Rocky
Fight pictures being rare, "Rocky" succeeds as an offbeat entry by combining a Cinderella story with a rich character study of a man who boxes because he doesn't know much else. Sylvester Stallone, who stars in his own original screenplay and choreographed the bouts, is being named for Oscar consideration. Dumb but basically decent, Rocky really can't hurt anyone unless provoked. By a fluke, he is matched with the heavyweight champion (Carl Weathers in a variation on Muhammad Ali). The acting is generally fine and Stallone and Burgess Meredith are superb. One of the oldest plot devi…
