“Creed”
Academy
Award Winner Sylvester Stallone revives once again his “Rocky” franchise tale
with his 7th story about his iconic persona aka “Italian Stallone”
aka Rocky Balboa. Only in this latest effort the title of this film is called
“Creed” which is named after Rocky’s very first nemesis “Apollo Creed” who after
the first four films went from being in the ring mutual combatants to best of friends
until Apollos Creed’s surprising death at the hands of the super Russian Boxer named
Ivan Drago (as if you didn’t already know all this already).
In
this installment Director Ryan Coogler’s who directed the critically acclaimed “Fruitville
Station” and who looks a lot like the lead actor Michael B. Jordan, the story “Creed”
revolves around a smart and up and coming boxer named Adonis Johnson (Jordan) who
was born out an affair Apollo Creed had with his mother. It also resulted in
Adonis never really knowing his famous heavyweight champion father who died
before he was born. Still, there’s no
denying that boxing is in his blood, so Adonis heads to Philadelphia, the site
of Apollo Creed’s legendary match with a tough upstart named Rocky Balboa.
Adonis
tracks Rocky (Stallone) down and asks him to be his trainer. Despite his insistence that he is out of the
fight game for good, Rocky sees in Adonis the strength and determination he had
known in Apollo—the fierce rival who became his closest friend.
So eventually and grudgingly so, Rocky agrees to
take him on. So we watch Rocky train the young fighter and with Rocky in his
corner, it isn’t long before Adonis gets his own shot at the title…but can he
develop not only the drive but also the heart of a true fighter, in time to get
into the ring?
PROS:
Also starring Tessa Thompson (“Selma,”) as Creed’s girlfriend Bianca, Phylicia
Rashad as Apollo’s widow; and English pro boxer and former three-time ABA
Heavyweight Champion Anthony Bellew as boxing champ “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, the
film “Creed” works big time. It captures the magic of the very first Rocky film
with the right amount of old school Rocky touches as well some modern touches to
keep a new generation of ephemeral minded film goers thoroughly engaged. The writing also works well as it deliberately and patiently develops the central charcter
relationships with realism allowing the viewer over time to seeing and hearing something
that is meaningful, with deep emotional consequences and honest humanity.
Also
kudos to Director Coogler, who directs his film with an authentic sense of the
moment and no preordained out comes. It takes you down an inevitable path of a big
fight at the end but you don’t really see it coming because of his fine hand at
directing what could have been just another
Rocky story completed exhausted of any new plots to sell.
CONS:
The editing in a few scenes seemed a bit too snappy and quick for my taste but
this is only in few instances and only bothers someone like me who has a sense
of what good editing can do to making a scene go from good to great to iconic.
Ultimately it’s no big deal in “Creed”.
CONCLUSION: “Creed”
has genuine earnestness at its core with real human warmth and crowd-pleasing
surprises. But the biggest surprise is actor Sly Stallone. Now hold on while I
go down stairs to get a hit of “Woodford Reserve” bourbon before I write any further,
I needed to make sure my mind is right before writing any further.
OK, I'm back and here it goes………….. Sly
Stallone, deserves an Oscar Nomination as Best Supporting Actor. Yes, Stallone cuts
through some of the corny and sometimes bravado laden dialog from some of his previous films, including some of the Rocky films, to deliver one of the most honest, weighty, moving
and stirring performance you will see all year. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.
He manages to capture what we like about his first
Rocky film which was that obscure guy who was both quiet and yet funny, but
above all filled with endearing optimism by just working hard and being honest and
kind to friends both in and out of the ring. He not only exhibits these same qualities
in “Creed”, he makes that occasional lumpy feeling jump in your throat as that occasional
slightly slurred speech “lug of a guy” you just want to root for again all because
he is just loveable nice.
“Creed” is crafted with a lot of smarts that
over time earns the viewer’s trust in that you are seeing real people on the
big screen who are putting their real affections and real honesty on the line
for others they care about. In the end just as with the first Rocky film it all
comes together to do some heartstring-tugging on your soul.
I hope “Creed” is the last film for this
series, but something tells me it won’t be – hey people in Hollywood will
always want to make more money if they can, so I am guessing there will be more
coming now.
Still, do not pass up this “Creed” just because
you have some preconceived notions about this being another recycled clichéd Rocky
film; no go see it in the theater for the well-choreographed action, good
acting and moving story.
In the end “Creed” is “IN-CREED-IBLE” entertainment
for 2015.
3 – 3/4 Stars
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