Fuel by mountains of hate mail and sports commentators talking shit about his poor performance in the last fight, Apollo Creed has become obsessed with getting a rematch with Balboa. He turns away more lucrative matches and refuses to fight anybody until he can clear his name and prove to the world that the last fight was just a fluke. Despite his financial troubles Balboa turns down repeated offers for a rematch. Finally, he cannot take it anymore and agrees to fight. Adrian is not happy.
Whenever I watch ROCKY I usually just toss in Part II and look at it as one continuous film. And it's easy to do since they are hooked together so seamlessly. Sometimes I get all crazy and just watch the first four all in one giant megapump. Back to ROCKY II though, it's a great film. I have no idea if Stallone ever intended for the story to continue on and that's why he ended the original at the exact moment that he did, but II seems like a very natural progression of the story. Burgess Meredith is even greater in this film than he was in the original, the music is back, all of the original cast appear to be back, the workout montages are back, in fighting to overcome the odds are back, pretty much it's just a lot of old shit from the first film all over again, but it works and it's a great movie. Highly recommended.
Part 1 - Rocky (1976)
Part 3 - Rocky III (1982)
Part 4 - Rocky IV (1985)
Part 5 - Rocky V (1990)
Part 6 - Rocky Balboa (2006)
Part 7 - Creed (2015)
Part 8 - Creed II (2018)
Part 9 - Creed III
