Review of Rocky III (1982) by Will H — 21 Jun 2015

As Rocky Balboa moves into the 1980s, so do his movies, as Rocky III, from "Eye of the Tiger" to Mr. T as Clubber Lang to Hulk freaking Hogan as pro wrestler Thunderlips, is an 80s movie through and through.

Due to the triumphant ending of the second film, writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone must have known that he needed to shake things up for the third installment; no longer could Rocky be portrayed as an underdog, nor could Apollo Creed be his rival.

To remedy the sudden lack of tension, Stallone wisely decides to focus on the title character's sudden opulence, fame, and complacency with his heavyweight title. I also like the shift in Creed's character from rival to friend and trainer, and the sudden death of his trainer Mickey to add some personal stakes for the character in his second match with Lang.

Nevertheless, despite all these positives, the boxing matches are a little too unrealistic, and I find the whole affair to be a tad too silly, especially in comparison with the first two movies (Compared to Rocky IV, though, it's more serious than The Fighter).

Mr. T lacks dimensions and character that Carl Weathers brought (and still brings, albeit in a different way) to Creed, and while Mickey's death is felt, the whole affair is a little too contrived for me.

Stallone's script feels like it's searching for story ideas rather than simply flowing, and it lacks the character depth and emotional weight of the first two. Despite these complaints, Stallone's direction is adequate enough, and he still produces some of his finest acting work as Balboa.

Talia Shire's Adrian continues to further her position as Rocky's, well, rock, Weathers is still superb as Creed, Burt Young continues to serve both as friendship and comic relief in Paulie, and Burgess Meredith's final scenes onscreen are some of the saddest of the series.

As I said above, I don't care much for Mr. T here, but he's fun to watch, at the very least, and Bill Conti's score manages to evoke all the same notes it did in the previous movies (even if "Eye of the Tiger" comes off a little too cheesy).

Overall, I would consider Rocky III a worthwhile, if somewhat unnecessary, installment in the Rocky series, but then again, every one except the first could be considered as such (though II does bring a solid hand to the table).