(2/3/2005) When I first saw this movie on "Showtime", I didn't think I was gonna be impressed. After all, up to that point I had only seen Jon Favreau in "Rudy" and "Swingers". I couldn't reconcile the guy who played those somewhat neurotic characters with Rocky Marciano, at least not in my head. So it was a pleasant surprise when I watched the movie... Jon Favreau did a great job playing the undefeated champ, Rocky Marciano. I don't know how he did it, but his body looked liked a chiseled heavyweight's!

But where this cable movie really shines is in the character department. There's Favreau as the champ, of course, who trains hard and dreams of getting out of Brockton, Mass., even when everybody tries to put dampers on his dreams; George C. Scott really stands out as Rocky's father, an aging shoemaker who both inspires and is inspired by his son. The best scenes are between the father and son, except for the scene where Rocky finally attains one dream and climbs into the ring for his fight with Joe Louis. Jon Favreau does a great job of expressing Marciano's complex feelings with a simple look, such as when Marciano feels both happy, sad, disappointed and elated when he beats an aging, over-the-hill Joe Louis (oh, what, it's not like I'm giving anything away that didn't happen 50-some-odd years ago).

The boxing choreography itself, well... I wasn't floored or anything, but if you can sit through the (other) "Rocky" movies and tolerate the fight choreography, then this one won't trouble you.

Recommended - ****½, rounded up to 5 stars

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Created May 05, 2009 at 9:49pm • Submit your own review...