8. Rocky Balboa (2006)

8. Rocky Balboa (2006)

Look, Rocky Balboa is ridiculous. It’s a Rocky movie made after 1980, so of course it’s ridiculous. The only question is whether it’s going to be the joyous, larger-than-life ridiculous of a Rocky III or a Rocky IV, or the depressing, misjudged ridiculous of a Rocky V. Rocky Balboa isn’t quite either, as it turns out. The movie’s plot sees a sixtysomething Rocky coming out of retirement to fight a boxer whose actual, honest-to-goodness name is Mason “The Line” Dixon, anticipating the rare gift for naming that Stallone would later show with every single character in The Expendables franchise. And it’s not that the ridiculousness is beside the point: It is the point, except here the staggeringly implausible setup is just another narrative tool Stallone can use to explore the next phase of his most iconic character’s existence. After all, the movie doesn’t exactly shy away from how absurdly dangerous, borderline suicidal it is for the long-retired Balboa to step back into the ring, but Rocky Balboa works carefully to explain just why its title character can never permanently step away from fighting, and why his chosen profession need not necessarily be self-destructive. It’s all just one more reason to be cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Creed. [Alasdair Wilkins]