Creed

Actors: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashād, Tony Bellew, Graham McTavish

Rating: 9 out of 10, Hollywood found a new way to make me feel old last night. I was in college when the first (and best) Rocky film came out. The newest addition to the seemingly endless saga, Creed, takes on a new generation since Rocky (and I) are aging beyond even the ability of special effects to fool anyone. If this is the last (not a safe bet) then the series started and ended with absolute gems. Rocky appears here as a senior citizen weighed down by life and the loss of everyone close to him. Michael B. Jordan continues his streak of amazing performances and pulls off the cocky youngster without being annoying. Stallone has become such a caricature of himself with his film roles that you can forget what a good actor he is capable of being. The best parts of the movie were the scenes between Jordan and Stallone, just permeated with realistic emotion. Jordan plays the illegitimate son of Rocky’s long dead friend/rival Apollo Creed. He seeks out Rocky to become a fighter while trying to dodge riding on his father’s coattails. It’s not easy being the son of a great man and the director shows a deft touch in not allowing that to become a distraction. He allows that the audience is intelligent enough to figure that out. The fight scenes were every bit as realistic and exciting as even the bad Rocky movies produced. I’m not doing justice to this film – it soars, one of the best of the year. It was nice to see the lovable character of Rocky granted some peace in later life; especially handing off to such an exciting replacement in Jordan. Go see this flick.

MVP: Michael B. Jordan in the title role, carries movie flawlessly