Word: balboa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Charm carried the original Rocky and, to a lesser extent, Rocky II. As Rocky Balboa, Stallone created an American hero: raised in the inner-city, coached by the owner of a run-down gym, Balboa appeared hopeless in his quest for the heavyweight boxing championship. Although he ultimately failed to capture the championship. Balboa proved himself a worthy contender. And throughout all the excitement and promotion, he remained a sensitive, unassuming man, falling in love with and marrying a shy, unglamorous, though caring, woman...
...respective goals. Not only did both learn to love one woman, but they also came to appreciate the oft repeated assertion: it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. Travolta passed on his dance contest prize to the obviously more deserving couple, and Balboa found fulfillment even without victory...
Nothing in Rocky III seems fresh. And Rocky Balboa's charm wears thin. His lines are no longer startlingly expressive--they just seem startlingly ungrammatical and forced. "Nobody owes nobody nothing"; "it seems like everybody want to beat me up"; "don't get mentally irregular. "Maybe in Rocky, perhaps in Rockey II, these lines would work. But in Rocky III they are heavy handed and unoriginal, as if Stallone were trying to steal from his own previous films...
...middle of 1,400-acre Balboa Park, the mock-Elizabethan building looks from the outside somewhat the way Shakespeare's own Globe was supposed to look, with leaded windows, half-timbering and a second floor jutting out over the first. It is too cute, but it is not offensive. Whatever sins have been committed on the outside have been made up for on the inside, however, where Scenic Designer Richard Hay has devised what seems to be an ideal theatrical space: 581 comfortable seats for the audience, a thrust stage for the actors, and ample room for producers...
...this corner, with the Mohican-style hairdo and the beard, is the challenger, Clubber Lang, played by Lawrence ("Mr. T.") Tero. In the other corner, with the ruddy cheeks and the winning smile, is the champ. Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone. The two slug it out in Stallone's new film, Rocky III, due in June 1982. During the fight scenes the pair sparred actively, pulling their punches when they could, but occasionally connecting hard. Mr. T. packs quite a wallop-he is a former bodyguard for such pugilists as Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks. Still, Stallone...