I loved this movie. Jordan was great. Sly was great. Really liked the chemistry/relationship between Creed and Bianca.

OldBoy

great rendition!

Defiant1

Saw it tonight and loved it. It would be awesome to see Stallone get an Oscar nom, or hell even a win for this. Jordan was fantastic as well. Special props to the outstanding musical score by Ludwig Goransson.

Can't believe it's been almost 40 years since the original. To see Rocky go from a boxer in his prime to an aged man with one foot in the grave is something else.

hasslein

I never cared about baby Creed or his girl, and only wanted him to win because Rocky did. I thought the villain and Stallone were great, but the end fight was anticlimactic and I docked a full star for the go get em/pass torch exchange.

JeremyM

True, valid point, but he did also mention that everyone he cared for is gone (he gave a speech about putting rainbows and sunshine in a bag or something).

devilshalo

I still think it's weird that he dismisses his son that easily.

Solid Snake

hey, man. That's life. It ain't perfect. Rocky ain't either. The kid has his own life and had to be his own man out of Philly. Got a wife and such. Them's the breaks.

boredsilly

Yeah, it's harsh, but some families just don't stay families forever. It doesn't make a ton of sense when you factor in what happened in Rocky Balboa though, since Rock and his son seemed to reform some sort of bond, but I can buy that they just had a moment their but ended up growing apart again.

B5Erik

Caught this today and my daughter and I both loved it. It's one of the best Rocky movies.

And if Stallone doesn't at least get nominated for his performance in Creed he will have been robbed. It's one of his best performances - maybe his best. He can act when the part calls for it, and this one did.

The Antipodean

I really hadn't expected much of this (I was still annoyed it wasn't called "Rocky VII" before I saw it) but wow, what a nice surprise. I don't know about this whole "best Rocky since the first one" business (but then again I'm a huge fan of the bombastic cheese of Rocky III and IV) but it certainly hits all the right notes, and while it's not exactly a surprising movie, it is a deeply comforting one for us old Rocky fans. Who would've thought we could get to watch Rocky actually grow old gracefully over "Rocky Balboa" and this? Stallone really is great here, and I really hope he at least gets a supporting actor nomination, and Jordan is excellent and almost makes me forget "Fantastic Four" ever existed. The story strikes the right note between being a Rocky valedictory and a reboot-spinoff sort of flick. And as a longtime Rocky fan I really loved all the callouts for cast members gone and not forgotten like Adrian, Pauly, Mickey and of course Apollo. One of the nicest surprises of 2015.

That all said, I'm not exactly kicking for a "Creed II." It felt to me like the story ended perfectly here, a nice long seven-movie cycle of Rocky's rise and fall and rise and redemption, and I don't really know if there's a need to see more of this universe.

The Antipodean

Also, I actually thought the scene about his son was good - he didn't dismiss him so much as admit he had his own life, and obviously there was a fair bit of subtext there too over Sage Stallone's real-life death with his picture prominently shown. Felt that scene was quite heartbreaking in its own way.