ROCKY II

Starring, written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. Also starring Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Burt Young, and Burgess Meredith. Running time 120 minutes. Budget $7 mil. Box office: $200 mil. Originally released in 1979. Soundtrack once again by Bill Conti.
Not as good as the original. Sly does everything in this film, from starring in it, to writing it, and directing it. The showdown between Creed and Rocky in their climatic battle is superb though, exceeding the original and makes you cheer.

But the trouble is before we get there, Sly has to fill up 92 minutes of film and to do it he just puts Rocky through the emotional meat grinder. And unfortunately it seems that Sly fell in love with the character Rocky (who can blame him) and can't quite make his decline too terrible, so the grinder is set on slow and the drama is really mild - Rocky can't get an office job, so has to go to the meat packing plant where Paulie used to work, Rocky gets mildly ribbed at the gym, Rocky gets heckled on a street corner. Rocky has a slight quibble with Adrian about wanting to fight again, Mickey kindly explains to Rocky that his fighting days are over, before we're rocked by Adrian's coma, following the birth of their son, that lasts for days, and which, it seems we have to witness each and every minute of. Plus that very long sequence where Rocky spends all his money on watches, cars, houses and coats. Indeed, despite being two minutes shorter than Rocky, this outing drags and feels like a much longer film. However all is forgiven when finally in the third act – Rocky gets his groove on and we get the obligatory training montage that culminates in the run through Phili' and that triumphant dash up the 72 stairs of Philadelphia Museum of Art trailed by 800 kids and we're back in Rocky's corner and rooting for him. 

Then it's on to the big fight and what a fight it is. Brilliantly filmed and edited, it's powerful and brutal, although utterly implausible, that many blows to the head are gonna kill you. This is when the film finally comes to life and you find yourself rooting for Rocky, cheering him on. And when he wins, it feels like we've won too.

I'm fascinated by Paulie, as played by Burt Young. He's such an interesting character and in this film finally lands his dream job of breaking fingers for the local loan shark, Tony Gazzo (Joe Spinell), it's a job that really seems to suit Paulie and he looks sharp and has even managed to lose weight.
Friendships in films often get over looked for the more obvious one between lovers, but I'm fascinated by friend dynamic and the one between Rocky and Paulie is fascinating. 

7/10