Movies - Rocky III

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	Movies - Rocky III

Rocky III (1982) is the third installment in the Rocky movie series, starring Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Talia Shire.

Rocky III features Mr. T, who plays the character Clubber Lang, a contender who has some characteristics of a classic boxing villain whose human side is usually hidden by his loudness.

It also features Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea as the character Thunderlips, a role which helped popularize Hogan.

Taglines:

A Fighter. A Lover. A Legend. The Greatest Challenge.
The Excitement... The Power... The Man...
The greatest challenge.

Plot

Rocky III begins where Rocky II left off, with Rocky winning the title from Apollo Creed (played by Weathers). Creed retires, and Rocky becomes an accomplished champion, making ten defenses of his belt over three years. Meanwhile, he buys a mansion, appears on several magazine covers and makes several TV show appearances (The Muppet Show), and becomes a household name as he appears on everything from T-shirts to chocolate bars. While this is all happening, Clubber Lang is coming up in the ranks, beating everybody put in front of him. He becomes the number one challenger, while Rocky gets reconstructive nose surgery and starts to learn how to speak in public.

While Rocky lives comfortably as the heavyweight champion of the world, his brother in law Paulie (played by Burt Young) still lives in the slums of Philadelphia, and is jealous of his wealthy and successful brother in law. Paulie walks into a video arcade off the streets of Philadelphia, and he spots a Rocky pinball machine. Enraged, Paulie hurls a bottle at the machine, smashing it. Rocky bails Paulie out of jail and eventually takes Paulie under his wing, offering him a ringside job.

Rocky attends a charity boxing-wrestling match with Thunderlips (Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea), with Lang watching at ringside. Early in the match, Thunderlips grabs Rocky and attacks him with a variety of wrestling moves such as the backbreaker and suplex. After being thrown out of the ring, Rocky decides to remove his gloves and fight back finally hurting the wrestler. In a stunning display of strength, Rocky carries Thunderlips and dropped him out of the ring. Ultimately, Rocky and Thunderlips agree to end their match in a draw.

Rocky has a statue unveiled in Philadelphia, but Lang shows up there too, and taunts Rocky that his fights had been fixed after the Creed rematch. Rocky, confused, asks Mickey, his trainer, to explain, and Mickey admits that his fights after winning the championship were against opponents that were hand-picked to make sure they were not of championship caliber, in order to protect him from another dangerous fight like his two fights with Creed. To that end, he strongly advises Rocky against fighting Lang since the challenger is not only brutal, but also has a superior fighting spirit while Rocky has become too comfortable as champion.

Rocky, feeling he needs to prove to himself that he is worthy of his title of Heavyweight Champion of the World, signs to fight Lang, the number 1 contender. Unfortunately, Rocky fails to take his training seriously as he made his pre-fight training public by renting a hotel's multi-purpose, allowing people to interrupt him for pictures or kissing, selling memorabilia, hiring musicians and specialists to decorate his training into a public party, etc. While Rocky relaxed and enjoyed a stylized training, Lang trains himself in isolation pushing himself very hard. Mickey fears disaster as a result.

Lang and Rocky meet at Philadelphia's Spectrum. During a melee before the fight, Mickey is accidentally pushed, hits a tube, and is critically injured. Rocky and Lang fight, but Rocky's mind is on Mickey, and he loses the fight and the championship belt, by a knockout in the second round. When he returns to his locker room, he and Mickey have their last conversation, and Mickey passes away in Rocky's arms.

Rocky is deep in self-doubt, but Apollo comes in to help, and takes him and Adrian to Los Angeles, where Apollo talks to him about "recovering the eye of the tiger," his critical fighting spirit. Apollo starts teaching Rocky how to box with rhythm. Rocky attempts to learn from Apollo, but his regrets and fears sap his resolve and Apollo is frustrated. A heart to heart with Adrian occurs, in which Rocky admits his fears and she reassures him that she will be with him no matter what. Thus inspired, Rocky returns to the training with renewed vigor.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Rocky III ]

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Movies - Rocky III

Plot

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