Rocky III

More sequel than the other Sequel before it.

If you are familiar with the Evil Dead Franchise and the Return of the Living Dead franchise, part two of both of these movies where not so much sequels but almost remakes of the original. It’s like both franchises had a very successful 1st run and decided to use the money to do the original like they actually wanted to do.

Now technically, Rocky II was its own original story, that just followed the formula of the original to perfection (with the exception, spoiler!: Rocky’s not gonna loose twice.). It makes II just as dramatic as the 1st (but the formula was too much of a copy cat for II to go down in history like the 1st did).

Rocky III is on the other hand different. Different in the sense that all sequels are made to make money but Rocky III seems not to hide that this is a cash cow they are making.  Written and Directed by Sylvester Stallone (who was not gonna have it any other way at this point in his career), the action hero brings that action style to the thirds installment .

We should have know something was up when the film starts out with Rocky doing a charity match with Hulk Hogan (Who when the movie was coming out was about to become a superstar far beyond wrestling). Actually the movie starts out with a montage (which along with the Karate kid is the reason we make fun of fighting montages), Despite in the last movie Rocky could barely see out of his left eye, Mickey’s training to make Rocky right handed rather than a Southpaw (left handed) somehow made him just fine to keep fighting ten more times to defend the title, but as it turns out Mickey was picking dudes who did not have what it takes to defeat the one eyed stallion which is why he got his ass handed to him by Clubber Lang, (played by Mr. T who like Hogan was about to become an 80s phenomenon). As we saw as part of the fighting montage Rocky got soft because the money and fame put him on a new lane while Clubber was the hungry contender Balboa was in the 1st flick.

Another spoiler: then Mickey dies starting a trend of Rocky losing one person whose close to him in every sequel and former rival Apollo Creed comes in to train Rocky to get that eye of the tiger back in what I feel was the moment that made the bromance cool.

Such a beautiful moment.

Compared to Rocky I and II, Rocky III is stylish and fast pace, in other words a perfect sequel. It’s substance is questionable in comparison of the original which was a cinema milestone, but give the third one credit for being a great movie, even if it’s because it’s bloated with all the cool 80s stuff when know the kids will like. It works towards Sly’s  Stardom, putting a little touch of Rambo on Rocky and making it overall more action packed. introduced two of my childhood favorites, those MTV influenced montages stay in your head like a music video and  you can never get the movie’s song Eye of the Tiger out of your head it was perfect.

Ding Ding!