The film is an electrifying true story about an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky—he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told “no” at every turn, Sylvester Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie.
What We Thought:
As a fan of the Rocky films, I enjoyed I Play Rocky. As a person who has acted and worked on studio and independent films, I enjoyed I Play Rocky. As a fan of movies about movies, I enjoyed I Play Rocky. It’s an absolute crowd pleaser, but like most biopics there’s one slight issue with it that I’ll get to in a bit.
Peter Farrelly’s latest is about Sylvester Stallone’s push to get Rocky made in the 1970s. Long before he was one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars he was Mike Stallone, a struggling actor who bounces around to wherever he can afford and even sleeps on the street. He does a little bit of softcore porn to pay the bills because the man is driven. He knows he doesn’t have the prettiest of faces and doesn’t speak like a thespian, but again, the man is driven. He meets a girl through work, a relationship develops and soon they are living in Los Angeles. After not getting the roles he wants, he turns to writing the films he wants to star in. Producers see some talent there and after watching a boxing match on TV, he writes the script for what would become Rocky. The studio loves it, but there’s one problem, they want a star. They try to pay off the writer now going by his real name Sylvester, but he lets them know, “I play Rocky”.
The second half of the film is all about the tricks used to get Rocky made. Whether it’s shooting in Philadelphia to avoid unions or using a new camera (the Steadicam) to avoid costly setups, everything was done as cheaply and as quickly as possible. We see Rocky as one of the biggest film franchises of all time now yet at its beginning, the first film was an indie flick. It was a guerilla style shoot, breaking laws, not pulling permits, shooting while every day people are going about their business. The Steadicam changed how tracking shots were made and the iconic stair run in Philly could have only been accomplished with that camera back in the day. The audience will cheer along with seeing how one of their favorite movies got made.
The only real issue I have with the film is like Michael, Bohemian Rhapsody and other biopics, you feel like you’re watching a caricature. Anthony Ippolito plays Sylvester Stallone playing Rocky Balboa. Other than the financial struggles and his early drive, you don’t see Ippolito as Stallone as much as you see him as Rocky. It’s a biopic about a certain point in Stallone’s life which was him getting Rocky made. Ippolito is good, if not very good, but these movies just seem like caricatures of these people and not human beings. That’s a personal critique, you might not have the same issue as me.
I Play Rocky isn’t just about a movie getting made. Like Rocky itself, it’s an underdog story about a man no one believes in, but he bets the house on himself. Stallone could have taken life changing money for the rights to the script, but he wrote it for one reason, to showcase himself. Rocky is Stallone, Stallone is Rocky. Rocky became a box office hit, a critics darling and won Best Picture. Stallone became a box office draw, an action movie tough guy with multiple franchises under his belt and one of the biggest names in Hollywood history. It will have Rocky fans and the audience clapping and smiling as they watch what it took to get Rocky made. You’ll walk out with the same upbeat feeling you felt the first time you watched Rocky itself. Also, make sure to stay until after the credits because there’s a fantastic sequence at the end.
RECOMMENDED!
Directed by: Peter Farrelly
Written by: Peter Gamble
Produced by: Toby Emmerich, p.g.a., Christian Baha, p.g.a., Peter Farrelly, p.g.a., Paul Currie, Michele Weiss
Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass, Kiki Seto, featuring Matt Dillon with Stephan James and Tracy Letts
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