Rocky Balboa

The Final Rocky movie. The obvious yet crazy seeming question before watching this movie is "are they going to leave it open for Rocky 7 in 2011?" No, it's definitely closure on the Rocky series. In fact, we LOVED the way they closed up the series. It was everything you could want in a Rocky movie. It was meant for true Rocky fans. If you don't care, then don't bother watching the movie, because quite honestly, we don't want to hear about how you didn't like it.

For those that haven't seen it yet, and truly want to, I'm about to share what we liked about it so you may want to wait to read this.

This movie was like the original first Rocky movie. It is meant for the audience to simply watch Rocky's daily life and see how he lives. Some would say it's slow-paced, but that is what I liked about the first film as well. It is about a love story, between him and Adrian, and about how his heart packaged in a rough, awkward exterior touches others around him. From Rocky's relationship with his son, with Pauly, with his fans, and other extremely likeable characters in the movie, it was done well- Just like the original. Of course, I even liked Rocky V, which left the theaters after 2 weeks, in which he manhandled Tommy Gunn in the streets ("Get up you son of a ____, 'cuz Mickey loves ya") and had that scrawny voice actor as a son (Rocky Jr. was much less annoying in the next movie). All of the Rocky movies are classic and have classic lines. This movie is loaded with them ("Fighters fight"). I will buy it as soon as it's on video. One of the things we love about the Rocky movies is that they feel true to life with the awkward characteristics of people in the movie, and the way the characters struggle to show love and then switch to swallowing their pride because of the influence of Rocky. There are certainly some tearjerker scenes in this movie, just like the other scenes in the movies that we love, dealing with hardship and death, and difficulty to move forward like a champion. Of course as always, Rocky's will and passions drive him to conquer beyond what people expect of him. I highly recommend watching the first Rocky movie before going to the theater because characters like Spider Rico and the "screw you, creapo" teenager are in this movie and many references to the first film are easy to miss. By the way, I saw it opening day and the theater was empty. I don't expect the movie to do well. That is exactly why we want you to know what makes this film truly great.

The Lake House

Wow- I'm not sure a good "wow" either. Many have recommended this movie as "surprisingly enjoyable", to which I have to agree with a bit. At the same time there are some laughable things about this movie.

Right off the bat, it stars 2 of the most annoying actors, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock (good idea to expect some chuckles as they attempt romantic dialogue). The premise is very "Back to the Future" themed with attempting to interact with a different time era, Keanu is in 2004 living in the same house as 2006 Sandra did thereafter and they discuss it all through a "magic mailbox" that allows them to "get to know each other". It's actually a cute storyline and I especially liked how Keanu kept crossing paths with Sandra's "other self" from 2004 who hadn't talked with him yet.

DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT: My only problem with the movie was confusing it got at the end when you couldn't figure out which time frame it was and they blindside you with a 2008 Sandra who finds out about Keanu's untimely death. It's very weird indeed. And then she changes events which makes everything previous not make sense at all. There is always that problem with time travel movies though. I loved the movies Frequency and Time Machine. But I remember thinking pretty much the same exact thing in those movies. One thing is for sure, the first thing I would do communicating with someone in 2004 is "magic mail" them an ipod or razer phone. They would make bukos of dollars and be the talk of the town. Keanu should have been mailed a Sports Almanac. Marty McFly was so smart. Except when Biff got in the way. Butthead.