ROCKY BALBOA (FILM)

'''Rocky Balboa''' (or Rocky VI) is a 2006 film written, co-produced and directed by Slyvester Stallone who also stars as underdog boxer Rocky Balboa. It is the sixth and final film in the ''Rocky'' series, which began with the Oscar-winning ''Rocky'' thirty years earlier in 1976. The film portrays Balboa in retirement, a widower living in Kensington, Philadelphia, and the owner and operator of an Italian restaurant in the city called "Adrian's", named after his late wife.
''Rocky Balboa'' was produced as the final sequel to the Academy Award-winning ''Rocky''. According to Sylvester Stallone, he was "negligent" in the production of ''Rocky V'' and it left him, and many of the fans, disappointed with the presumed end of the series. Stallone also mentioned that the storyline of ''Rocky Balboa'' parallels his own struggles and triumphs in recent times.^[1]
In addition to Stallone, the film stars Burt Young as Paulie, Rocky's brother-in-law, and Antonio Tarver as Mason Dixon, the heavyweight division champion in the film. It also features the return of two minor characters from the original movie into larger roles in this film: Marie, the young woman that Rocky attempts to steer away from trouble; and Spider Rico, the first opponent that Rocky is shown fighting in the original movie. The film also holds many references to people and objects from previous installments in the series, especially the first.
The film exceeded box office expectations and critical reaction was positive, with several critics also calling it the “best since the original.”^[2]

Contents

Synopsis

Cast

Filming and production

Budget and timeline

Casting

Items and references from previous films

Cinematography and fight choreography

Music

Distribution

Critical response

Box office

Soundtrack

Home release

Video game

Trivia

References

External links

Synopsis

''Rocky Balboa'' picks up in present-day Philadelphia, where Rocky, a local celebrity, is living in a row house in Kensington (a deleted scene reveals that Paulie has been living with him in a downstairs bedroom). His wife Adrian has died (due to "woman cancer", in 2002), and Rocky has retired to become owner of a small but successful Italian restaurant, Adrian's. He charms his patrons with stories of his past. Rocky visits his late wife's grave site regularly, and embarks on an annual tour of Philadelphia landmarks that held importance to him and Adrian, including his old apartment and the pet shop where Adrian worked. His brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) joins him on this tour, but does so at great personal pain because, in his opinion, he did not treat Adrian well during her life. Rocky counters this claim by reminding Paulie that Adrian loved him as well.
Rocky's son, Robert (Milo Ventimiglia), is the opposite of Rocky - a buttoned-down, corporate-minded businessman who is trying to carve out his own place in a very different world. Rocky's relationship with Robert is strained because Robert has always had to live under the shadow of his famous father; he even believes that the only reason he was hired for his latest job was because of his last name. But it is through the course of the movie that we see the relationship mend itself through Rocky's admonishment to his son that his life is his own and he must be willing to take the chances necessary for an opportunity to succeed.
During the tour of Rocky's life with Adrian, Rocky reunites with "Little" Marie, who was last seen in the original film. Marie works as a bartender, and has a son, Stephenson (nicknamed "Steps"; James Francis Kelly III). Rocky's friendship with Marie blossoms and gives him the strength and confidence he needs to succeed in what is to come. He also develops a close relationship with Marie's son, Steps. Steps is a youth growing up with no father figure in his life, as his father left Marie when he was younger, and hangs out on the streets of Philadelphia late at night. Rocky, seeing a youth who's heading for a life of trouble, takes the youth under his wing. Rocky offers Steps a chance to work with him on weekends, and even takes Steps with him to the dog pound, where Rocky gets a dog. Steps first says he would name the new dog "Fleabag", and then recommends the name "Punchy." Punchy is not the most attractive dog in the world, but Rocky sees a reflection of himself in the animal: an aging creature who still has one fight left in him. Eventually, Steps becomes one of Rocky's cornermen.
ESPN broadcasts a show titled "Then and Now", hosted by Brian Kenny. It portrays a computer simulation of a fight between Rocky in his prime and the current heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon. It is likened to a modern-day version of The Super Fight, a simulation between Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano that took place in 1970. In the Balboa-Dixon simulation, Balboa is predicted to have won KO13, a fact that riles the champion. Dixon's promoters L.C. Luco and Lou DiBella try to sell Dixon on the idea of a fight with Balboa as a way to endear him to the public. It would be a win-win charity fight, where Dixon could not only endear the public as a humanitarian, but also please fight fans who would be able to see that Dixon would easily defeat the aging icon that is Rocky Balboa.
Rocky is battling his own demons, and he feels that if he got back into boxing on a small level, he might be able to exorcise those demons. His application for a license is initially denied, however, until he pleads his case before the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. His license is eventually granted. Dixon's promoters approach Rocky at his restaurant to pitch the fight with Dixon. Ultimately, Rocky accepts the fight, as it is pitched as a charity exhibition match. Rocky returns to his old trainer, "Duke" Evers (Tony Burton). Duke tells Rocky that, since his body is much too old and beginning to deteriorate, he cannot train for speed. Instead, Rocky must train to build power ("buildin' some hurtin' bombs"), and use sheer brute force as his main weapon against Dixon.
The turning point in the relationship between Rocky and his son occurs one evening when Robert arrives at Adrian's to speak with his father. Once they step outside Robert makes every effort to discourage him from fighting, claiming that it's hard enough to live under his father's shadow, this recent publicity will make it even worse. His son even goes so far as to ask whether or not his father cares about him. Rocky is noticeably saddened. He says he remembers when Robert could fit in the palm of his hand and as he grew up he knew that his son could do anything. He goes on to say that at some point his son lost his way, and started blaming other things and people for his own misfortune. Telling him:

The actual bout is a back-and-forth affair. Dixon dominates for the first round and the first half of the second round, but midway through the second round, he injures his hand on a mis-timed punch to Rocky's left hip. This allows Rocky to move in and pummel Dixon for the remainder of the round, even knocking him down. The remainder of the fight up to the end of the tenth round is shown in cut-scenes, with Rocky out-performing Dixon due to his injured hand for the next three. In the tenth round (or, as Paulie says to Rocky, "the last round of [his] life!"), it appears Dixon now has a measure of respect for Rocky, stating "You're one crazy old man" just prior to the start of the round, to which Rocky replies "You'll get there." At first it appears that Dixon will outlast the tired Balboa, with Dixon out-performing Balboa. A hard hook sends Rocky to a knee, where he has a flashback to a moment he had with his son only a few weeks prior. He remembers the words and lesson of perseverance that he gave to Robert along with memories of Adrian, and in this, Rocky finds the strength to continue. He fights back against Dixon for the remainder of the round; the fighters end up trading punches in the center of the ring, with Balboa landing the last few hits of the fight.
As a salute to the first film, Rocky loses the fight in a split decision (in the alternate ending, it is Rocky who wins by split decision). However, he exits the arena as the decision is read - the outcome does not matter to him. It is the mere fact that he went the distance with a much younger and faster opponent that has helped Rocky to drive out the demons inside. The movie ends with Rocky speaking at Adrian's graveside; and says to her the famous line from Rocky II which he said to Adrian when winning the Boxing World Championship from Apollo Creed in their rematch, "Yo, Adrian, we did it." He leaves a bouquet of roses on her headstone, kisses it, and walks away. As the film (and series) concludes, the final image sees Rocky, in a distance, waving to Adrian's grave (and, in effect, the audience) before finally fading out himself. The credits roll next to real-life footage of individuals running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and finally ending with Rocky running up the steps one last time as the credits freeze with a background of Rocky facing outward from the museum.

Cast

★ Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, a retired boxer and former heavyweight champion.

★ Burt Young as Paulie Panina, Rocky's brother-in-law and best friend.

★ Milo Ventimiglia as Rocky Balboa Jr., Rocky's only son.

★ Geraldine Hughes as Marie, a woman whom Rocky originally met over thirty years ago (as seen in the first installment of the movie series).

★ James Francis Kelly III as Stephenson a.k.a. Steps, Marie's son whom Rocky befriends.

★ Tony Burton as Tony "Duke" Evers, Rocky's trainer who has been his head cornerman since Balboa's fight with Ivan Drago in ''Rocky IV''. Duke previously trained Apollo Creed, who was Rocky's nemesis in the first two films of the series and his head trainer in the third film.

★ Antonio Tarver as Mason "The Line" Dixon, Rocky's opponent in this film. Dixon is shown as the current heavyweight champion of the world, but a fighter who is not shown the same respect as Rocky was when he was the world champion.

Filming and production

Budget and timeline

Filming began in December 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It then moved to Los Angeles, California and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as 2006 progressed.^[3] The production budget on the 38-day shoot was projected to be $24 million. The film was scheduled for release during the President's Day holiday in 2007, but was moved up to right before Christmas, 2006.^[4] In late March 2006, the first movie teaser was released on the Internet. The full-length trailer accompanied the theatrical release of '' on July 7 in select theaters and was also released on Yahoo! on July 10, where it was one of the most watched trailers on Yahoo.^[5]

Casting

''Rocky Balboa'' is notable in the series for its nods to previous installments via the casting of the film. The most obvious of these is the return of Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, and Tony Burton to the series - the only three actors to portray the same characters in all six installments of the series. Also notable is the inclusion of Antonio Tarver as Balboa's opponent in the movie. Tarver's appearance in the movie marks the fifth time an active professional boxer has appeared in an installment of the series. Previously, Joe Frazier (''Rocky''), Pedro Lovell (''Rocky''), Roberto Duran (''Rocky II''), and Tommy Morrison (''Rocky V'') have appeared in the series. Stallone initially wanted Roy Jones, Jr. to portray Dixon, but after Jones did not return Stallone's phone calls, he tapped Antonio Tarver to fill the role.^[6] Notably, Tarver accidentally knocked out Stallone during the filming of one of the segments of the fight.^[7]
The character of Marie appeared in the original Rocky; however, in the original movie she was portrayed by Jody Letizia. In the final movie, Marie is portrayed by Geraldine Hughes (Although Letizia did reprise the role for Rocky V, the sole scene in which she appeared was deleted. In it, Marie was homeless on the streets of Philadelphia). Another recognizable character who appeared in the previous five movies, Stu Nahan, provided the commentary for the computer-generated fight between Dixon and Balboa. Nahan was part of the ringside commentary team during all the bouts in the first three movies. Finally, Pedro Lovell, who portrayed Spider Rico in the original movie, returns to the role in ''Rocky Balboa''. Rocky's son, as played by Milo Ventimiglia, even has matching paralysis in the left side of the face, a common thread between the two actors.
Additionally, a number of notable sports personalities portray themselves in the film. Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and Max Kellerman comprise the ringside commentary team for the final bout (All three are commentators for HBO Boxing, although Kellerman's appearances are less frequent than those of Lampley and Merchant). Bernard Fernandez was given a part in the movie but an appearance by the Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter never came to fruition.^[8] As for actual professional boxers, Mike Tyson (who has retired by the film's release) makes a cameo appearance as himself, taunting Dixon at ringside as the fighter enters the ring. Lou DiBella, a real-life boxing promoter, portrays himself as Dixon's promoter in the movie. Several of ESPN's personalities also portray themselves. SportsCenter anchor Brian Kenny is the host of the fictional ''Then and Now'' series, while ''Cold Pizza'' and ''1st and 10'' hosts Jay Crawford, Dana Jacobson, Skip Bayless, and Woody Paige (credited as Woodrow W. Paige) also appear. The fight announcer was played by real-life announcer Michael Buffer, and real-life referee Joe Cortez played himself as referee. In addition, Jacobson's voice can be heard asking Dixon questions during the pre-fight press conference. Ironically, though they all appear in ''Cold Pizza'' (Paige has since left the show), there are no real-life airings of neither ''Pizza'' nor ''1st and 10'' during the evenings, when the scene featuring the shows take place.
DiBella's appearance is also notable because the pre-fight scenes at ringside and ring entrances were shot on the weekend of the second Bernard Hopkins-Jermain Taylor bout. The DiBella/Golden Boy Promotions banners and logos can be clearly seen in many of the shots. Also, a continuity error is produced as a result of the actual bout being filmed at a different time - during the entrances, the ring has a logo featuring the GoldenPalace.com website. During the actual fight, the ring canvas boasts a "Rockstar" Energy Drink logo.
Stallone asked Carl Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky movies. Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren gave him their graces, however Carl Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie, even though his character died in ''Rocky IV'' stated by Stallone on Jimmy Kimmel Live December 21, 2006. Stallone refused and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for Rocky flashbacks from the previous movies. They instead decided to use new footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers.

Items and references from previous films

Several items of note also appear at certain points in the movie. In the opening sequence of the film, before leaving his house, Rocky feeds two turtles in a tank. These are assumed to be Cuff and Link, two small turtles that Rocky purchased from Adrian at her pet shop before the first film. They have grown considerably in size.
The Ring Magazine belt that Rocky Balboa was awarded for winning the championship is displayed in his restaurant, along with the actual WBC, WBA, and IBF Heavyweight Championship belts, which were not mentioned in previous films. The WBC belt shows a WBC logo of 1990s vintage. Also in the restaurant is the Leroy Neiman painting of Rocky and Apollo Creed shown during the end credits of ''Rocky III''. Various still photographs from previous Balboa fights are on the walls of the restaurant, as well.
There is also a reference to the statue of Rocky being removed from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art -- Paulie's line about the statue being removed parallels the real life removal of the statue from the steps, its relocation to the Sports Complex in South Philadelphia, and later reinstallation at the Museum of Art, albeit not at the top of the steps where it appeared in ''Rocky III''.
Unlike the other four sequels, ''Rocky Balboa'' does not begin with a scene from the previous film's climactic fight. In fact, the only reference to ''Rocky V'' comes in a throwaway line between Rocky and his son, when Rocky talks about their relationship and mentions "home team." This was their code phrase in ''Rocky V'' for father-son bonding.
Much like Stallone's inspiration for the first movie (a fight between Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali in which Wepner nearly went the distance with Ali), the inspiration for this final movie came from the story of George Foreman's final comeback.^[9]
A plot element brought about in the fifth movie is never resolved, however -- Rocky is diagnosed to have brain damage and advised never to fight again. Stallone clarified this apparent inconsistency in an interview, remarking:

"When Rocky was diagnosed with brain damage, it must be noted that many athletes have a form of brain damage including football players, soccer players, and other individuals in contact sports such as rugby, etc. Rocky never went for a second opinion and yielded to his wife's wishes to stop. So with the advent of new research techniques into brain damage, Rocky was found to be normal among fighters, and he was suffering the results of a severe concussion. By today's standards Rocky Balboa would be given a clean bill of health for fighters."^[10]

During Rocky's training sequence, he runs with his dog Punchy up the steps and picks him up when he reaches the top. This may be a reference to a dropped idea from the first film where Rocky was going to carry his dog while running up the steps. This idea was dropped when Stallone was physically unable to carry the large dog while running uphill. In ''Rocky III'', Adrian was told that the boxers in Apollo's gym had nicknamed Rocky "Punchy."
During the scene where Rocky admonishes his son for living under his father's shadow, Rocky is seen wearing a sweater under his blazer, which reads "Dempsey." This refers to the "You Need a Manager" scene from the original film, in which Mickey's character reveals that his own knockout was overshadowed by Dempsey's victory because, in Mickey's words, "he had a manager."
"Take You Back", the song that plays in the beginning of the film, first appeared as a song performed by Frank Stallone and a group of men on a street corner in the original ''Rocky''.
The end of the fight is much like the end of the Rocky/Apollo match in the first film, as earlier mentioned. Worth noting here is the similarity of Rocky's actions in both films: having accomplished his goals just by lasting through the fight, he does not care to hear the final results of the judge's voting. In ''Rocky'', he searches for and embraces Adrian while the ring announcer declares the winner. In ''Rocky Balboa'', he makes a quick exit from the ring with his friends and family and is nearly into the arena tunnel when the announcement is made.

Cinematography and fight choreography

While the dramatic portions of the movie are shot in an obviously cinematic style, the bout between Balboa and Dixon is shot in a number of different ways. The lead-in to the bout, as well as the first two rounds, are shot in a style similar to a major pay-per-view broadcast. Clips from fights in previous ''Rocky'' movies are used during the introductory teaser to introduce Balboa, while stock footage from actual Tarver fights, as well as footage from Dixon's previous fight (shown at the beginning of the film) are used as clips for Dixon's part of the teaser. The fight itself was shot in High Definition to further enhance the TV-style look of the fight.^[11]
After the first two rounds, the bout is shot in a more "cinematic" style, reminiscent of the way the fights in the other ''Rocky'' films were shot. However, unlike the other films in the series, the fight is less choreographed and more improvised than previous installments and is closer to an actual boxing match than a choreographed fight.^[12] This is a departure from the previous films, where every punch, feint, and step was carefully scripted and practiced.^[13]
The film's DVD, during the making of sequences, state that there were slight continuity problems during the filming of the fight. This was said to have been due to the fact that real punches were thrown by both Stallone and Tarver, resulting in some swelling and nosebleeds earler than scripted.

Music

Composed by Academy Award winner Bill Conti, the ''Rocky Balboa'' film score is both an updated composition of ''Rocky'' music and a tribute to the music that has been featured in previous Rocky films. Conti, who has acted as composer on every Rocky film except ''Rocky IV'', chose to compose the score almost entirely from musical themes used in the previous movies. Only one original theme was written specifically for ''Rocky Balboa'' and that is the theme written to represent the character of Marie.
The roughly 40 minute score was recorded in the summer of 2006 at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, California. Conti chose to pre-record the string, brass and piano tracks and then have those tracks mixed with the work of a 44 piece orchestra which he conducted. He also performed all of the piano work himself which is something he has done with each movie for which he has composed the score. Stallone also was involved in every part of the process and attended several of the recording sessions.^[14]
In addition to the score the film features original tracks performed by Natasha Bedingfield, Three 6 Mafia and Frank Stallone as well as classic tracks such as Frank Sinatra's High Hopes and Smokey Robinson's Ooh Baby Baby.^[15] Of the original tracks the most significant is the Diane Warren song “Still Here”, performed by Bedingfield, which was reported to be the film’s theme in early articles.^[16] Though it is still listed in the credits the song now appears to have been dropped from the film.

Distribution

''Rocky Balboa'' represents a partnership between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Revolution Studios, and Columbia Pictures (Columbia's corporate parent Sony holds a 20% stake in MGM). Since the ''Rocky'' series was originally produced and distributed by United Artists (now MGM's subsidiary studio), the partners jointly decided that the film could and should take advantage of MGM's newly reinvigorated domestic distribution apparatus.^[17] 20th Century Fox handles its theatrical and DVD distributions outside of the United States and Canada, while Sony Pictures Home Entertainment handled its American and Canadian video distributions. Warner Bros. handles its theatrical distributions in Philippines and Switzerland (under the Fox-Warner label).
In Japan, the motion picture has been promoted on Fox as "Rocky The Final". It opened across Japan April 20, 2007.^[18]

Critical response

The film was very well received, with most reviews being positive. On ''Ebert & Roeper'', both Richard Roeper and guest reviewer Aisha Tyler gave the movie an enthusiastic thumbs up.^[19] Among other positive reviews were from Variety,^[20] David Eldstien of New York Magazine,^[21] Ethan Alter of Premier Magazine,^[22] Victoria Alexander of Filmsinreview.com,^[23] Michelle Alexandria of ECLIPSE Magazine,^[24] Palo Alto Weekly,^[25] Brett Buckalew of Filmstew.com,^[26] Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star^[27]
, JR Jones of Chicago Reader,^[28] Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,^[29] Hollywood Reporter,^[30] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly,^[31] Samrat Sharma of fullhyd.com,^[32] and StarBlabber.com, who called the fight sequence "by far the best".^[33] Some criticism came from Christy Lemire, who describes the movie as self-parody.^[34]
The film has received a certified "Fresh" rating of 76% on the movie site Rotten Tomatoes (with a 79% Cream of the Crop Rating from major news outlets),a Must Go! on Fandango, a 7.7 out of 10 on IMDB, and a 4.8 out of 5 star rating on Netflix.
The movie was greeted warmly by the majority of the boxing community, with many experts believing the Rocky character is still a key symbol of the sport and that the boxing scenes were the most realistic of any movie. On the DVD, Stallone attributes this to the fact that he used realistic sound-effects (the previous installments had become notorious for their unrealistic and loud sounds of punches landing) and the fact that both Stallone and Tarver threw real punches at each other.^[35]

Box office

Statistics based on figures obtained from boxofficemojo.com

Week #	Start Date	End Date	Week Total	Cumulative Total	Weekend Rank
1	December 20, 2006	December 26, 2006	'$31,197,000'	'$31,197,000'	'# 3'
2	December 27, 2006	January 2, 2007	'$21,444,449'	'$52,641,449'	'# 5'
3	January 3, 2007	January 9, 2007	'$8,835,985'	'$61,477,434'	'# 9'
4	January 10, 2007	January 16, 2007	'$4,309,801'	'$65,787,235'	'# 13'
5	January 17, 2007	January 23, 2007	'$2,156,162'	'$67,943,397'	'# 18'
6	January 24, 2007	January 30, 2007	'$839,753'	'$68,783,150'	'# 30'
7	January 31, 2007	February 6, 2007	'$579,110'	'$69,362,260'	'# 27'
8	February 7, 2007	February 13, 2007	'$387,233'	'$69,749,493'	'# 31'
9	February 14, 2007	February 20, 2007	'$257,101'	'$70,006,594'	'# 40'
10	February 21, 2007	February 27, 2007	'$23,315'	'$70,029,909'	'# 66'
11	February 28, 2007	March 6, 2007	'$139,167'	'$70,169,076'	'# 41'
12	March 7, 2007	March 13, 2007	'$69,851'	'$70,238,927'	'# 55'
13	March 14, 2007	March 20, 2007	'$25,237'	'$70,264,164'	'# 73'
14	March 21, 2007	March 27, 2007	'$5,390'	'$70,269,554'	'# 92'
15 ★	March 28, 2007	March 29, 2007	'$345'	'$70,269,899'	'N/A'

''
★ '' Movie was no longer in theaters as of March 29, 2007
According to Stallone the movie has exceeded studio expectations grossing over three times the opening night estimates of (at best) $2,000,000 and doing so despite a harsh spell of winter weather.^[36] The film not only finished third in its opening weekend, grossing $12,540,000,^[37] but eventually became Stallone's most successful starring role since 1993's ''Cliffhanger''^[38] and the sixth highest grossing boxing movie of all time, topped only by the first Rocky through IV and Clint Eastwood's ''Million Dollar Baby''.^[39]
The total US box office gross for ''Rocky Balboa'' as of March 29, 2007 stands at $70,269,899 while the international gross stands at $85,093,432 making for a total worldwide gross of $155,363,331.^[40]

Soundtrack

Whether the film ''Rocky Balboa'' has a soundtrack is subject to some debate. On December 26th, 2006 Capitol Records released a CD titled “” which had a logo and cover art that was identical to the film’s theatrical poster.
The CD itself contains short dialogue clips and musical tracks, some of which are remixes, from all the Rocky films. Notable though is that only 3 of its 19 total tracks are from the ''Rocky Balboa'' film, 2 dialogue tracks and the Three 6 Mafia song “It’s a Fight” (The UK version contains the additional Track "Still Here" by Natasha Bedingfield). This has led some to categorize the CD as a compilation while others suggest that it is a soundtrack and that the use of past material simply reflects the film's extensive use of flashbacks.
Relevant to this debate is the complete absence of any compositions by Rocky IV composer Vince DiCola. DiCola is the only person, other than Bill Conti, to act as composer on a Rocky film and his work was used extensively on the 1991 compilation CD “The Rocky Story: Songs From The Rocky Movies”. The missing DiCola tracks are the only tracks on the 1991 CD that are not present on the new CD which indicates an effort to use only ''Rocky Balboa'' composer Conti's tracks.^[41][42][43]

Home release

''Rocky Balboa'' is available in three formats: DVD, Blu-Ray Disc and UMD. Features on the DVD include:

★ Deleted Scenes including an alternate ending

★ Boxing Bloopers

★ Skill vs. Will: The Making of Rocky Balboa

★ Reality in the Ring: Filming Rocky’s Final Fight

★ Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone

★ Virtual Champion: Creating the Computer Fight
In addition, the Blu-Ray version features all of the DVD's content in 1080p High Definition Video^[44].
It was released in Region 1 on March 20 and Region 2 on May 21 2007.

Video game

On December 13, 2006, it was officially announced by Ubisoft and MGM that a new Rocky video game, titled ''Rocky Balboa'', was to be made exclusively for the PlayStation Portable handheld console. It was released on March 20, 2007, to coincide with the DVD release.^[45]

Trivia

★ Extras in Philadelphia were used for the end credits, where fans run up the Rocky Steps and do their Rocky imitations.

★ The Philadelphia Phillies' mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, is listed in the end credits.

★ The DVD release features an alternate ending where Rocky wins the fight. The ending seen in the film was written so the fans would not expect another Rocky film. If Rocky had won the fight that would show he was still in his prime and would be able to hit the boxing circuit again.

★ The only film in the Rocky series that actually plays "Gonna Fly Now" under the closing credits.

★ According to Stallone, the final shot of Rocky standing alone on the museum steps before the second set of end credits was actually filmed without him even knowing. Thus, the audience is metaphorically seeing Stallone standing alone rather than Rocky.

★ Milo Ventimiglia originally wanted to turn down the role, but his agent convinced him the movie would do well.

★ Additionally, Stallone's real life son Sage Stallone, who played Rocky Jr. in ''Rocky V'', turned down the role due to commitments with his film release company.

★ Mr. T was originally supposed to reprise his role as James "Clubber" Lang in the movie as a commentator, but due to scheduling issues, Mike Tyson stepped in and took his place.

★ Early drafts of the story had Adrian still alive with Rocky running a youth center in Philadelphia, and Rocky starts fighting again to raise money for the center. Stallone dropped this idea because he said it was "a lot of plot, and not a lot of character."

★ Deleted scenes of the film reveal that Paulie was originally supposed to have a girlfriend and to be roommates with Rocky.

★ By the film's release, Stallone had recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday, which he coincidentally shares with President George W. Bush. Stallone is also Bush's favorite actor.

★ The numerous veins seen on the right side of Stallone's chest during the film are a result of an accident in a bench pressing competition.

★ With the partial exception of Tommy Morrison, this is the first time Rocky/Stallone got to fight against a real life fighter (Tarver) in the ring.

References

1. "Rocky" Road (Stallone interview)
2. "best since the original" review
3. "Rocky Balboa" filming locations
4. Filming
5. "Yahoo Buzz Log"
6. Stallone has Issues with Roy Jones Jr
7. Stallone knocked out on Rocky set
8. Bernard Fernandez - Rocky 6
9. Stallone Zone News: "Rocky VI"
10. Ain't It Cool News
11. ARRI NEWSLETTER 19 - December 2006
12. "Rocky" climbs off the canvas
13. "Winner and Still Champion"
14. Rocky Balboa Soundtrack
15. Yahoo Movies Credit List
16. Natasha Bedingfield records 'Rocky' theme
17. MGM to handle domestic distribution of "Rocky Balboa"
18. Rocky The Final site on Foxjapan.com
19. Ebert and Roeper Site (Review in Archive)
20. Variety Review
21. New York Magazine Review
22. Premier Magazine Review
23. FilmsInReview Review
24. Eclipse Magazine Review
25. Palo Alto Weekly Review
26. FilmStew.com Review
27. Kansas City Star Review
28. Chicago Reader Review
29. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Review
30. Hollywood Reporter Review
31. Entertainment Weekly Review
32. Full Hyd review
33. ''Rocky Balboa'' reviews
34. "Rocky" offers self-parody
35. Is a Character Like Rocky Still Relevant to Boxing?
36. Sylvester Stallone public statement
37. Weekend Box Office Results for December 22-24, 2007
38. Sylvester Stallone Movie Box Office Results
39. Boxing Movies
40. Rocky Balboa ticket sales figures
41. Epinions Review
42. DiCola discussion on Soundsonline
43. All Music Guide Review
44. DVD (Blu Ray) Release
45. ''Rocky Balboa'' game release date

External links

★ Official site

★

★

★

★ ''Rocky Balboa'' script in Sly Magazine

★ Trailers one and two

★ Production Blog

★ Rocky Balboa Reviews at Metacritic

★ Rocky Balboa Review at ZonaFreak (Spanish)

★ Coverage from Bill Conti's scoring session

★ Filming Locations

★ ''Rocky Balboa'' Sylvester Stallone interview January 2007