Synopsis
The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.
Neptune King of the Sea
I’ll get this out of the way first, Creed is a worthy addition to the Rocky universe, I know a surprise. Firstly Stallone doesn’t appear until well into the film and Balboa is a skin he slips into comfortably like an old friend, I loved the reversal where Rocky is now the teacher. Stallone really gets to flex his acting muscles in a thoughtful and understated way, such a charming and warm performance. Michael Jordan puts in a strong performance as the up and coming boxer with a point to prove, searching for the ghost of his father, there are also some inspired choices for cameos from the real world of boxing, both Andre Ward and to a greater extent Tony Bellew add a tone of authenticity to the film, indeed the quality of the fight scnenes is really good, some really amazing action photography. A great chemistry between the two characters makes the film all the more compelling. All in all a really entertaining watch.
Rating: AAAAAAdrrrrrriiiiiaaaan
Chip
Viewing beverage: Laphroaig
This was much more what I had hoped for from this round, and very much an enjoyable movie. For me, Stallone has never played a character as perfectly as his embodiment of Rocky Balboa, and I find it genuinely pleasing that we are still getting Rocky films.
In stark contrast to Southpaw, every major character in Creed is likeable, even if Tony Bellew is a bit annoying to begin with.
7 rounds out of 10
Pinbot
I’ve really not spent much time with Rocky in the past. In fact the only one I can vaguely recall watching is the forth in the series, which was an end of term ‘treat’ at school – AKA ‘stick a video on for the kids, whilst the teacher puts his feet up and reads The Racing Post’. All I can remember is it had a lot of mumbling, Dolph Lundgren and a robot.
Having seen more boxing movies recently thanks to this round than I ever thought I would in my entire life, I have started to recognise the genre’s tried and tested ingredients and tropes. However in this case it was all so well done and performed – the boxing scenes were very impressive and very well choreographed, some even seemed to be filmed in one continuous take. Stallone and Jordan were very effective as wounded characters, the soundtrack was great and I was glad to be on board for the ride and really enjoyed it. I might even check out the sequel!
Barry McGuigan out of ten
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