Rocky III (1982)

I don't know what you want me to say. I mean, what happened? How did everything that was so good get so bad?

*** This review contains spoilers ***

Rocky is reigning World Champion and is dispatching all comers to his crown with ease. But looming in the distance is Clubber Lang, a young and hungry boxer intent on becoming the new champ.

Pretty safe enjoyment for anyone into the fantastical world of Sly Stallone's Rocky Balboa franchise. Into the narrative this time comes a new boxer, portrayed with relish by Mr. T, a revelation that cuts Rocky to the quick, and personal grief when his mentor and friend Mickey (Burgess Meredith) dies (Stallone doing brilliant believable grief). Back comes Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, only this time he wants to train Rocky to beat the mighty Clubbe...

OK, fair play would have to say that Rocky I and II were better films... but this had Mr. T in it and given that he was one of my childhood favorites I feel horrible not giving it 10 of 10.

It was a decent film and Mr. T does a great bad guy (even though the kid in me hates to see him in a villainous role). And we get Action Jackson back, which always makes it feel like a Rocky film.

Where this differs from I and II is in the characters... they don't take much time to develop them further. The plot is centered almost entirely around the fight and that kind of makes me miss the depth of the first two... however, it is just as inspiring, it is just as motivating, and in a way that only Rocky films can really pull off.

And again we get to see Rocky as the perpetual underdog that has ...

While Rocky III may have the weakest story of the series thus far, it is still able to create unique and believable obstacles for Rocky Balboa as he nears the end of his boxing career.

To start off, the acting is very inconsistent in this film. Our leads, Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, and Carl Weathers, do an excellent job and improve with each entry. But our antagonist (Mr. T) is bad. He does not get very much screen time, and when he does, he is spouting generic lines in his weird-tempo talk. He was physically intimidating but lacked the emotional ferocity that Rocky and Apollo possessed.

The story is the weakest, but it still manages to deliver great moments of depth and character progression for our protagonist. It takes similar themes from the last film (lack of confidence an...