Rocky III : L'Œil du tigre

Despite the familiar narrative, Rocky III is still a great third installment that's funny, emotional and thrilling. Sylvester Stallone gives an incredible performance once again and his direction is great. Carl Weathers, Talia Shire and Mr. T are all great. It's extremely well filmed with intense and visceral fight scenes. It's also expertly paced and the music by Bill Conti is really good.

An unnecessary but entertaining chapter to the Rocky saga. Stallone laces up the gloves again. A very cliche and somewhat-misdirected plot, dialogue and moral knocks it down, but the energetic action and boxing drama and glory brings it back up and continues to swing to the final bell.

Acceptable follow-up in which Balboa is willing to risk his life against a violent boxer , Clubber Lang . Officially a sequel is most a rehash but happens to be a nice third chapter about Rocky saga with intimate Stallone . Interesting sequel that works every time and in which beloved Balboa is considering retirement , but he faces off a tough contender performed by Mister T (A Team) , being dethroned by the obnoxious , corpulent boxer , that's why Rocky sinks into a depression . Excessive confidence and complacency soon give rise to lose his heavyweight championship title . Two-bit fighter Rocky is now almost retired and has hit rock bottom , but he rises from ashes to fight a daring contender . About to be retired from boxing and back from riches to ring , Rocky takes on a new combat . Although he is homaged as one of the greatest boxing champions in the history also is panned as a down-and-out fighter . Then , ¨The Italian Stallion¨ , the one time champion , returns to take on the ultimate boxing combat , as he comes out from retirement for fame and self-respect to combat the strongest , youngest and faster contender . While Rocky attempts to prove himself and his family , his wife (Talia Shire), brother-in-law (Burt Young) and his veteran trainer (Burguess Meredith) . Shortly after , Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) and Duke (Tony Burton) decide to train Rocky for a rematch against the brave and invincible opponent Lang , so Rocky can attempt to win the championship back .

This agreeable predictable entertainment displays splendidly the 'formula Rocky'. The movie works in usual manner , fitting appropriately to franchise , even though we know the plot the film works . This soaper on the ring is developed in gentleness , dignity , feel-good style as well as the initial outing . Great training montage and spectacular and climatic final bout . Writer-director-actor Stallone new entry is surprisingly entertaining and packs good feeling . Usual and nostalgic musical score by Bill Conti and atmospheric cinematography by Bill Butler . The motion picture was lavishly financed by the producers of complete saga , Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and well directed by Stallone who along John G. Avildsen created the six Rocky saga.

In previous and subsequent entries the contenders were the followings : ¨Rocky I¨ and ¨II¨ was Carl Weathers ; ¨Rocky III¨ the fast-mouthed and cruel boxer Mister T ; ¨Rocky IV¨ against a massive Russian boxer played by Dolph Lundgren ; ¨Rocky V¨ in which Rocky , nicknamed as the Chicken Stallion , lives from records being ostracized , but our hero returns as a coach , as Rocky goes back despite his own cerebral damage through a rematch on the streets , as he fights Tommy 'Machine' Gunn/Tommy Morrison ; meanwhile , the champ must adjust to his family's new life on bankruptcy ; subsequently ¨Rocky Balboa¨ proving his estranged young son Milo Ventiglimia who still can fight . And , finally , ¨Creed¨ in which Rocky eventually agrees to mentor Adonis , son of the known boxing champion Apollo Creed . Rating : Good , being impossible to dislike , the result is deliciously corny agreeable and predictable amusement . Although we've seen it all before , Sylvester manages to make it work one more time and it works every way even better than successive Rockys .

30 minutes shorter than its predecessors-- according to audience reactions I still disagree with, that's the same curse that held "Superman IV" in Hollywood Purgatory (or maybe lower).

Thank heavens "Rocky III" is still an enjoyable piece of work!

For Stallone's second shot in the director's chair, he pits his famous character against Clubber Lang, a testosterone-oozing Mr. T. The trouble is, has Rocky grown complacent in light of his massive celebrity?

While it does stick to something of a formula, R3 still comes out swinging, with more humor and better drama than the first two, but doesn't reach the cheer-inspiring fever pitch of the second.

A worthwhile entry.

At the age of 42 and as a self-professed life-long film buff and movie critic, I am a little embarrassed to admit that I only this week got around to watching the ROCKY films in order from the start. Unexpectedly, this one stood out to me as the most enjoyable, though I did appreciate the heart of the first movie and the catharsis of the second.

There's plenty to love in this film but I'll get a few of the problems out of the way first. For one, Stallone seems to have shed much of the character he'd so carefully crafted in the first two movies. Now that it was the 1980's, Stallone had a whole different look and persona to him, and Rocky here feels a lot less like the fictional character and more like Stallone himself. It's a bit off-putting but eventually the story overcomes this shortcoming.

The first third of the film drags in places, with Paulie and Adrian getting sidelined and simplified into caricatures. Paulie has started to morph into the unrefined comedy-relief sidekick kind of like John Santucci's character on "Crime Story". A few of his lines come off as so bizarre, idiotic, and off-character that they would briefly pull me out of the movie.

That said, the film really excites like no other boxing movie I have seen, and that includes RAGING BULL. Right out of the gate, the movie hits hard with some well-edited montages set to "Eye of the Tiger", an extremely catchy 80's jingle whose lyrics stand as the heart of this movie. Sure there's a couple annoying title-drops from Apollo later in the film and it's a bit-heavy handed, but this is a movie about boxing, right? The way Mr. T hungrily eyes Rocky's boxing success while the theme plays fits like a glove.

Stallone's charm (which is substantial) gets eclipsed by newcomer Mr. T as the villain Clubber Lang. I remember Mr. T being a big deal when I was a kid in the early 80's between "The A-Team" and his cartoon show where he goes around fighting crime with a van full of plucky kids. It's easy to see how this movie put him on the map as his rough, unfiltered, improvisational demeanor and ogre-like facial contortion make him hard to take your eyes off of.

Narratively, I love that things are not so straight-forward as the first two movies and I was made to feel sympathy both for Rocky and Clubber. Both trade places being underdogs and high on their own victorious ego at various places in the movie. It wouldn't work as well without the acting talent, the streamlined story structure, and Stallone's own direction which exemplifies a surprisingly perfect command of how to emotionally connect with the audience.

A triumph of boxing movies and sports-related films in general.