Risin’ Up
I don’t think I need to spend a great deal of time talking about the films themselves. By now, it’s safe to say that most of us have seen at least one of them. And while it’s not quite true that if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, each film does have a similar premise. The first film depicts Rocky as he moves towards his career-defining fight against Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Burt Young stars as Paulie, the raspy trainer, with Talia Shire starring as the love interest, Adrian, all of which make repeat appearances throughout the series. Rocky II warrants a rematch, while Rocky III brings in Mr. T as Clubber Lang. Rocky IV has Rocky fighting for America against Drago and the Russians, while Rocky V brings the battle back home to Philadelphia. In V, Rocky must fight his own protege while battling financial troubles. Rocky Balboa caps the series with class and see Rocky coming out of retirement for one final battle. For a full summary and discussion of each film, I would point you to imdb.com as my intention here it to just analyze this Undisputed set.
The films aren’t so much in question with this release as the presentation quality and extra features are. I popped in the original Rocky and was encouraged by the dynamic menu that was complimented by the classic Rocky theme. The only real extra feature on this disc is the HD trailer of Rocky, but there are also HD trailers for Flyboys, Windtalkers, The Usual Suspects, and Bulletproof Monk, all of which feel unnecessary and out of place. In terms of image quality, Rocky didn’t impress me, but that was only a sign of things to come. From the sharpness and resolution, it was evident I was watching an HD image, but looking strictly at the lackluster colors, amount of grain, and even blurriness that permeates many scenes — you could be fooled. It seemed to me that very little restoration was done in prepping this film for an HD transfer and it’s a real shame. The audio isn’t nearly as disappointing as the picture, and while it’s not 7.1, the 5.1 mix still does very well for itself.
Rocky II, III, IV, and V suffer similarly. II through V also have a much less interesting menu (and disc label for that matter compared to I or Rocky Balboa). I know it’s just a menu, but it was still discouraging to see. Had the presentation quality been otherwise great, I might not have even mentioned it. That said, the menu is just a static image from the movie with three options – Play, Scenes, and Setup. No matter your choice, a good movie awaits, but once again the disappointing image quality can’t be denied. Some scenes look great, but far too many look very mediocre if not outright poor. Once again, expect a lot of grain, drab color representation, and a fair amount of blur. No extra features are included on these discs, which is fine, as there is a seventh disc for that.
Finally, there is Rocky VI, better known as Rocky Balboa. The Blu-ray disc in this set is exactly what was released a couple of years ago. The image and audio quality here are on par for what you would expect for such a recent film, and they do not disappoint. Several extra features are also included here on this disc and those are:
-Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone
-Deleted Scenes & an Alternate Ending (23m, HD) – There are seven deleted scenes and one Alternate Ending.
-Boxing Bloopers (1.5 minutes, HD) – A brief, but worthwhile blooper reel that should garner a few laughs.
-Skills Vs Will: The Making of Rocky Balboa (17m, HD) – A straight-forward making of feature with cast and crew talking about the process, with lots of behind the scenes and production footage, too.
-Reality In the Ring: Filming Rocky’s Final Fight (15m, HD) – An in depth looking at the final battle between Rocky and Mason “The Line” Dixon.
-Virtual Champion: Creating the Computer Fight (5m, HD) – Another behind the scenes piece on what went into making the computer fight scene.
-Six trailers of other films
A seventh disc contains the rest of the extra features found in this set. These are:
-Feeling Strong Now! Game – A Blu-ray exclusive game. It’s worth a look for Rocky fans, but it isn’t likely to entertain for too long. The idea of the game is to take Rocky through his rivals that he battles throughout his career. The first opponent is Spider, and you’ll move on up through Apollo and Drago. Interaction is done through three modes of play: trivia, punch-picking, and Eye of the Tiger. Trivia questions are all based on the Rocky films. In punch-picking, you simply choose to punch the head or body and then wait to see how the AI responds. The overall point being to keep your vitality meter higher than the AI’s. A fight only takes about five minutes to complete. There are several other miscellaneous rules, and while I’m impressed this much effort went into the game, it isn’t very fun.
-Three Rounds with Legendardy Trainer Lou Duva (5m, SD) – Lou Duva talks about his life and training boxers, with lots of footage of him at work.
-Interview with a Legend: Bert Sugar: Author/Commentator and Historian
-The Opponents (16m, SD) – A look back at the opponents that Rocky faced, and how Producer Chartoff intended for them to be unique and also “better” than Rocky, making Rocky’s triumph that much more significant.
-In the Ring: Three Part Making of Documentary (75m, SD) – A detailed look at the making of the films with plenty of vintage cast and crew interviews and production footage.
-Steadicam: Then And Now with Garrett Brown
-Make Up! The Art and Form With Michael Westmore
-Staccato: A Composer’s Notebook with Bill Conti
-The Ring of Truth (10m, SD) – Art Director James Spencer talks about the artistic themes in the Rocky films and how the sets helped convey the life of Rocky (cold, harsh, unforgiving, etc).
-Behind the Scenes with John Avildsen
-Tribute to Burgess Meredith
-Tribute to James Crabe
-Video Commentary with Sylvester Stallone
-Stallone on Dinah! (1976)
–Rocky Anthology trailers
–Rocky TV Spots
All told, there is over three hours of extras here, but I believe only the interactive game is new. Everything else has been released before. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good material, but it could make the transition for DVD owners a little tougher.
To the summary…