They just ran the Oscars, so what better time to discuss the late 80s classic ROCKY III?
Actually, I will get to that, but I do want to spend a minute talking about the Oscars.
I'll make this brief, but I thought overall it was a damn fine show with an incredibly slow middle. I guess I was okay with the idea that they'd cut the nominated film song segments, but only to be replaced with REALLY bad musical segments? Like the retarded opening Neil Patrick Harris had us endure? (I love NPH, but c'mon!)
Alec Baldwin was fun. He didn't seem to have much in the way of actual material, but he's so likable it was just nice to have him up there. Steve Martin...making "THE JERK" references...oh, boy. The two of them together...I don't know. ABC should have Jimmy Kimmel host the Oscars. I've been saying that for years and I promise he'd be better than the last five years of hosts put together, but I digress.
I don't have that much to say about the show really, except that my favorite film of the year, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE was a complete shut out from nominations and my other favorite film of the year INGLORIOUS BASTERDS did well with the supporting actor category but I thought QT's screenplay would take it home.
The ten nominated films thing didn't seem to really matter ultimately as the whole night was really posited between two films: Avatar and The Hurt Locker. I loved Avatar for what it was - an incedible movie going experience that was like taking an LSD trip but without the flashbacks. Hurt Locker was a real movie and incredibly well made, but frankly it left me cold so, I had no real dog in this race (as Mel Gibson likes to say.)
The IN MEMORIAM section is usually the most moving, and for the 2nd year in a row, Oscar really fucked it up. Last year they didn't bother to train a camera on the images so it looked like it was coming through on a shakey cell phone. This year there was more of James Taylor than the people. Don't get me wrong, I love James Taylor. But I see a lot of him. When it comes to Oscar night, I want moving music and dead people.
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE swung back with their perennial AFTER THE OSCARS special and it had an ingenius openening "The Handsome Men's Club" and a great guest in Robert Downey Jr. and a particularly inspired segment with Christoph Waltz that paid tribute to the weirdest thing I've ever seen on Youtube. (the segment truly had balls and had the advantage of being a very knowing inside joke.) Go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyGJXLxtVEo
for the handsome man club segment and go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUbGcRJUDu0
for the Der Humpink piece (my favorite moment of the night.)
I'll say it again. ABC, have Kimmel host the Oscars.
ROCKY III
I watched this recently and had sort of a new take on it, since it has really been years since I'd really watched it. III is an iconic entry in the series as most people remember EYE OF THE TIGER and the Mr. T. stuff; but there was more to this than that. III was really a departure from Rocky and Rocky II in that it presented an entirely different Rocky. He was still a bit dopey and a very nice guy, but this time around, Rocky was chiseled and lean, better looking (a point they even make in the film about the character's use of plastic surgery) and Rocky seemed so on top of things philosophically he was miles away from the palooka we fell in love with in the original. Micky tells him early on "you got civilized, kid." I guess that's true. The relationship between Rocky and Mickey in this installment had truly crossed trainer/athlete into father and son territory. Lots of 80s style shots of Rocky on a bridge, thinking very intensely while the music swelled. Then there's the major re-tooling of the whole thing, with the introduction of Apollo Creed as Rocky's new trainer and best friend (frankly, they're almost lovers here.)
As I write this, I realize I can probably talk for hours on this film as it was such a game changer in the Rocky franchise. This one also had the unspoken idea that it was going to be the final chapter. That worked to its success thinking that this was the final part of the story. But for all the innovation in the movie, there are many steps backwards. Paulie has gone from a realistic Fishtown bum into a comic, fangless pain in the ass who, by the way, is unbelievably racist throughout the film. His entire comeuppance for his rampant racism after he tells Rocky point blank "I don't like these people." Rocky looks at him and says "Maybe they don't like you." Paulie then says "What did I do?"
Hilarious!
Even worse, after a disastrous training session with Apollo, Adrian comes to give Rocky the "let's go get 'em" speech that is present in every Rocky film to send Rocky's training into overdrive. This one is paricularly painful to watch. Having Adrian yell "what's the truth, damnit!" and Rocky yelling back "You want me to break this down for you. I'm afraid, dammit! I'm afraid!" After she tells him its okay to be afraid, Stallone's precision dialoge actually let's Rocky say "I REALLY love you."
Still, most of this film works exceedingly well, and while its not up to the grit and vigor of the first two masterpieces, it's certainly a finely tuned machine that not only goes through the formula, but invents some of it on the way. The fights are great but...am I the only one who realizes in the film that Clubber Lang kind of kills Mickey? (and whoever thought the Mick was Jewish! Oy vey!)
The movie doesn't make much of Rocky's transition from living in a tiny house to owning an insanely expansive mansion, it just kind of accepts it. I know there was something else about this film that I wanted to point out and I'm not remembering it...
Maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow, when I review the director's cut of KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE and the NIP/TUCK finale. I just spent way too much time on Rocky III and I need to get out and go train to some hard thumping Survivor!
Eye of the tiger!
GRADES:
OSCARS: B -
ROCKY III: A -
KIMMEL LIVE AFTER THE OSCARS: A +
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