I finally got to watch "Creed." I heard it was good, but I didn't expect it to be as great as it was. This was one of the best movies of the year, and the best of the Rocky movies.
I am a fan of the Rocky series. I loved almost all of them, even the unabashed jingoism and cheesiness of "Rocky IV." Ironically, the only one in the series I didn't like was "Rocky V," even though I appeared in it with my high school marching band.
"Creed" takes these movies to a whole new level. The movie is about the illegitimate son of Rocky's opponent-turned-friend, Apollo Creed, who was killed in the ring by Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
Adonis Creed, who, at first, prefers to be called Adonis Johnson, is trying to start a boxing career, but doesn't want to use his father's fame to do so. He is turned down by Delphi Boxing Academy in Los Angeles, so he heads for the City of Brotherly Love to seek out Rocky.
This movie is great in so many ways. The characters are fleshed out wonderfully. The friendship between Rocky and Adonis develops naturally and believably. Rocky, who is now without his wife, Adrian, and best friend Paulie, (Rocky Jr. moved to Vancouver with his wife) has no one close to him, except for Adonis, who becomes an adopted son of sorts as he battles cancer. Stallone gives a great, vulnerable performance and fleshes out the character of Rocky who is now older and wiser. I give props to Stallone for keeping his ego in check and allowing a fresh face to write and direct a Rocky movie.
Michael B. Jordan is also great as Adonis, who, like his father, is appropriately cocky and arrogant, but knows his limitations and weaknesses. The chorus of complaints about the lack of black Oscar nominees is warranted here, because Jordan deserved a nod for this performance.
Although writer/director Ryan Coogler is from the Bay Area, this movie is a love letter to Philadelphia. We see Adonis eating his first cheesesteak (from Max's Steaks in Germantown), and he finds out what "jawn" means. (I didn't realize "jawn" was a Philly term). The movie, filmed in Philly's working-class Kensington neighborhoods, and even focuses on the dirt bike and ATV culture embraced by the city's teenagers. This had a lot of viewers scratching their heads, but it really is a "thing" in several large cities, including Philadelphia. Most of these vehicles are illegal on city streets. The police in Washington D.C. go after these vehicles, but the police in Philly are smart enough to turn a blind eye, because they realize it is a diversion keeping teens away from drugs.
Finally, the movie's visuals and technical prowess is outstanding, especially from a 29-year-old director. The highlight of is a fight in the middle of the movie. The two-round match was shot in one long steadicam shot. The filmmakers insist this was truly one shot, and there was no trickery. They did 13 takes, and used the 11th take. To be able to coordinate this shot while choreographing this fight is an achievement. I am no boxing expert (I defer to my old boss at the Reading Eagle for boxing knowledge), but the boxing scenes seemed more authentic than ever. Most of the fights in the other Rocky movies had enough uppercuts, hooks and headshots to render most mortal men comatose. The fights in this movie actually use body blows as a strategy. Creed's opponents in the movie are all portrayed by professional boxers, and it shows.
I look forward to seeing what Coogler is going to do with Marvel's "Black Panther" movie.
This movie is a perfect way to continue the story of Rocky while bringing a fresh perspective and new look to these movies. This movie appropriately pays homage to the previous films (the music, training montages, etc.) but doesn't become an all-out nostalgia fest like, dare I say it, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
They did leave a few doors open for sequel possibilities, and, after the success of "Creed," I am sure another movie is in the works (Latest reports say November 2017). For now, any fan of the Rocky movies needs to see this jawn right now.
Update: Supposedly a "Creed 2" is in the works, in which Adonis fights Ivan Drago's son. Sign me up!
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Walking Dead cliffhanger... Boooo!
Spoilers ahead. I will try not to be specific, but don't read on if you haven't seen the sixth season of The Walking Dead or read the graphic novel.
I recently named The Walking Dead one of the 20 greatest television shows ever, and I am a big fan of both the graphic novel and the television show. I can say, for the first time, I was truly disappointed in the tv show after the sixth season finale, which aired a week ago.
If you ask anyone who read the books what scene they remembered the most, they would say the end of issue 100, where villain Negan shows up with "Lucille," his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Negan uses Lucille to horrifically bash the life out of a major character who has been around since the beginning of both the graphic novels and television show.
The finale of the show's sixth season marked the first appearance of the iconic Negan. He shows up, makes a grand entrance, monologues for 10 minutes or so, and proceeds to unleash Lucille on... The cameraman! We get a first-person perspective of Lucille's fatal blows, and won't know who the victim is until the start of the next season in October or so.
I thought Negan's introduction was done well, and, from what I have seen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a good casting choice for this character. I don't like the choice to make this a cliffhanger, and I am not just saying this because I have to wait several months for a resolution. On that note, they better settle this in the beginning of the first episode of next season, instead of giving us two episodes of background on the Saviors and how they set these roadblocks for Rick and the gang.
First of all, I have a very good feeling that the victim is a major character. I am fairly sure it is the same person who died in the graphic novel. Ending the season with a major death would have been just as shocking, if not more so, than a cliffhanger. Furthermore, this cliffhanger cheapens what is the end of a major character and, if it is who I think it is, a fan favorite.
Secondly, this season has spent too much time playing "gotcha" with the audience. The show faked us into thinking Glenn was killed when zombies appeared to rip his guts out, when, actually, it was actually the corpse of Nicholas, who had just shot himself. As we found out a few weeks later, Glenn was underneath Nicholas, and then scurried under a Dumpster. They even went so far as to take Steven Yeun's name out of the credits.
Then, in the season's penultimate episode, the very last shot was Dwight shooting Daryl and blood splattering on the screen. We do find out in the next episode that the wound was non-fatal.
I understand that sometimes it can be an effective plot device to toy with the audience or leave them hanging, such as the unbelievable Borg cliffhanger on "Star Trek: TNG," or for our older readers, the "Who Shot J.R." mystery on "Dallas."
However, I think "The Walking Dead" has been doing too muc audience manipulation this season, to the point of annoying even the show's most loyal viewers. This last cliffhanger only annoyed people even more.
"The Walking Dead" is usually a great show with good writing and compelling characters, and these kind of gimmicks are frankly beneath a show of this caliber.
I recently named The Walking Dead one of the 20 greatest television shows ever, and I am a big fan of both the graphic novel and the television show. I can say, for the first time, I was truly disappointed in the tv show after the sixth season finale, which aired a week ago.
If you ask anyone who read the books what scene they remembered the most, they would say the end of issue 100, where villain Negan shows up with "Lucille," his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Negan uses Lucille to horrifically bash the life out of a major character who has been around since the beginning of both the graphic novels and television show.
The finale of the show's sixth season marked the first appearance of the iconic Negan. He shows up, makes a grand entrance, monologues for 10 minutes or so, and proceeds to unleash Lucille on... The cameraman! We get a first-person perspective of Lucille's fatal blows, and won't know who the victim is until the start of the next season in October or so.
I thought Negan's introduction was done well, and, from what I have seen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a good casting choice for this character. I don't like the choice to make this a cliffhanger, and I am not just saying this because I have to wait several months for a resolution. On that note, they better settle this in the beginning of the first episode of next season, instead of giving us two episodes of background on the Saviors and how they set these roadblocks for Rick and the gang.
First of all, I have a very good feeling that the victim is a major character. I am fairly sure it is the same person who died in the graphic novel. Ending the season with a major death would have been just as shocking, if not more so, than a cliffhanger. Furthermore, this cliffhanger cheapens what is the end of a major character and, if it is who I think it is, a fan favorite.
Secondly, this season has spent too much time playing "gotcha" with the audience. The show faked us into thinking Glenn was killed when zombies appeared to rip his guts out, when, actually, it was actually the corpse of Nicholas, who had just shot himself. As we found out a few weeks later, Glenn was underneath Nicholas, and then scurried under a Dumpster. They even went so far as to take Steven Yeun's name out of the credits.
Then, in the season's penultimate episode, the very last shot was Dwight shooting Daryl and blood splattering on the screen. We do find out in the next episode that the wound was non-fatal.
I understand that sometimes it can be an effective plot device to toy with the audience or leave them hanging, such as the unbelievable Borg cliffhanger on "Star Trek: TNG," or for our older readers, the "Who Shot J.R." mystery on "Dallas."
However, I think "The Walking Dead" has been doing too muc audience manipulation this season, to the point of annoying even the show's most loyal viewers. This last cliffhanger only annoyed people even more.
"The Walking Dead" is usually a great show with good writing and compelling characters, and these kind of gimmicks are frankly beneath a show of this caliber.
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