Product Description

Columbia Pictures Rocky Balboa (Blu-Ray)
When he loses a highly publicized virtual boxing match to ex-champ "Rocky Balboa" (Sylvester Stallone), reigning heavyweighttitleholder Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver) retaliates by challenging the Italian Stallion to a nationally televised, 10-round exhibition bout. To the surprise of his son (Milo Ventimiglia, TV's "Heroes") and friends, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who's faster, stronger and thirty years his junior. With the odds stacked firmly against him, Rocky takes on Dixon in what will become the greatest fight in boxing history, ahard-hitting, action-packed battle of the ages!.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15294 in DVD
• Brand: Columbia Pictures
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
The sixth installment of the Rocky series picks up the story of the Italian Stallion 16 years after the morose Rocky V. And sure, at his advanced age, Sylvester Stallone now looks like one of those sides of beef his character used to pound on. No matter. Somehow you buy the premise after all these years, even if it takes forever for Rocky Balboa to stop wallowing in self-pity (Adrian is dead, his old haunts are demolished) and get down to the business of drinking raw eggs and running up staircases. The business at hand is an unlikely exhibition fight with champeen Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), which the near-sexagenarian Mr. Balboa has no business accepting. Of course, just as sure as the horns of Bill Conti's theme music are even now trumpeting through your head, the ol' Rock might have a punch or two left in him. Stallone wrote and directed, and there isn't much to say except that the movie steps in its pre-determined paces with a canny sense of what has come before (it's practically an homage to all the previous Rocky pictures, complete with fleeting flashbacks). Burt Young is around again, and Geraldine Hughes makes an appealing, rather chaste female companion for Rocky. Stallone's Rocky has gotten suspiciously articulate over the years, but he still knows how to slouch. If Stallone never forgets that, he can probably keep the franchise rolling. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

The Final Bell
I know alot of people thought that Sylvester Stallone was too old to play Rocky Balboa. I thought that he did a good job in "Rocky Balboa". Stallone did a good job of wraping up the Rocky franchise. I think that Rocky Balboa is just as good (if not better)than some of the other Rocky movies.
I reccomend that before watching "Rocky Balboa" you watch the first Rocky movie. The reason why is because there is alot of referances back to the first Rocky movie.

Saving Rocky
Sylvester Stallone is feeling nostalgic lately. Between "Rocky Balboa" and the latest Rambo installment, he's trying to resurrect past glories and reconfirm that his skills as a writer/director/actor are worth recalling as solid. "Rocky Balboa" goes a long way towards re-establishing Stallone's credibility for the better.

"Rocky Balboa" is a well done, feel good sixth chapter, redeeming the sometimes absurdity of the later Rocky films. Rocky is an older man, he's lost his Adriane but named his restaurant after her, has a son who hates living in a shadow. (Weird irony - years ago when Weird Al did a Rocky parody song to Eye of The Tiger, he sang about Rocky opening a deli.) But 'Rock' wants one more chance to show what he's made of after a simulated "Then Vs Now" simulation shows a fight between Rocky and current champ Mason Dixon.

Cue Bill Conti and Stallone is sweats. Virtually a tribute to previous Rocky flicks (complete with multiple flashbacks and Burt Young/Paulie), the movie offers feel-good comments and philosophical asides like a zen-boxing Master. Rocky befriends Marie (Geraldine Hughes) and her son as an antidote to his loneliness, but is far too honorable to move beyond just helping her out. Showing the arrogant champ that the must important muscle being a real champ has is his heart. Proving to glib cynical sportscasters that age is just a number. The movie is very predictable, refuses to play into a maudlin ending, and - most importantly - absolves Stallone from the last few years of sleepwalking through his 90's movies.

Interesting note - the filming in Philadelphia had already wrapped when a snowstorm hit that day, and the opportunity for more dramatic settings had arrived. The crew quickly grabbed a camera and filmed an impromptu re-shoot of the street-running scenes, ending with Rocky charging up the steps of the Art Museum in the driven snow.

Win by losing?
This movie is about 'heart'; to take it and still fight back.
Boxing is a bad metaphor for it as the current legal
situation is a financially mediated joke with three recognized champions.
Most people have turned to things like kung fu, karate or kick boxing:
even women's boxing has more draw than a fixed or fixated heavy weight
fight. So why do we still see the hopes of the fighters as
something we will watch? Am I spoiling it by saying Rocky loses?
But he also delivers his message of heart and courage one more time.
I can't give it more than three stars because it
is the same old same old...with a new younger woman for love interest.