Rocky II

An old-fashioned sequel which plumbs depths and hits heights, in which the lovable Rocky Balboa gets another crack at the world heavyweight championship. On the way, the script really sweats to get your heart pumping: with a risk of blindness and doe-eyed wife Talia Shire's post-natal coma, Rocky's virtuoso dumbness (unable to read the idiot-cards on TV) gets close to the bone. Stallone's performance as a Philadelphia saint in a B movie physique leaves you undecided whether to gag or sob, but the final fight sequences make up for it; a full-blooded Hollywood finale reaching giddy heights of cathartic glee. As a comic strip story stretched to 119 minutes, it has few rivals. DMacp.