Creed III (2023) - Movie Review

I can’t remember the last time a sports movie got me this worked. Hell, I’m not even sure there was a ‘last time’ for the effect this left on me. In real life, I’m quite comfortable in my pudgy lion-bear physique and look, but coming out of the cinema for this, I felt jacked. Like I just climbed those famous Philly stairs and was ready to throw down in the ring. Having sat through all the Rocky films thus far, along with the previous two Creed films… I can’t recall any of them giving me this kind of endorphin rush before.

Creed (2015) - Movie Review

 

Whenever you think of the words "sports movie", nine times out of ten it’ll be one of the Rocky movies that immediately comes to mind. Another addition of the Sylvester Stallone oeuvre that has ingrained itself permanently into pop culture, it is also some of the best and, at times, cheesiest boxing action in the history of cinema. Of course, as is the case with any highly-lauded franchise, any new instalments are going to be treated with supreme scepticism by the audience. We saw plenty of this earlier in the year with new additions to Mad Max (outstanding), Jurassic Park (pointless) and Terminator (thoroughly disappointing), so we’ve already gotten a decent spectrum of how this could turn out. So, with the upstart director of the surprise success Fruitvale Station at the helm, Stallone coming back as the Italian Stallion himself and franchise producer Irwin Winkler giving his support to the production, how did this turn out?