Customer Reviews

Rocky Marciano

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a big Marciano fan and cant wait for a realistic movie to come out about him, unfortunately this was not it. If your not familiar with Marciano you may like this simply as a decent piece of filmmaking, but if your looking for an accurate account of the real man, this isnt even close. The cast is okay (penelope miller, and john favreau, among others), but the writing is second rate and as I said, not at all true to the real life story of this great champion. Most egregious was the personality portrayal, a cockiness and even arrogance that was the complete opposite to the humble and soft spoken demeanor of the real Rocky. I dont understand why they didnt consult the family members for guidance because Rockys real life was certainly fascinating, and does not need to be exagerrated to provide interest. As others pointed out there were also events that just never happenned (visiting Louis in a hospital) . Besides the historical inaccuracies this movie really was just average in terms of entertainment. Someday I hope to see a better account that this great hero deserves. James Cameron, Ron Howard are you listening?

I have to say that this movie was extremaly well made. The True Story of a Great legend. "Rocky Marciano" Not only was the acting a 5 star Job well done, But the Music was very Beautiful. The fight scenes were awesome. The best fight was the Marciano/Louis fight. This fight brought a few tears to my eyes. The way they kept goin back and forth. The Music was emotional. The Touchin scene of Rocky visiting Louis after the fight in the dressing room. How that scene went back and forth where Rock was with Louis at the mental institute. Very Terrific film. I can't wait to purchase the Video.

Boxing films:We've seen it all before...it's Rocky Balboa, over and over again. Here's a breath of fresh air- a true story about a real champion. Jon Favreau is terrific as Rocky Marciano, who seemed to be a really nice guy who took care of his friends and family. I watched this film not knowing anything about Rocky Marciano other than the fact that he was a boxer, and this film did a good job at educating me, without ever being sappy or boring.

I caught this movie through On Demand a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to like it but found three issues that took away from the experience. The first being I found the depiction of my hometown of Brockton, MA as a combination hellhole/Village of the Damned as a bit (how can I best say?) unfair. The central conceit for Rocky's motivation to pursue a boxing career was his deathly fear of ending up in the shoe factory where, presumably, he would live his life at constant risk of being maimed or his soul would despair and die over time. In fact, at the time depicted, the late Forties into the Fifties, the local economy was moving away from the manufacturing base toward service industries. As the population grew, those smoke stack business were moving down south or oversea being replaced with more white collar professions. People of my parent's generation were just as likely to be insurance salesmen, nurses or teachers as factory workers. The city has always been resilient and the Rocky was embraced as an emblem of local pride, but he was not the only thing it had going for it.
Secondly, the structure of the movie seemed more akin to a `TV movie', as a series of staged vignettes full of fortunate coincidences tied together to reach an ending, rather than expanding one's appreciation of the subject and gaining insight into the human condition, as boxing movies do better than most other subjects. Post `Raging Bull', the stakes for boxing movies is higher. Throwing in the occasional F-bomb to make it seem more `edgy' just made the problem worse.
Thirdly, the casting was a little off. While I enjoy Jon Favreau's work as an actor (best Friends gueststar ever) and as a director (loved Ironman) he was not, dare I say, entirely believable to someone who grew up with the legend of Rocky being told at the dinner table. Penelope Ann Miller was her usual reliable self but George C. Scott seemed way miscast, was Vincent Gardenia not available?

Just watched this film. John Favreau Man he was AWFUL, Is this really the guy who directed "Cowboys & Aliens?" He didn't even try to study the real Mariano's speeach patterns or his mannerisims. I blame the director Winkler on this, The guy should stick to being a producer as his films as a director STINK! They tried to be Raging Bull instead it was RAGING BS!
The boxing scenes were laughable. The music by Stanley Clark was over dramatic. Which is a shame as he is a terrific bass guitarist.
I best stop and wash my eyes out after seeing this gold plated pile of pooh. It was the worst boxing film I'd seen in my life. Oh Boy!

Favreau does a really great job in this movie. As far as I'm concerned finding someone to portray The Rock would be quite a challenge, as with any great boxer, especially heavyweight. An actor just can't do the same things in a movie that Ali could do, the murderous power of George Foreman cannot be captured by anyone other than Big George. It's the same for Marciano however, in my opinion Favreau does as good a job as anyone, including Deniro in The Raging Bull, in capturing the role. There is more comedy than you might expect but I think it's well placed and Favreau probably can't help but be kinda funny no matter what.

Rocky Marciano was a real life hero when I was a boy and this movie does justice to that memory. Starting from humble beginning, Rocky escapes the fate of his father (played by a believable George C Scott in his final role). This drive to escape the shoe factory and make something of himself becomes his driving force in life. Ultimately it becomes his undoing as develops an obcession with wealth. This very real human aspect of the story seperates it from the standard genre of a boxer pulling himself up by his bootstraps. The interplay and collision of Rocky with Joe Louis gives this tale greater depth. The film is understated, ironic, touching and well worth watching

It's really hard for me to pick this film apart because I love the subject matter so much! Unfortunately, this film tries but, doesn't go the distance. John Favreau never quite convinced me he was the late champion, although I give him credit for going through enough physical conditioning to look like a boxer in the ring. The film starts towards the end of Marciano's life and jumps back and forth to tell the story of the Champ's rise to the title.

One of the biggest problems is that they don't spend enough time in either time period at one time to let you get involved. It's certainly watch-able, but it's very superficial and I felt I was watching a sugar coated TV movie(barf). Why this man's story hasn't been made as a big production film is beyond me. It's an incredible story and it should be done properly. There's too much left out of this film and what's in this film seems fabricated.

I give Jon Favreau props for doing this unlikely champion's story, but not enough to call this a great bio. I rate it 2 1/2 stars.

This is not a bad film. Some pretty good acting and decent writing. But people have got to understand that Hollywood is not interested in historical accuracies (unfortunately). It's only interested in entertainment. Hence forth a nasty little thing called "Artistic license" comes into play. Welcome to the wonderful world of "True Stories". But, it's still a pretty good film and is well worth watching. Very entertaining.

THE ACTING WAS GREAT THE STORY WAS GREAT AND THE FIGHT SCENES WERE GREAT.I liked how it was inspirational, how an unlikely boxer rose to being the only undefeated heavyweight champion.