Rocky Balboa

Yes, that Rocky Balboa. The sixth (and last) film in the Rocky series has the same format as the other films: down on his luck, Rocky has a shot at glory if he fights. Some additional depth is added by a necessary plot point whereby Rocky is old. He's now a restaurant owner who tells his patrons old fight stories, misses his departed wife, embarrasses his son and depresses his brother-in-law Paulie. All of this is smartly written, with a few gentle laughs. The plot really gets going when a computer-simulated fight shows Balboa beating the reigning heavyweight champ. The champ's management recognise a way to make money and decide to do it for real – ludicrous, but actually common boxing logic. And so to the training montage (often the best feature of a Rocky film, but cut a little short here), and so to the fight, which is the usual crunching affair. All of this is entertaining, if predictable, and Stallone's script sees Rocky out in an appropriate way. It's hard to begrudge the old slugger his swan-song. [Keir Hind]