Starring Anthony Ippolito as a young Sylvester Stallone, I Play Rocky is another entry into Hollywood’s current obsession with biopics. It follows the story of Stallone’s early days struggling as an actor who just so happened to be an even better writer. Having found little success in getting acting gigs, his wife Sasha(AnnaSophia Robb)suggests he wrote something of his own and give the best part to himself. At a chance audition, he leaves a script producer’s secretary that shows a lot of potential. Finally, after getting the much needed encouragement from someone other than Sasha he continues honing his craft. After watching an Ali boxing match at a local bar, he is inspired to write Rocky. Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell), the producers he had befriended earlier are blown away by this script and take it to a bigger studio which means bigger money. The only catch, they don’t want to risk studio money on an unknown so a struggle begins outside the ring between Stallone and the powers that be.
My relationship with the Cinemark Mystery Movie Series continues to be a love/hate, hit-or-miss relationship. I have probably been burned more times than not, but like Stallone/Rocky, I preserve. A wave of relief hit me when I the cast of the film thanked th audience for seeing it just before it began. This one had actually been on my radar so I had a lot of goodwill when the lights dropped and was able to relax into my seat.
First up, Anthony Ippolito did more than play Rocky. Wow. Talk about perfect casting! Down to the same height even (5’10” since I know you were getting reading to Google it anyway. Also turns out that as depicted, he is in fact a lefty too, Stallone that is, not sure about Ippolito.) He nailed that unique voice too, which I learned thanks to this movie was due to severe damage sustained at birth from the forceps, one of many cool facts I learned from this film. It really wasn’t like looking at a computer generated, de-aged version of ol’ Sly for the entire two hours and eight minutes. I also loved AnnaSophia Robb’s Sasha. She gave a ride or die energy that made you love the character. And even the producers played by Byrne ad Kebbell looked a lot like their real life counterparts. And also, props to Stephan James as Carl Weather who, though only in a couple of scenes unfortunately, brought a purely comedic shift into the film that had for the most part had been pretty straight up prior to his inclusion.
I have seen words like inspiring and encouraging used to describe this film. Correct. It was a feel good movie through and through. The closest thing to a “villian” was Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts), the movie big wig who fought tirelessly to prevent Stallone staring in the movie.
Normally, I want my biopic to show a beginning, middle, and end for the subject. Here's pretty much only getting a specific window of time. There is no flashback to a different, child actor playing kid Sly. What we get is a streamlined account of what is probably bothering most (and possibly only) truly interesting part of Stallone's life and it is very satisfying.
If you saw the trailer, you pretty much saw this movie. Fortunately, it WAS a really good trailer. But here really are no major surprises whatsoever. But hey, every now and then, that's okay. It was really nice to not have to endear a manufactured axienty-ridden roller coaster to get a complete, satisfying story.
What say you? Feeling like going a couple of rounds? If that's the case, leave it in the comments. And until next time...
