'Rocky Balboa': A Feel-Good Movie

When I saw the headline on Google last month I just chuckled and jumped to the next story. I was 12 when the third one was released and pretty much like all the other guys idolized the Italian Stallion. But a sixth Rocky movie? Get real.

Then this past week, a friend from work offered a ticket to a pre-screening. I caved. I figured I’d pay homage to my childhood hero, no matter how old Sylvester “Rocky” Stallone is (he’s 60).

Turns out my childhood hero came through—big time. The latest Rocky—titled Rocky Balboa (thank God they opted out of Rocky VI)—took me, and the entire theater of cheering and shouting fans for a ride.

Stallone brings out the better parts, the ones we all miss, from the original Rocky movies. Rocky is an underdog again. His life is grittier. His apartment is good and cramped—like the two ugly turtles with no swimming room in the fish tank by his bed.

The Philadelphia streets outside his window have all gone down the tubes. He walks down them like he’s connected again to the goons by the piers in Rocky—you know, a thumb in one pocket and a few pinkies in the other.

Rocky is again gulping down raw eggs. He probably stands no prayer at winning the fight that I won’t tell you about, but it doesn’t matter. I was again lost like a 6-year-old boy in the character of Rocky. I was Rocky. I could do it. I could make it. Dig deep. All that stuff.

I noticed something else about Rocky that I never really knew as a kid. He’s a good man. People insult him and he tries to find a way for them to save face. He’s good to his neighbors. He’s good to his pets. Strangers seem to always hold assumptions about him, but he doesn’t return the distaste. Decency. He presents all the good wrapped up in the traditional Italian-Catholic community.

Rocky Balboa, which hits theaters nationwide Wednesday, Dec. 20, is a feel-good movie that’s well worth the tribute to Stallone.

By Steven Ghiringhelli, assistant news editor of Charisma magazine, charismamag.com.