"Rocky" is Still a Stone Cold Classic

My son has been on a kick lately watching older sports movies. He told me awhile ago that he wanted to see the stuff that I used to watch when I was his age. I have shown him some of my favorites, and he has found some newer stuff, based on older sports movies, that he has gotten quite into.

One such series of movies is "Creed". He loves those movies. I've only seen the first one, which is great, and I plan on seeing the other two very soon. But since he has this newfound love of "Creed", his uncle and I decided he should see the original "Rocky".

We showed him the movie this past Saturday, which he loved, but I had a whole different experience watching this time around. I have seen all of the original "Rocky" movies a bunch. My mom loves the first one. My dad is into 2 and 3. "Rocky 4" is hilariously ridiculous, and 5 is just flat out awful. But my kid had to start at the top, and I'm glad he did. I have not seen "Rocky" in a long time, so I made sure this go round had my full attention.

This movie is so different from what I used to recall. The movie opens with a fight, and then we do not see Rocky box again until he fights Apollo Creed, at the very end of the movie. The in between is so different from my memories. I thought this movie was all boxing all the time. It most definitely is not. After the opening fight we get to see the everyday life of Rocky Balboa. We see him doing his job, which is working for a loan shark. We see his apartment. We see how he lives his life. We see him constantly hitting on Adrienne. I always thought they were already a couple when the movie kicked off. That is not the case. There's a whole courtship and everything. Rocky has to really work to get Adrienne to go on a date with him. He is very persistent, almost to the point of harassment. But this movie was made in a very different time. I'm not excusing it, but "Rocky" came out 50 years ago.

I also found that I liked the pacing of the movie. They really make you sit in this world. You really get to know everyone and everything they seem to do day to day. I also never remembered that Pauly was a flat out drunk. He drinks constantly and his mood swings come at you a mile a minute. I was always a fan of Mick growing up. I used to have to do impressions of him for my family when I was a kid. But now I really got an understanding of his character and why he talks to Rocky the way he does throughout the movie. Mick used to be a fighter. He used to have real feelings that Rocky could make it. But he also sees that he doesn't have the discipline or the knowhow.

What surprised me the most was Slyvester Stallone. I know Stallone as the guy that was in horrible 90's action movies. I did not like those movies at all. You can go check out our other podcast First Watch Rewatch and you can hear me talk about the movie "Cobra". His "Judge Dredd" movie is terrible. Any attempts he had at comedy all fell flat. But he is genuinely exceptional in "Rocky". He brings it. He acts the hell out of that role. I was all in on his performance. And throw in the fact that he wrote the movie, man the dude used to be incredibly talented. I wonder what happened along the way. When we get to that final fight, all the stuff leading up to it, it makes that final act all the better. You feel for Rocky. You see Apollo struggling because he didn't take the fight seriously enough, figuring he would steam roll Rocky. By the way, Carl Weathers is great in this movie as well. He was such a good actor and the fact that he's gone now really bums me out.

"Rocky" is a wonderful movie. They do not make movies like this anymore, and while I understand why, they should maybe go back to this slow, simmering style of a movie. That would be neat to see. And the fight choreography was second to none here. The fights looked real and I loved that about the movie. If you haven't seen "Rocky", or haven't watched it in awhile, go check it out. It is a classic for a reason. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Oscar Nominations Came Out Today, and They Mostly Suck

I am not sure the Oscars really know what is good.

I know I promised everyone a greatest American band blog today, but I'm putting that off until next week. There's bigger fish to fry for me today.

The Oscar nominations were handed out this morning and I have two big, big problems with the nominees. First off, why all the white people again? Do the people who vote on these awards think that there are no people of color that act in movies these days? There were a decent number of people that were well deserving of, at the very least, a nomination. What about Samuel L Jackson for his performance in "Hateful 8"? He was awesome. What about Michael B Jordan in "Creed"? Stallone gets nominated, but the lead of this great movie gets no love? That's lame. And even though the movie "Concussion" didn't have its desired effect and wasn't very good, Will Smith was excellent and totally deserved a nomination. I guess the people that give out the nominations are racist, old white people that wish it was still 1950. It's a shame that they refuse to nominate actors that aren't white, especially in 2016. It's upsetting to be frank. I wonder how long it will actually take for actors of color to get their due. It's time, and there are so many great African American, Asian, Indian and so on and so forth of any ethnicity well deserving. I'm sick of all the same white people being nominated. I'm done with Meryl Streep and Matt Damon and Jennifer Lawrence being the people that get nominated no matter how bad or repetitive their performances are. Eddie Redmayne belongs with the people I mentioned above too. I'll take Michael B Jordan, Will Smith and Samuel L Jackson any day over the four actors I just mentioned.

Second issue, my biggest problem, why is Charlize Theron not nominated for her role, Furiosa, in "Mad Max: Fury Road"? How on earth does this happen? How was Jennifer Lawrence's performance in "Joy" aka "Silver Linings Playbook 2", more deserving than Theron? Or Cate Blanchette in a movie I've never heard of, "Carol", more deserving? In fact, Brie Larson in "Room" is the only one that I have no problem with being nominated. "Mad Max: Fury Road" got a ton of nominations, but none for acting. That's wrong. Theron was the best actor in the best movie of the year, possibly of all time. She was so fantastic and perfect in her role. She played the part expertly. She was tough when needed, vulnerable when needed, sad and angry when needed, basically, whatever George Miller asked of her, she did it and did it phenomenally. She was so, so great in this movie. I know it's called "Mad Max", but Furiosa, not Max, was the star and leader of this movie. This may be one of the biggest snubs of all time in Oscar history. I just don't get what else she could have done. Maybe the movie needed to be foreign, or she needed some kind of disease, or she needed some kind of smaller indie role that the academy loves now. That's all bullshit. Why won't they reward the actors from the movie that's widely considered the best movie of the year? It makes absolutely no sense at all. I wrote before, and I still believe, Theron not only deserved the nomination, but she 100 percent deserves the Oscar. There was no better performance all year from anyone, man, woman or child. Theron was head and shoulders above anyone that's been nominated this year. Another shame.

I guess I should know by now to be disappointed in what this dumbass academy does every year. They clearly don't care for minorities and they are just flat out wrong when it comes to nominating actors and actresses. You'd think they'd be more conscious in the 21st century, but they're still racist and stupid.

The morons that give out these nominations suck.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He was once nominated for a grade school acting award, but lost it to the kid playing tree #2. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.