July 10, 2024 • 44 mins
Thirty-nine years after Rocky, and nine years after the last Rocky sequel, director Ryan Coogler served up a continuation/reboot of the Rocky story. This time, Balboa is not the center of the action. He reluctantly takes on the task of training Apollo Creed’s unknown love child, Adonis. Did he know about this kid before he was killed in the ring? (We never found out.) Does this kid possess the skills, the fight, and the heart his father did? (Would this be a Rocky-verse movie if he didn’t?) Do those American flag boxing shorts make an appearance? (You bet!)?
Is this is better film than any of the other Rocky films that preceded it? You decide.
This is one of Sebastian Brambila’s (@sebastian_brambila) favorite movies. He jumped in and also ran the board.
Do you have a question for one of our Friday “One Good Question” episodes? Share it with us on social media using the hashtag #onegoodquestion.
Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!
Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/ and subscribe for updates about our apparel line at goodcompanyapparel.com https://3sb.co/! Local memberships and international fresh fits!
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Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
50% Facts is a Spreaker Prime podcast on OCN – the Obscure Celebrity Network.
Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) https://www.instagram.com/silentmikke/ and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). https://www.instagram.com/thejimmcd/ Produced by Jim McDonald Production assistance by Sam McDonald and Sebastian Brambila. Theme by Aaron Moore. Branding by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523).
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.
Is this is better film than any of the other Rocky films that preceded it? You decide.
This is one of Sebastian Brambila’s (@sebastian_brambila) favorite movies. He jumped in and also ran the board.
Do you have a question for one of our Friday “One Good Question” episodes? Share it with us on social media using the hashtag #onegoodquestion.
Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!
Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/ and subscribe for updates about our apparel line at goodcompanyapparel.com https://3sb.co/! Local memberships and international fresh fits!
Get early access to our NEXT DROP!
Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
50% Facts is a Spreaker Prime podcast on OCN – the Obscure Celebrity Network.
Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) https://www.instagram.com/silentmikke/ and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). https://www.instagram.com/thejimmcd/ Produced by Jim McDonald Production assistance by Sam McDonald and Sebastian Brambila. Theme by Aaron Moore. Branding by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523).
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome. So since we just didRocky, we decided that we would do
Creed and look at the kind ofyou know, we'll do our our our
film studies paper on the compare andcontrast with with Rocky, Comparing contrast the
one essays I maybe enjoyed as ahigh school student. Yeah, yeah,
(00:31):
I don't know why, just becauseit gives you, like shit, you
don't have to like there's like twopieces of things that you absorb, yeah,
and then yeah, you just chatabout it, or like a report
on a single person, I gottaread his whole life and then you know,
then it feels like I'm just regurgitatingship where a compare and contrast feels
like I get to think. Yeah, and there's also like structural things,
(00:53):
you know, and you can youcan make a list of stuff that,
yeah, that you know is eitherthe same or different or different different in
what ways between the two different things, or choose a category you could Obviously
we're doing movies, so you couldjust compare contrast, storytelling, just compared
characters, just Camberian contrast. Yeah, filmography, Yeah, depending on how
(01:15):
how long your film paper has tobe. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So we got seb As in heretapping in a Creed fan himself. First
off, I'd like to say thatmaybe one of my top this is gonna
be a huge statement, top tenfavorite actors is in this thing. And
it ain't Michael B. It ain'tMichael B. It's this del Phi boxing
(01:38):
coach. Oh yeah, yeah,I remember the Titans. Yeah, yeah,
so good. I guess he isthat Creed's coaches kid. Would maybe
he's not in it much obviously.He becomes more of a character in two
and three, I believe, Yeah, which I haven't seen a long time
either. Actually I just saw threeon the semi while ago, but two
I haven't watched it a long time. He was the same guy was in
(02:00):
Wood Harris. Is that his name? Yeah, A little Duke Burton,
Yeah, little Duke Burton. Yeahhe's in He's in that Lakers series.
Yeah yeah, just to remember theTitans. Old for it though, but
he was really good. I lovehim. Remember the Titans. And then
you recently met my buddy Henry,who was a senior when I was a
freshman in high school. And forsome reason, he always reminded me of
(02:21):
Henry, Like he's he's goofy butdoesn't always want to show it. He's
a great leader, he's he's notlike stoic, but he's like kind of
stoic, you know. And obviously, remember the Titans is the character maybe
that reminds me of it most becauseof the sports relationships. Yeah, but
yeah, it's interesting to watch theseclose together, to see Rocky in both
(02:43):
of them, because my major complaintof Rocky One was that I don't know
who Rocky is. Yeah, like, is he dumb and slow? Is
he a brute? Is he kindof charismatic and kind of funny? Is
he wise? And then these moviesobviously he's much older, but they really
I think they nail who Rocky isor who I want him to be better
(03:04):
in Creed than they do in theseother movies. Oh by far, Yeah
he's far. He's awesome in Creed. Yeah he's really really. I mean,
this is why he's the only onlyactor to be nominated in the Lead
Actor category and Supporting act Actor charactercategory for the same character. Oh.
I never knew that, but thatmakes sense. Yeah, you know,
(03:24):
I mean Rocky One doesn't really makesense to me still, but I wasn't
alive when it came out, soit's hard for me to it was the
vibe of movies. It was justit was very game changing at the time
it was. It was a moviedefinitely of its time, whereas this movie
is definitely of its time as well. I don't think you could have made
Creed the way Creed is back inseventy five seventy six. Yeah. Yeah,
(03:45):
there's so much going on. Yeah, but talk about like pace.
Yeah, pace is outstanding in thismovie. There's only you're always in.
Yeah, you're either in on herstory, you're in on their love story,
you're in on his boxing story,or you're in on his mom's story.
There's always a story that's filled out. It's not even like because sometimes
people will bread crumb stories to makeit feel like there's a lot going on.
Yeah, you know some Star Warsstuff, the newer ones, Right,
(04:09):
they're just like throwing bread crumbs andyou don't really know what's going on.
But this one, they have fullstories around each character and like a
perfect amount of time. Yeah,Bianca so much better character than Adrian was
in the first movie. Yeah.The actress is obviously pretty solid. Yeah,
and the story itself and the characterdevelopment is so good. Yeah,
and it gets even better. Ithink two and three she gets filled out
(04:30):
more and it's really good. Yeah, just to sort of hit the high
points of the story itself. Welearn very early in this movie that Apollo
Creed, who died in Rocky fourfour four, I think, yeah,
Drago in the beginning of four.I believe that's correct. Yeah, he
(04:58):
had an affair with another woman whowas not Marianne his wife. Yeah,
and had a child who was bornafter he died in the ring. And
then that that he I maybe neverknew about. It's not clear. That
is unclear. It sounds yeah,it sounds like no, because I think
he died before he was even born, So it's in like that training camp,
(05:23):
probably, yeah, potentially. Yeah. What we don't know is how
so his his mother died when hewas ten? Is that right? He
says young? Yeah, I don'tknow. But he talks about going to
like, yeah, foster homes,Yeah, in and out of Foster Homes,
in and out of Juvie. Andthen Mary Anne Creed finds him.
(05:45):
Is she she's a sitcom mom?Right? Yeah? That was she.
Felicia Rashad was the wife on Cosby, Okay, and Cosby is another thing.
I just didn't watch a ton offirst Michael B. Jordan was on
Cosby as a baby or something,a baby, but he was he was
a kid. But yeah, becauseI wonder how old Michael B. Jordan?
This movie is, what mid twenties? You think? I believe he's
(06:08):
somewhere between twenty five and thirty.He's younger than Rocky was in Rocky Michael
B himself or you mean Donnas Donna'sYeah, Donnas. They make it seem
like he's up, has a chanceto become up and coming obviously. Yeah,
so I would imagine, yeah,mid twenties and Rocky's thirty. But
I wonder where Michael B is becausehe looks young. Yeah, I don't
know. And it's probably similar timewhen Creed come out twenty fifteen, Frue
(06:30):
filifteen, Fruitvale Station is twenty twelveprobably, And obviously Michael B. Had
a career. He's been acting hiswhole life, but those these two movies
I feel like kind of put himon right, like Fruitvale was one of
his Like, oh shit, thiscouldn act some serious shit. Michael B.
Jordan middle of three children. Bornin Santa Ana, California, raised
in Newark, New Jersey, that'san interesting combination of places to grow up.
(06:56):
Son of Donna Davis, a highschool counselor, and Michael A.
Jordan. His middle name, Bakari, means noble promise in Swahili. Interesting
he is related to Michael Jordan's inthe movie Yeah Greed was yeah. Oh
no, Michael b was acting twentyeight. Michael b was twenty eight because
(07:17):
he looks younger, right, yeah, he was born Yeah, he was
born in eighty seven. Oh,he's fucking my age. I was born
in eighty eight. Yeah, thetwo sexiest men in the world. That's
crazy. He's up twenty We dohave a lot of like me and Michael
B Man that was crazy. Bothjacked both on our thirties. Yeah,
(07:38):
he's probably thirty six thirty seven rightnow. He was homeschooled but allowed to
play on the basketball team in NewJersey's Newark Arts High School. Nerd.
Yeah, art the art sports.Yeah, he could have gone to what
we were just talking about where Lowand them went. Luel grew up in
Newark, New Jersey. He didn'tgrow up, but he did high school.
(07:59):
That he did high school because andhe came through the UK, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, soCharlie Villanuevo's an NBA All Star.
Yeah, they got a bunch offreaks out there in Jersey. He was
in Toys, r us Ads andModel's Sporting Goods. Yeah, I just
knew he was like in it.Even Disney Channel, Baby, did you
have a little Disney Channel show orrun? I believe I wanted to get
(08:20):
there in a second huge anime fanand I read this the other day.
We're not covering Creed three, butCreed three is structurally an anime. M
I heard that when it came out. Interesting, try to tap all the
nerds in that's why it's slower.Oh probably maybe, yeah, because anime
is kind of slow for like thezoomers to be into it all. Even
(08:41):
Dragon Ball. Yeah, it's along game. Yeah. He was in
the second Fantastic four. Yeah,terrible. Yeah, it was not a
good movie. I mean, Idon't know if the first was any better,
but that one was bad. Yeah, first one was maybe better.
You get Jessica album and she's likehalf naked in it. That's kind of
worth the whole movie. She's avisit girl, and I think her clothes
(09:01):
like going visible or whatever. Youknow, that's that's a trick. Yeah,
Scalva's worth for sure. He was, Yeah, because that was our
queen. That was top oh line, Yeah that she was it forever.
Yeah, she was it forever.At around at the same time as this,
I guess he was offered the roleof doctor Dre and straight out of
(09:22):
Compton. Oh he kind of hasit a little bit. Yeah yeah,
straight up. Comfort was all right, I think I know that thing got
so much love. That was allright. I liked it so uh,
Marianna doobts Adonnis Johnson. His lastname is Johnson, which seems around age
eight nine, ten, eleven,twelve. Yeah, yeah, probably preteen
(09:43):
for sure. Yeah, pre hypesbut obviously in a rough place and wants
to fight everybody already. Yeah.Yeah, he's knocking people out in Juvie.
Obviously got through Juvie because of violence. You get the vibe. And
then but as soon as she kindof says who she is and that he
has a dad, you could youknow again that kid's a good actor too.
They kind of like change its facialexpressions. You're like, all right,
(10:05):
this kid has a heart and themyou know, there's good, there's
good in him. Still, Ifeel it. Yeah, you know what
I mean, it's a Star Warsnever finally come on, come on a
little bit, just im just testingyou. Uh. Then there's a time
jump and he is working a corporatejob, but he's fighting in Mexico and
(10:26):
he's living with his mom. Itseems like he's living with mom maybe,
which Creed is obviously rich as ShipYeah, yeah, she's just fine.
Yeah she did find she's not she'snot poor. Yeah. And this fake
world that we're in, which Ido like they tie in like a real
ESPN HTI and ship I kind oflike one. It's like that because it
feels real. And they talk aboutCreed being one of the best fighters of
all time and in the conversation forthe best, so they throw them in,
(10:48):
which you know, kind of worksout right, like in the world
if you go, like Muhammad Ali'skind of on the way out, Creed
and Rocky are on the way in. Yeah, and then Mike Tyson probably
took over, and then now we'reinto you know, like the timelines do
kind of line up where it isa possibility. But yeah, they talk
about it being the greatest ever.Holy I don't know what that was.
(11:09):
It was a trash can falling onthe lid. Okay, yeah, and
it's yeah, he's fighting Mexico fortwenty bucks. He's figuring it out,
Yeah, trying to brawl. Hismom doesn't obviously want him to fight because
she lost her husband who died inthe ring. Yeah, of course,
right, of course. And andI just don't know dad stuff. First
thing, I cried this whole movie, the entire thing, front to back.
(11:31):
I cried. I'm gonna tell youthat every time I've I've probably seen
this movie three or four times,yea, every time it gets me.
Yeah, I cried every time whenever. And I've mentioned all these movie reviews.
You do if you mix sports andyou mix dad stuff, like I'm
gonna cry, yeah, And he'sdoing all that. So I don't understand
what I don't understand. And that'sthis whole group, the whole fucking company
here has dad issues. You know, everyone's got dad issues in here.
(11:58):
They Uh, I don't know ifI've never met my dad. If I'm
going to like love boxing, yeah, unless it's just I think that we're
we're led to believe that there issome genetic thing, right, and maybe
a hard thing. Maybe I do. Maybe there is something like fuck to
my dad. Was that guy like, fuck, I gotta go box?
(12:20):
And it might have something to dowith how old he was when he found
out who his dad was, right, because he did. He's like twelve.
Yeah, he was not told andthen of all of a sudden,
you think it's cool and started andyou've already been punching kids in the parking
lot. Yeah. The other thingabout this they show, basically until the
very end, that he's very selftaught and he just watches videos. Yeah,
which is kind of cool and kindof true. I think I talk
(12:41):
about this on podcasts and off oftenthat like supposedly Bones Jones, who is
the best pound for pound MM fighterin the history of MMA, literally like
learn muay Thai on YouTube, right, and you know, like is insane,
so like it's not that crazy tothink. And so when he gets
into training, all he's asking foris like crumbs, Hey, give me
(13:03):
a tip, give me a drill, give me Yeah, because he's he
knows he's knocking out random fools prettygood in Mexico. Self taught gives him
a lot of confidence. Yeah,he he quits his job and wants to
box full time, and mom isnot happy with that. Yeah, I
wonder what that was. What's theline there? Or no, what the
(13:24):
line was that like tip that edge? I don't know. I just I
didn't go to uh Delphi boxing rightthen before or after he quit. It
was after, it was after,because I wonder if that's the tipping point.
I think it's so. Well,that is Dad's trainer's son who he
thought would be his mentor told himno, right, and so he said,
oh no, and then it givesyou throws the bird and says all
(13:46):
right, well then I'm going allin. I'm gonna show you, right.
I wonder if that's the tipper Yeah. I did a thing to note.
Delphi is the was the home ofApollo literally yeah, in Greek pathology.
Yeah that's too yeah, both andand the hotel that they stay in
in Liverpool, Yeah, is theAdelphi hotel. Same thing. I didn't
(14:07):
see that same but I knew theDelphi And then I looked up a front
street where he ends up training.We don't have to go pace by pace
because there's a million little jumps inbetween there. Although they all like that
doesn't feel crammed in the movie.No, although a million things kind of
happened right away to kind of setup what's happening. But training for his
championship fight, he goes to FrontStreet Boxing. Yeah, and there's something
(14:28):
in the back of my head becausewhen I was with Rebok, there was
some kind of I don't know,I don't want to say charity, but
there was like a story that Reebokdid and Reebuck did a bunch of cool
things with the communities in Boston thatweren't doing so good, Like we went
and went to a foster kids homeand like redid their garden one day,
a bunch of athletes, which wascool and it was fun because they're all
(14:50):
like, it's all my buddies thatlike we all just deadlift to five fifty
together and so we all know we'rephysically capable, and so we're just smash
and dirt around like we're crushing theshit. You know. Jen was there,
like we're just bob in on thisthing. Just redid this whole lawn.
So they did a lot of outreach, and I know they did something
I thought it was called Front StreetBoxing in Boston, So some rang in
(15:11):
my head. I was like,Oh, I wonder if that's fucking real
and I googled it and it's definitelyreal in Philadelphia. The building, the
inside all like a legit boxing gym, which is cool. So where he
trains there with Rocky and some randomboxing friend. I guess. Yeah,
let me get to that in justa second. Like initially goes to to
Philadelphia, he goes to Mickey's gym, yeah, which he kicks him out
(15:33):
halfway. Yeah, because yeah,Mickey's. Mickey's gym is the gym from
Rocky and the thing that's very weirdand curious about it is that in one
of the later Rockies, after Mickeydies, he leaves the gym to Rocky.
Sure, so it seems very possiblethat Rocky still owns that gym,
(15:58):
But I think maybe the memories aretoo much there and so he can't be
there. So he's got the otherguy Everyone's dead running it. Yeah everywhere.
Wife dies, So we find outthat Creed obviously died in the ring,
which ends up being Rocky's best friend, Pauli. His other best friend
dies maybe from AOL way. Yeah, his wife yeah dies. So if
(16:19):
I'm Rocky, I'm not want tobox either. Yeah. Create creator Adonnish,
Michael B. Shows up to hisrestaurant, which is like a funny
thing that he's a restaurant owner.Yeah, when you consider the lavish lifestyle
they had in California. Yeah,he's got money somewhere. Probably. I'm
sure he still has money. Idon't think that that's a question. I
(16:41):
think that's like the storyline is thatRocky like just doesn't want that life.
He just chooses to live the wayhe wants. He's happy. This is
where he's from. Yeah, hehas a little bar. He just kind
of hangs out. It looks likeit's an Italian bar. I could tell
by the you might not know thissebos. It's not very common on the
West Coast, but those tablecloth,the checker tape is just fucking Italian Italian.
(17:02):
Yeah, you're just getting the bestpizza of your life and the best
salad you've ever had at a spotlike that. Every Italian spot. My
dad's best friend in Portland, who'sa New York Italian cat, owned one.
Like everything in Cleveland, all thelittle Italian joints have those, like
just so typical. And obviously otherpeople use it too, like it's kind
of a typical picnic blanket. Itis a typical pattern, but hella Italian
spots and obviously they lean into Rocky'sItalians in rock or slies Italians in Rocky
(17:29):
in Rocky. And it really showsat the end here his nose got bigger.
He talks better than he did inRocky, like he's just so Italian,
all the wise shit he's saying tohim, all the silly jokes he's
playing with him and his girlfriend throughand the whole thing, like you have
very Italian uncle vibes. Yeah heOh god, I was gonna say.
He doesn't want to doesn't want aDonnis to train at at Mickey's gym,
(17:56):
so he takes him to the otherplace just because of the fight though,
right, yeah, just because ofthe fight. But I think also,
I think there's more to it,and I think you just don't know.
So who's running the gym at Mickey'sson is supposedly the best kid in Philly
at the time, and that guyfinds out I don't know how Oh,
he called Marianne, called Mary Anne. He he does some investigative work and
finds out Michael B. Jordan isCreed's kid. Yeah, that's been on
(18:18):
the low. He goes by Johnsonhe doesn't want the world to know,
which is understandable too. And then, uh, the guy who runs the
boxing match thinks it's probably just atrampoline for his son to beat a Creed,
so sets up this fight in whichRocky doesn't want Creed training there and
decides to kind of train him.Yeah, and but when he brings him
(18:42):
into that Front Street gym and thatthat group of guys comes over, that
is the realist moment I think inthe whole cool and this is a very
realistic movie in a lot of ways. But that was super real because those
people, those guys felt like thatthat was their real job. And I
know you know Stitch right, uhyeah, like the real Stitch. Yeah
(19:06):
yeah, yeah, do you knowStitch. So the cut man that is
part of his training team at theFront Street is known as the best cutman
in m m A. Oh yeah, he's a real cutman. He works
in the UFC. He left orgot fired. There's something weird there,
something, Yeah, something weird happenedwith the UFC. But he was like
famous in the UFC for being thecorner guy. So he's is legitimate.
That's why all of his hand businessaround that is so perfect. Yeah,
(19:30):
it's just completely believable because he's thebest. He's really doing it. He's
really doing it. Speaking of that, when they tell him how many fingers
the guy's holding up, Yeah,it's so good. I don't remember watching
that the first time I do.That's that's really really clever. Yeah,
it's cool because I think in theUFC, at least, because the UFC
is such a big league, youdon't have your own cutman. They provide
him, and that's who Stitch was. But in boxing, yeah, I
(19:51):
think it's part of your creer,part of your career. Yeah, I
pretty much it has to be right. Yeah, yeah, because even sparring,
you're gonna fucking jack up your knucklesand ship. But when when he
brought him in there and the waythose guys were like semi circled around him,
and you could just like feel howsupportive they were. Like this guy,
you know, he's nobody, butat the same time he's the son
(20:12):
of somebody, and the love forrockies so deep is so Yeah, it's
oh my god. I mean,talk about the first really emotional scene to
me, and that was that one. It's like, now, these guys,
these guys are going to take careof him. They're regardless, They're
gonna take care of him. Theroots on Rocky are cool in the city
(20:34):
because they they show that he's likea local hero, but he's not a
celebrity, you know, like everyoneknows them, everyone kind of respects them,
but no one bugs them. Andeven same thing with Creed in a
sense where even the girlfriend eventually findsout, you know, Michael B.
Jordan's a Creed and like how famoushe is? They play all that up.
I do wonder, like worldwide howfamous Rocky is because they make it
(20:59):
that Creed is the greatest of alltime, and then Rocky's like famous for
everyone says what's up, Like,oh, I didn't know your uncle was
Rocky Balboa, Like she knows,but she's from Philly, So is he
just like a Philly legend or ishe like the guy? Because that's a
true thing, like you can havethe like boxing is just as big now
as ever, Like there's money flowingeverywhere, and I can't name a champ,
(21:21):
you know what I mean, Solike Rocky could have been the champ
and no one really knows besides Phillylike grabbed on to him. Maybe you
know. I don't know, youknow, cause it is such a local
thing and that's so cool. Likewith every city. Obviously, Philadelphia is
a giant city, and they showsome better parts of it this time versus
Rocky One. They just literally showthe hood yea here, even though they
(21:42):
try to show some of that culturewith Meek Mill rap and all the guys
on motorbikes, which is a verymeek mial thing. I know it's a
very Philly thing, but Meek Millmade that really cool on the internet.
I think it's actually how he gotarrested in New York. He was screaming
around on all of those bikes.Yeah, but they show like the Philly
culture, they show the hip hopculture. They show the evolution of boxing,
(22:04):
which did start to intertwine with hiphop culture in the nineties and two
ks, So I thought all thatwas kind of cool too. Where I
don't know if they're I mean,it probably is Italian. I don't know.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that Rocky'sItalian and my uncle was from Italy
that was a pro boxer. ButI feel like there is an Italian American
(22:25):
root of boxing too. In likethe World War two Ish era with Rocky
owning a restaurant and essentially like heowns a restaurant and he's essentially the host.
He's not yeah, he's not reallyrunning it, no. I mean
you see him hosting kind of andyou see him packing stuff from a van.
(22:45):
It was the only work you see. But yeah, that's that's only
work you see for sure. Butin Raging Bull, Jay Clematta, as
a retired fighter owns a restaurant,owns a restaurant. Interesting, yeah,
yeah, and that's kind of veryItalian too, Yeah right, oh for
sure, like Irish folks. Yeah, I might open a bar or something
and fucking Italian folks opian restaurant.Yeah, because I mean the generation,
(23:10):
that's where things start to get reallytight. And on the West Coast,
you know, for Sebos or otherpeople that grew up there, it's very
normal to have like immigrant type familieswhere like half our members their parents moved
here from the Philippines or whatever.But on the East Coast that happened much,
that happened one hundred years ago,and so that's very common for me
because my family's tied into that.You know, my family literally floated over
(23:33):
from Italy. Onto Ellis Island.You know, like that's all very true,
and like I understand it, butWest Coasters might not understand that that's
Rocky is that generation, right,Like his dad probably floated over and so
he had to come up. That'swhy he grew up poor. Probably that's
how he had to build a careerkind of thing on the West coast.
Again, they're so so common tothe diversity. But back there, Yeah,
(23:56):
the Italians and the Irish were thethey're only immigrants. Yeah, they
were the immigrants in the early nineteenhundreds. And just my family came so
long, like so long before EllisIsland. So yeah, it's a totally
different or like Boston, totally differentexperience. Yeah, the Carolinas or whatever
in Virginia and yeah, the firstwhatever, the Colonially what I was I
(24:21):
gonna say, the love story isa million times better. Yeah, it's
creed than it is in Rocky becauseI don't want to say it's because neither
one of them seem like they're onthe spectrum. But yeah, I mean
obviously Adrians Adrian obviously isn't charismatic,No, and so like you can like
(24:45):
movies to not show charismatic people justseems backwards, like, yeah, you
want to set the scene, butif it's a main character, that's awkward,
like why are we filming that?Yeah, you know, it just
doesn't really make sense. Yeah,but Youanka has a lot of walls,
yeah, boundaries, and you startto dig into it a little bit more
in the upcoming movies. But thisone they show her and she mentions her
(25:06):
becoming deaf. Yeah, she's hasprogressive hearing loss. She wears hearing it.
She's a musician trying to make it. And maybe that's some of the
just like East Coast shit too,you know, like they always talk about
We've talked about it here too.There's a comedian that did it. I
just don't know who, but alwaystalks about the difference between being nice and
being kind, and they talk abouta lot of the East Coasters are truly
(25:26):
kind. They'll come off cold andthey'll tell you you're a fucking idiot,
but they're gonna help you change thetire on your car. Where in California
per se, people would say there, everyone's so nice. They'll see you
with the flat tire and they'll saylike, oh my gosh, I'm so
sorry. That's so inconvenient and thenthey'll speed off. Yeah, you know,
and that's just so true and solike I think she's kind of a
representation of that. Like you cantell her her heart's kind, like she's
(25:49):
really sweet, but like she doesn'twant to let him in the house.
She doesn't let them take on adate. She's like, no, fuck
you, buddy, let me domy thing. I'm over here. It's
kind of like a New York versusCalifornia joke, and Philly is obviously a
giant city, but it's basically fuckingNew York. Same people, same ship,
Yes, same general idea. Yeah, cold fucking hard working folk.
(26:11):
So yeah, they build her charactergood. They do build that good.
Although like the love scenes are fast, you know, like they have one
date and all of a sudden they'regoing to Rocky's house and she's at the
boxing matches and he's at the musicthing. Yeah, it was It was
interesting that that parts definitely interesting.Interesting the way that that Donnie Adonnas was
(26:32):
able to push Rocky in the directionhe wanted him to go. Yeah,
he I wouldn't say it was manipulativebecause it was too obvious to be manipulat
manipulative when I think it comes froma genuine spot, Like he calls him
unk, like lovingly. He knowsthat it was his dad's best friend.
Yeah, like he knows there wasties there. And that's where like this
movie just is better than Rocky sadlybecause there's there's like emotional ties there.
(26:56):
Rockies, everyone in his life thathe loved is dead, Adonnis, everyone
in his life that he knew orshould have loved is never around, you
know. So for them to havelike that, it's like Creed is their
mutual tie. And and and ifyou ever lost anyone that like died or
like lost someone that you loved,there is a tie there. Like there's
(27:18):
some friends that I had that weremutual friends with my best friend who passed,
and like there's just always something there, like, oh, like you
knew Jared, like you knew mybest friend, you know, like you
spent time with him. There's alwayssomething there. And so I think that's
kind of this Creed. Yeah,Rocky's lost, Rocky's just fucking running the
clock. And he talks about dyingand it obviously ends up he has cancer
(27:40):
and he talks about like, yeah, man, everyone's gone, Like I'll
die right now, Like, Idon't give a fuck U. Those scenes
were honestly hard to watch too.Well. Him going to the graves.
I don't really visit graves. Mostpeople I love were cremated and I don't
even know where they are. Uh, but but it just seems so raw,
(28:02):
Like he just sits there and he'sjust mumbling his words. He's like
vogging. Yeah, he keeps achair hanging in the tree. Yeah.
I love that. Yeah, he'sjust reading the newspaper. He's like,
let's see what's going on today.He just wants to kick it, you
know. Yeah. Yeah, becausehe's got no one. He's got no
one. And so for I thinkhim to come out of his shell once
he sees that Donnie isn't just therefor fame or something, I think,
you know, he had to feelhim out a little bit. So before
(28:26):
this movie started filming, Uh,Sage Stallone died of a heart attack.
His son. Oh, I didn'tknow that. And so because he's in
you know, like we said,he's in Rocky four and five or five.
Yeah, and then he's played bysomebody else in Rocky Balboa. Yeah
that's crazy. We didn't know that. Yeah, and he he nearly had
(28:48):
a full breakdown over it, andCoogler was able to convince him to use
that film as a dedication to hisson. So a lot of the ship
that you see him working through,you see Rocky working through. I think
that a lot of that is stalloneworking through some of the same kind of
issues. Probably true. I mean, yeah, the mental the mental hurdles
(29:11):
he probably went through as an actor, like human. Yeah, and we
see a parallel, we see apicture of Sage, just a little kid.
Yeah, and they mentioned it.Yeah, this is just a side.
You know what. Rocky is anickname for Robert. I never heard
that it's universally except you've got aRobbie or rob or whatever. You can
(29:34):
be Rocky. I worked with aRocky and his Uh, he's had a
female Rocky too. That might havebeen just her name though probably his.
Uh. His son's name is Robert, so he's or my dog. Rocky's
a good name. D is apretty good name. And so it was
Donnie. Yeah, Adonna's call himDonnie. It's a good name. Adonna's
(29:56):
is a bit much. It's it'sa little bit of a mouthful. I
realized why it was done, butwith just like even dogs, like a
lot of people name the dog Zeus, and I just grew up learning about
all that. It just feels weird. Yeah, And I know, different
cultures and different and some people justdon't care. And it's not like I'm
fucking I don't pray to Zeus,but it just feels weird. You know,
even naming my dog Jesus, thatwould feel weird. You know,
(30:18):
That's what I was gonna say.Different culture is kind of normal. The
name your Kidjyeshu's. But yeah,like to me, for some reason,
all that gets a little weird.So Donnis is a cool tie, but
then you just call him Donnie andthen it doesn't feel as weird. Yeah.
Uh. This was the first,uh, first Rocky film that was
not written by Sylvester Stilone, firstrocketing you know, extension. It's I
(30:41):
think we talked about this a littlebit before. It's probably the most seamless
like handoff. Yeah, it's good. There's a lot of Again, the
character building is good, the storieswithin them feel real and like emotional.
The music, the fighting itself isgood. There's more training and more fighting,
right, if you're gonna make aboxing movie, which they did in
twenty fifteen versus the seventies. You'regonna have to keep someone's attention. So
(31:03):
there's a lot more gym stuff,there's a lot more training stuff. The
music's turned up into like a hiphop vibe, much deeper culture. Again
that the Conlin it's a BACKU.Conlin's vibes are like kind of like Creed's
in a sense where like he's onlyin there like ten seconds, but he's
a big part of the whole thing. Yeah, the Creed in Rocky,
(31:23):
Yeah, I say, yeah,you know, like we said he but
he has more character development than Creeddid in the first Rocky. They do
build up like who he is ina sense because of the English stuff,
and they kind of build the Americaversus England ties. Graham McTavish is,
Yeah, his his manager, trainer, whoever. Yeah, he plays a
(31:45):
couple of different characters in Outlander,and he's in but he's been a character
actor for a long, long longtime. And again, I don't know
boxing in the seventies, and Idon't know that much about boxing now.
I'm a very casual fan. Butit seemed like a random stretch for Creed
to fight Rocky and Rocky one,right, yeah, like, oh,
they just picked this out of ahat. They got nothing to do.
(32:07):
This one feels like he could happen, the Conlin versus Adonnas. Yeah,
because he had fifteen fights, He'sgot his father's name, and boxing is
a business that would try to sellthat. Oh for sure, you know
what I mean. Like even theFrancis and Gano, Francis and Gano was
the heavyweight champ, but the UFChad no boxing and then he gets a
(32:28):
title shot. Yeah, because theyknow it selles tickets. And so the
Donnas one to Conlin feels like,oh okay, I could see HBO doing
this, like this is gonna makemoney for them. It just felt more
real where the Rocky One's like allright they did that for the movie.
Yeah, you know, it justlike takes me out of it a little
bit, like again the ESPN announcingon it, Like it just feels like,
oh, this feels like I livehere, and obviously generationally I did.
(32:49):
Right, I'm in my mid twentiesand twenty fifteen years, so it
feels more real to me. Yeah, or maybe in the seventies it did
feel real to this segment of PTIthat was in Yeah, and then uh
Kalerman was fucking outstanding in this movie. He was just playing himself but I
don't know if he wrote his linesor whatever, but I mean, it
(33:12):
was just it was just perfect.It was literally perfect. Yeah. I
wonder because this movie got some lovewhen it came out, but I feel
like it is a better movie.Like I feel like it's kind of underrated
still, it may be, it'sit's I think it's got to be the
very best of the whole series,probably because he had two and three.
You know, they're gotta make them, but they're solid. And yeah,
(33:32):
maybe we will have to do likea Rocky four or five to see the
evolvement of it, because again I'veseen them all, but I've never like
watched them to report on it.So maybe Rocky four and five speed up
a little bit. And obviously thecharacters developed because Rocky has five movies six
really, so maybe it gets there. But just how much how much good
story, good emotion, and likegood action they show within just introducing all
(33:59):
the characters are new besides Rocky.I mean, mary Anne's kind of around,
but yeah, different actress obviously,Yeah, Marianne was the name of
my godmother. I think that twodifferent women played mary Anne over the course
of the Rocky movies makes sense,and I get that why they didn't.
I think one of them was notavailable. On the other one they decided
not to bring back. If you'reif you're casting this movie, you get
(34:21):
a whole lot more out of bringingFelicia Rashad, then you do just the
legacy actress for that for the oneof them for the role. I just
I don't think so. I thinkthat that's just that's a business note brainer,
right. And she was at it, Yeah, No, she was.
She was great. And most ofher scenes are by herself yea or
(34:44):
good half of her scenes are byherself. Yeah, and they're fairly short.
Yeah, they're kind of monology.Yeah. Uh. Salloane rewrote all
the Rocky dialogue because he said thatthe timing, the cadence of the of
the lines wasn't right interesting. SoI'm sure that they probably came around to
say the same thing. But likeyou can see, it's the same character.
(35:07):
It's just an it's an evolution ofthe of the same guy. No,
Rocky becomes cool man, he's wise. Yeah. Yeah, Donna's trying
to keep getting coaching from him,and he's like, this is what I
do, Like, I'm coaching yourbrain, basically says you know, Like
he says, like, I'm notgoing to coach you. I can't.
I can't do all this stuff.I can't teach you how to hit like
I used to. But I canteach you. I'm coaching your brain,
yeah, heart, And I cantell you about strategy. I can tell
(35:28):
you about you know, he wasgood. He was really good, and
I'm clearly a very good conditioning coach. Yeah. Yeah. I thought they
would maybe lean more into Donnie watchingfilm like they did in the beginning,
to show that he like studied thegame. And then obviously when he first
meets Rocky, he talks a tonabout the history. But it was his
dad, so like I thought,maybe his niche was that. And obviously
(35:51):
they don't really go into it likeRocky. They go into saying he's not
athletic, right, They basically showlike Rocky is just he hits pretty hard
and he's just a tough son ofa bitch and that's how he succeeds.
They haven't really showed you or toldyou why Michael b Is good yet Yeah,
you know, like in the fightthey show like, all right,
he's pretty tough and he's athletic,but they don't like give him a style.
I guess per se. And Ithought maybe his niche as a fighter,
(36:13):
because you watched all that film,would be like he's just stud like
you work out works like that,the non ring shit, Like yeah,
yeah, you know, because becausethat's what they say about like the Tom
Brady's and the Peyton Mannings and man, they just watch tape and they just
know football better than anyone knows fuckingfootball. Lebron James. They talk about
how much he knows the game.So I thought maybe that would be his
story, but they that's the onething that I feel like planted seeds and
(36:36):
didn't develop. Yeah, that's agood point. Did you know the speaking
of watching film though, when he'swatching the footage from the first uh Rocky
Apollo Creede fight, Yeah, helpedme. If it's if I'm remembering this
correctly. I felt like he wasfighting as Rocky yeah, with shadow boxes.
(36:59):
Yeah it was going to get Yeah, I feel like he was fighting
his dad yeaheah, Yeah, soI'm not I'm not wrong. So that
was a cool scene. That's whyI thought it would all tie in,
like, oh, maybe this guyis just like mega studying and this is
how he learns, so he justgoes no. He was definitely trying to
like, yeah, kind of fighthis dad. So there were like basically
three big boxing sequences in the wholethe whole film. When he's fighting in
Mexico, there's the his first youknow, real fight, which is,
(37:24):
uh, all one shot. It'sall steady cam. There's no there are
no cuts in that one at all, which is as we talked about in
Rocky. Rocky was in the thirdthird movie ever to use a steady cam
and so appropriate that they that theyshot that shot it this way, that
(37:44):
shot that uh, that fight isa shot for shot recreation of the fight
in Rocky four. Yeah. Iwas gonna say, I'm sure there's a
tie someone. Yeah, it's it'sit's it's shot for shot for Rocky four.
It's just shot, you know,all all in one. Yeah,
yeah, all in one one,no no cuts. And then there's the
(38:07):
final fight, the twelve rounds versusfifteen in Rocky twelve in Creed Yeah,
yeah, and he loses obviously bysplit decision kind of a similar ending ish,
Yeah, very similar to although hedidn't set his goals either. I
think his goals were to get thebelt. Yeah, you know, he
didn't say like, oh, Ijust gotta last with this guy. There
(38:28):
wasn't kind of that story. Itwas just like I think it was.
The story for this was slightly orthe goal for the fight was slightly less
spoken. But it was just toprove that you belong. Yeah, right,
because the whole thing he has Creedon the shorts. Now he's getting
announced as a Creed. He's like, am I a Creed? And like
do I deserve that name? Ina sense like the deeper meaning I love
(38:51):
that the shorts say Creed in thefront and Johnson on the back. Yeah,
they're dope. Yeah, it's acool touch. It's sent by his
mom, who he hasn't talked to. Yeah, that made me cry.
Yeah, that was dope me too. And then yeah, and then obviously
the girlfriend coming in at the end, very very similar. He's all beat
up at the end, very verysimilar, similar vibes. Yeah, and
then the end of the film iswalking the up the Rocky Steps Philly with
(39:20):
Rocky who is diminished from his howeverlong he's been on chemo. Yeah,
there's a couple of scenes where he'slike throwing up and ship and the makeup
and s Souff is crazy. Yeah, like they made him hell a bold,
hella pale. Maybe it's c GI even, I don't know,
but he actually looks like insanely oldand sick, where in a couple of
the earlier shots in the restaurant helooks good. Yeah, for sure,
(39:42):
for sure, and just uh showingthe way that that Adonis was taking care
of of Creed and really forcing himto to to get chemo and to get
treatment because yeah, neither of themmad families. Yeah for a long time,
Like Rocky kind of seems like hegrew up like Adonnas a little bit,
(40:04):
like you know, yeah, youdon't really know anything about his family
or Yeah, and then obviously loseshis adult family and then yeah, Adonnas
doesn't really have one, so itdoes feel like full circle in a sense.
Yeah, I just I love thismovie. Yeah, like it's so
so good. Yeah, like ita lot. Yeah, you guys should
watch it. You should definitely watchThe Rocky so too. Even though there's
(40:27):
slow, there's there's pieces to getfrom it, and I think it makes
all this the better. And Iwe were talking about this in the Rocky
thing. It's it's impossible to watchthe first movie and imagine all that would
come from it, right, Yeah, you don't think it grows, but
it's a whole universe. It reallyis. And I think it's pretty clear
(40:47):
that Coogler is probably a better writerdirector than Stallone. But Sloan, it's
difficult to argue with his success,right, you know, between between the
Rocky movies and h the First Bloodseries and all the other action adventure ship
that. Yeah, did I meanthey're iconic? Yeah, so like he
(41:09):
obviously had some kind of recipe otherwisethey would never stick in everyone's lives and
brains. Right, even Rainbow asa fucking five movies or some shit,
we're gonna wrap her up. I'msure we get a little rating here.
Yeah, Rainbow shorts, not rainbowshorts, flag shorts that June, Yes,
that flag shorts, flag shorts.What I give the other one?
(41:34):
I give the other one like afour to five. Yeah, I think
I'm gonna give this one a fourto four. I think it's a better
movie. I enjoyed it. More. But again, without Rocky, there's
none of this. So like Rockyagain because of the nostalgia for me,
because it built all that. Again, there is no Creed without no Rocky,
there is no Adonnas And because evenin Creed, my favorite character is
(42:00):
Rocky. Yeah, you can't.He's so good. He's so fun like
Donnie's good too. And I actuallydon't really like Michael B. Jordan.
Yeah, me either. Besides,he's my twee in He's fine. He's
fine, like I like him inFruit Fail and stuff, and he's you
know, I like him in BlackPanther. He's in movies that I like,
but for some reason, there's somethingstopping me from loving him. But
Rocky in Creed is one of myfavorite dudes about a little rating like me
(42:24):
personally, it's one of my favoritemovies. I'll give it a five out
of five. It's good. Igotta say, I think it's a I
think it's a five. It's sucha great evolution of the story, and
it's it's an emotional film in theway that that most of the other ones
are not. You were like tiedinto very recognizable, grounded emotions, and
(42:49):
that's Coogler yeah, it feels it. I mean, yeah, obviously not
everything in this movie is something thatis likely to happen, but it's not
impossible everything, but everything feels youknow, real. Yeah, No,
it feels like a ESPN thirty forthirty feels like definitely could happen. Yeah.
Uh, Ladies and gentlemen. Thenew episode is Wednesday Friday. I'm
(43:09):
saying, Michael, you gonna findme Thirdtree Barbers talking about California throughs be
dot Coe for all your clothes andneeds. I am at dij McDean on
those social media. Oh wait,Sea Bass, I am Sebastian, Sebastian
Underscore brand, Bila on Ig.I am Mat dij McDean all the social
media. This show is fifty percentfat percent is a word in the fifty
is just number. It's fifty percentfacts. It's a speaker of pri podcast
association with my R Media. I'llbe Obscurio Celebrity Network and we'll talk to st
Welcome. So since we just didRocky, we decided that we would do
Creed and look at the kind ofyou know, we'll do our our our
film studies paper on the compare andcontrast with with Rocky, Comparing contrast the
one essays I maybe enjoyed as ahigh school student. Yeah, yeah,
(00:31):
I don't know why, just becauseit gives you, like shit, you
don't have to like there's like twopieces of things that you absorb, yeah,
and then yeah, you just chatabout it, or like a report
on a single person, I gottaread his whole life and then you know,
then it feels like I'm just regurgitatingship where a compare and contrast feels
like I get to think. Yeah, and there's also like structural things,
(00:53):
you know, and you can youcan make a list of stuff that,
yeah, that you know is eitherthe same or different or different different in
what ways between the two different things, or choose a category you could Obviously
we're doing movies, so you couldjust compare contrast, storytelling, just compared
characters, just Camberian contrast. Yeah, filmography, Yeah, depending on how
(01:15):
how long your film paper has tobe. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So we got seb As in heretapping in a Creed fan himself. First
off, I'd like to say thatmaybe one of my top this is gonna
be a huge statement, top tenfavorite actors is in this thing. And
it ain't Michael B. It ain'tMichael B. It's this del Phi boxing
(01:38):
coach. Oh yeah, yeah,I remember the Titans. Yeah, yeah,
so good. I guess he isthat Creed's coaches kid. Would maybe
he's not in it much obviously.He becomes more of a character in two
and three, I believe, Yeah, which I haven't seen a long time
either. Actually I just saw threeon the semi while ago, but two
I haven't watched it a long time. He was the same guy was in
(02:00):
Wood Harris. Is that his name? Yeah, A little Duke Burton,
Yeah, little Duke Burton. Yeahhe's in He's in that Lakers series.
Yeah yeah, just to remember theTitans. Old for it though, but
he was really good. I lovehim. Remember the Titans. And then
you recently met my buddy Henry,who was a senior when I was a
freshman in high school. And forsome reason, he always reminded me of
(02:21):
Henry, Like he's he's goofy butdoesn't always want to show it. He's
a great leader, he's he's notlike stoic, but he's like kind of
stoic, you know. And obviously, remember the Titans is the character maybe
that reminds me of it most becauseof the sports relationships. Yeah, but
yeah, it's interesting to watch theseclose together, to see Rocky in both
(02:43):
of them, because my major complaintof Rocky One was that I don't know
who Rocky is. Yeah, like, is he dumb and slow? Is
he a brute? Is he kindof charismatic and kind of funny? Is
he wise? And then these moviesobviously he's much older, but they really
I think they nail who Rocky isor who I want him to be better
(03:04):
in Creed than they do in theseother movies. Oh by far, Yeah
he's far. He's awesome in Creed. Yeah he's really really. I mean,
this is why he's the only onlyactor to be nominated in the Lead
Actor category and Supporting act Actor charactercategory for the same character. Oh.
I never knew that, but thatmakes sense. Yeah, you know,
(03:24):
I mean Rocky One doesn't really makesense to me still, but I wasn't
alive when it came out, soit's hard for me to it was the
vibe of movies. It was justit was very game changing at the time
it was. It was a moviedefinitely of its time, whereas this movie
is definitely of its time as well. I don't think you could have made
Creed the way Creed is back inseventy five seventy six. Yeah. Yeah,
(03:45):
there's so much going on. Yeah, but talk about like pace.
Yeah, pace is outstanding in thismovie. There's only you're always in.
Yeah, you're either in on herstory, you're in on their love story,
you're in on his boxing story,or you're in on his mom's story.
There's always a story that's filled out. It's not even like because sometimes
people will bread crumb stories to makeit feel like there's a lot going on.
Yeah, you know some Star Warsstuff, the newer ones, Right,
(04:09):
they're just like throwing bread crumbs andyou don't really know what's going on.
But this one, they have fullstories around each character and like a
perfect amount of time. Yeah,Bianca so much better character than Adrian was
in the first movie. Yeah.The actress is obviously pretty solid. Yeah,
and the story itself and the characterdevelopment is so good. Yeah,
and it gets even better. Ithink two and three she gets filled out
(04:30):
more and it's really good. Yeah, just to sort of hit the high
points of the story itself. Welearn very early in this movie that Apollo
Creed, who died in Rocky fourfour four, I think, yeah,
Drago in the beginning of four.I believe that's correct. Yeah, he
(04:58):
had an affair with another woman whowas not Marianne his wife. Yeah,
and had a child who was bornafter he died in the ring. And
then that that he I maybe neverknew about. It's not clear. That
is unclear. It sounds yeah,it sounds like no, because I think
he died before he was even born, So it's in like that training camp,
(05:23):
probably, yeah, potentially. Yeah. What we don't know is how
so his his mother died when hewas ten? Is that right? He
says young? Yeah, I don'tknow. But he talks about going to
like, yeah, foster homes,Yeah, in and out of Foster Homes,
in and out of Juvie. Andthen Mary Anne Creed finds him.
(05:45):
Is she she's a sitcom mom?Right? Yeah? That was she.
Felicia Rashad was the wife on Cosby, Okay, and Cosby is another thing.
I just didn't watch a ton offirst Michael B. Jordan was on
Cosby as a baby or something,a baby, but he was he was
a kid. But yeah, becauseI wonder how old Michael B. Jordan?
This movie is, what mid twenties? You think? I believe he's
(06:08):
somewhere between twenty five and thirty.He's younger than Rocky was in Rocky Michael
B himself or you mean Donnas Donna'sYeah, Donnas. They make it seem
like he's up, has a chanceto become up and coming obviously. Yeah,
so I would imagine, yeah,mid twenties and Rocky's thirty. But
I wonder where Michael B is becausehe looks young. Yeah, I don't
know. And it's probably similar timewhen Creed come out twenty fifteen, Frue
(06:30):
filifteen, Fruitvale Station is twenty twelveprobably, And obviously Michael B. Had
a career. He's been acting hiswhole life, but those these two movies
I feel like kind of put himon right, like Fruitvale was one of
his Like, oh shit, thiscouldn act some serious shit. Michael B.
Jordan middle of three children. Bornin Santa Ana, California, raised
in Newark, New Jersey, that'san interesting combination of places to grow up.
(06:56):
Son of Donna Davis, a highschool counselor, and Michael A.
Jordan. His middle name, Bakari, means noble promise in Swahili. Interesting
he is related to Michael Jordan's inthe movie Yeah Greed was yeah. Oh
no, Michael b was acting twentyeight. Michael b was twenty eight because
(07:17):
he looks younger, right, yeah, he was born Yeah, he was
born in eighty seven. Oh,he's fucking my age. I was born
in eighty eight. Yeah, thetwo sexiest men in the world. That's
crazy. He's up twenty We dohave a lot of like me and Michael
B Man that was crazy. Bothjacked both on our thirties. Yeah,
(07:38):
he's probably thirty six thirty seven rightnow. He was homeschooled but allowed to
play on the basketball team in NewJersey's Newark Arts High School. Nerd.
Yeah, art the art sports.Yeah, he could have gone to what
we were just talking about where Lowand them went. Luel grew up in
Newark, New Jersey. He didn'tgrow up, but he did high school.
(07:59):
That he did high school because andhe came through the UK, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, soCharlie Villanuevo's an NBA All Star.
Yeah, they got a bunch offreaks out there in Jersey. He was
in Toys, r us Ads andModel's Sporting Goods. Yeah, I just
knew he was like in it.Even Disney Channel, Baby, did you
have a little Disney Channel show orrun? I believe I wanted to get
(08:20):
there in a second huge anime fanand I read this the other day.
We're not covering Creed three, butCreed three is structurally an anime. M
I heard that when it came out. Interesting, try to tap all the
nerds in that's why it's slower.Oh probably maybe, yeah, because anime
is kind of slow for like thezoomers to be into it all. Even
(08:41):
Dragon Ball. Yeah, it's along game. Yeah. He was in
the second Fantastic four. Yeah,terrible. Yeah, it was not a
good movie. I mean, Idon't know if the first was any better,
but that one was bad. Yeah, first one was maybe better.
You get Jessica album and she's likehalf naked in it. That's kind of
worth the whole movie. She's avisit girl, and I think her clothes
(09:01):
like going visible or whatever. Youknow, that's that's a trick. Yeah,
Scalva's worth for sure. He was, Yeah, because that was our
queen. That was top oh line, Yeah that she was it forever.
Yeah, she was it forever.At around at the same time as this,
I guess he was offered the roleof doctor Dre and straight out of
(09:22):
Compton. Oh he kind of hasit a little bit. Yeah yeah,
straight up. Comfort was all right, I think I know that thing got
so much love. That was allright. I liked it so uh,
Marianna doobts Adonnis Johnson. His lastname is Johnson, which seems around age
eight nine, ten, eleven,twelve. Yeah, yeah, probably preteen
(09:43):
for sure. Yeah, pre hypesbut obviously in a rough place and wants
to fight everybody already. Yeah.Yeah, he's knocking people out in Juvie.
Obviously got through Juvie because of violence. You get the vibe. And
then but as soon as she kindof says who she is and that he
has a dad, you could youknow again that kid's a good actor too.
They kind of like change its facialexpressions. You're like, all right,
(10:05):
this kid has a heart and themyou know, there's good, there's
good in him. Still, Ifeel it. Yeah, you know what
I mean, it's a Star Warsnever finally come on, come on a
little bit, just im just testingyou. Uh. Then there's a time
jump and he is working a corporatejob, but he's fighting in Mexico and
(10:26):
he's living with his mom. Itseems like he's living with mom maybe,
which Creed is obviously rich as ShipYeah, yeah, she's just fine.
Yeah she did find she's not she'snot poor. Yeah. And this fake
world that we're in, which Ido like they tie in like a real
ESPN HTI and ship I kind oflike one. It's like that because it
feels real. And they talk aboutCreed being one of the best fighters of
all time and in the conversation forthe best, so they throw them in,
(10:48):
which you know, kind of worksout right, like in the world
if you go, like Muhammad Ali'skind of on the way out, Creed
and Rocky are on the way in. Yeah, and then Mike Tyson probably
took over, and then now we'reinto you know, like the timelines do
kind of line up where it isa possibility. But yeah, they talk
about it being the greatest ever.Holy I don't know what that was.
(11:09):
It was a trash can falling onthe lid. Okay, yeah, and
it's yeah, he's fighting Mexico fortwenty bucks. He's figuring it out,
Yeah, trying to brawl. Hismom doesn't obviously want him to fight because
she lost her husband who died inthe ring. Yeah, of course,
right, of course. And andI just don't know dad stuff. First
thing, I cried this whole movie, the entire thing, front to back.
(11:31):
I cried. I'm gonna tell youthat every time I've I've probably seen
this movie three or four times,yea, every time it gets me.
Yeah, I cried every time whenever. And I've mentioned all these movie reviews.
You do if you mix sports andyou mix dad stuff, like I'm
gonna cry, yeah, And he'sdoing all that. So I don't understand
what I don't understand. And that'sthis whole group, the whole fucking company
here has dad issues. You know, everyone's got dad issues in here.
(11:58):
They Uh, I don't know ifI've never met my dad. If I'm
going to like love boxing, yeah, unless it's just I think that we're
we're led to believe that there issome genetic thing, right, and maybe
a hard thing. Maybe I do. Maybe there is something like fuck to
my dad. Was that guy like, fuck, I gotta go box?
(12:20):
And it might have something to dowith how old he was when he found
out who his dad was, right, because he did. He's like twelve.
Yeah, he was not told andthen of all of a sudden,
you think it's cool and started andyou've already been punching kids in the parking
lot. Yeah. The other thingabout this they show, basically until the
very end, that he's very selftaught and he just watches videos. Yeah,
which is kind of cool and kindof true. I think I talk
(12:41):
about this on podcasts and off oftenthat like supposedly Bones Jones, who is
the best pound for pound MM fighterin the history of MMA, literally like
learn muay Thai on YouTube, right, and you know, like is insane,
so like it's not that crazy tothink. And so when he gets
into training, all he's asking foris like crumbs, Hey, give me
(13:03):
a tip, give me a drill, give me Yeah, because he's he
knows he's knocking out random fools prettygood in Mexico. Self taught gives him
a lot of confidence. Yeah,he he quits his job and wants to
box full time, and mom isnot happy with that. Yeah, I
wonder what that was. What's theline there? Or no, what the
(13:24):
line was that like tip that edge? I don't know. I just I
didn't go to uh Delphi boxing rightthen before or after he quit. It
was after, it was after,because I wonder if that's the tipping point.
I think it's so. Well,that is Dad's trainer's son who he
thought would be his mentor told himno, right, and so he said,
oh no, and then it givesyou throws the bird and says all
(13:46):
right, well then I'm going allin. I'm gonna show you, right.
I wonder if that's the tipper Yeah. I did a thing to note.
Delphi is the was the home ofApollo literally yeah, in Greek pathology.
Yeah that's too yeah, both andand the hotel that they stay in
in Liverpool, Yeah, is theAdelphi hotel. Same thing. I didn't
(14:07):
see that same but I knew theDelphi And then I looked up a front
street where he ends up training.We don't have to go pace by pace
because there's a million little jumps inbetween there. Although they all like that
doesn't feel crammed in the movie.No, although a million things kind of
happened right away to kind of setup what's happening. But training for his
championship fight, he goes to FrontStreet Boxing. Yeah, and there's something
(14:28):
in the back of my head becausewhen I was with Rebok, there was
some kind of I don't know,I don't want to say charity, but
there was like a story that Reebokdid and Reebuck did a bunch of cool
things with the communities in Boston thatweren't doing so good, Like we went
and went to a foster kids homeand like redid their garden one day,
a bunch of athletes, which wascool and it was fun because they're all
(14:50):
like, it's all my buddies thatlike we all just deadlift to five fifty
together and so we all know we'rephysically capable, and so we're just smash
and dirt around like we're crushing theshit. You know. Jen was there,
like we're just bob in on thisthing. Just redid this whole lawn.
So they did a lot of outreach, and I know they did something
I thought it was called Front StreetBoxing in Boston, So some rang in
(15:11):
my head. I was like,Oh, I wonder if that's fucking real
and I googled it and it's definitelyreal in Philadelphia. The building, the
inside all like a legit boxing gym, which is cool. So where he
trains there with Rocky and some randomboxing friend. I guess. Yeah,
let me get to that in justa second. Like initially goes to to
Philadelphia, he goes to Mickey's gym, yeah, which he kicks him out
(15:33):
halfway. Yeah, because yeah,Mickey's. Mickey's gym is the gym from
Rocky and the thing that's very weirdand curious about it is that in one
of the later Rockies, after Mickeydies, he leaves the gym to Rocky.
Sure, so it seems very possiblethat Rocky still owns that gym,
(15:58):
But I think maybe the memories aretoo much there and so he can't be
there. So he's got the otherguy Everyone's dead running it. Yeah everywhere.
Wife dies, So we find outthat Creed obviously died in the ring,
which ends up being Rocky's best friend, Pauli. His other best friend
dies maybe from AOL way. Yeah, his wife yeah dies. So if
(16:19):
I'm Rocky, I'm not want tobox either. Yeah. Create creator Adonnish,
Michael B. Shows up to hisrestaurant, which is like a funny
thing that he's a restaurant owner.Yeah, when you consider the lavish lifestyle
they had in California. Yeah,he's got money somewhere. Probably. I'm
sure he still has money. Idon't think that that's a question. I
(16:41):
think that's like the storyline is thatRocky like just doesn't want that life.
He just chooses to live the wayhe wants. He's happy. This is
where he's from. Yeah, hehas a little bar. He just kind
of hangs out. It looks likeit's an Italian bar. I could tell
by the you might not know thissebos. It's not very common on the
West Coast, but those tablecloth,the checker tape is just fucking Italian Italian.
(17:02):
Yeah, you're just getting the bestpizza of your life and the best
salad you've ever had at a spotlike that. Every Italian spot. My
dad's best friend in Portland, who'sa New York Italian cat, owned one.
Like everything in Cleveland, all thelittle Italian joints have those, like
just so typical. And obviously otherpeople use it too, like it's kind
of a typical picnic blanket. Itis a typical pattern, but hella Italian
spots and obviously they lean into Rocky'sItalians in rock or slies Italians in Rocky
(17:29):
in Rocky. And it really showsat the end here his nose got bigger.
He talks better than he did inRocky, like he's just so Italian,
all the wise shit he's saying tohim, all the silly jokes he's
playing with him and his girlfriend throughand the whole thing, like you have
very Italian uncle vibes. Yeah heOh god, I was gonna say.
He doesn't want to doesn't want aDonnis to train at at Mickey's gym,
(17:56):
so he takes him to the otherplace just because of the fight though,
right, yeah, just because ofthe fight. But I think also,
I think there's more to it,and I think you just don't know.
So who's running the gym at Mickey'sson is supposedly the best kid in Philly
at the time, and that guyfinds out I don't know how Oh,
he called Marianne, called Mary Anne. He he does some investigative work and
finds out Michael B. Jordan isCreed's kid. Yeah, that's been on
(18:18):
the low. He goes by Johnsonhe doesn't want the world to know,
which is understandable too. And then, uh, the guy who runs the
boxing match thinks it's probably just atrampoline for his son to beat a Creed,
so sets up this fight in whichRocky doesn't want Creed training there and
decides to kind of train him.Yeah, and but when he brings him
(18:42):
into that Front Street gym and thatthat group of guys comes over, that
is the realist moment I think inthe whole cool and this is a very
realistic movie in a lot of ways. But that was super real because those
people, those guys felt like thatthat was their real job. And I
know you know Stitch right, uhyeah, like the real Stitch. Yeah
(19:06):
yeah, yeah, do you knowStitch. So the cut man that is
part of his training team at theFront Street is known as the best cutman
in m m A. Oh yeah, he's a real cutman. He works
in the UFC. He left orgot fired. There's something weird there,
something, Yeah, something weird happenedwith the UFC. But he was like
famous in the UFC for being thecorner guy. So he's is legitimate.
That's why all of his hand businessaround that is so perfect. Yeah,
(19:30):
it's just completely believable because he's thebest. He's really doing it. He's
really doing it. Speaking of that, when they tell him how many fingers
the guy's holding up, Yeah,it's so good. I don't remember watching
that the first time I do.That's that's really really clever. Yeah,
it's cool because I think in theUFC, at least, because the UFC
is such a big league, youdon't have your own cutman. They provide
him, and that's who Stitch was. But in boxing, yeah, I
(19:51):
think it's part of your creer,part of your career. Yeah, I
pretty much it has to be right. Yeah, yeah, because even sparring,
you're gonna fucking jack up your knucklesand ship. But when when he
brought him in there and the waythose guys were like semi circled around him,
and you could just like feel howsupportive they were. Like this guy,
you know, he's nobody, butat the same time he's the son
(20:12):
of somebody, and the love forrockies so deep is so Yeah, it's
oh my god. I mean,talk about the first really emotional scene to
me, and that was that one. It's like, now, these guys,
these guys are going to take careof him. They're regardless, They're
gonna take care of him. Theroots on Rocky are cool in the city
(20:34):
because they they show that he's likea local hero, but he's not a
celebrity, you know, like everyoneknows them, everyone kind of respects them,
but no one bugs them. Andeven same thing with Creed in a
sense where even the girlfriend eventually findsout, you know, Michael B.
Jordan's a Creed and like how famoushe is? They play all that up.
I do wonder, like worldwide howfamous Rocky is because they make it
(20:59):
that Creed is the greatest of alltime, and then Rocky's like famous for
everyone says what's up, Like,oh, I didn't know your uncle was
Rocky Balboa, Like she knows,but she's from Philly, So is he
just like a Philly legend or ishe like the guy? Because that's a
true thing, like you can havethe like boxing is just as big now
as ever, Like there's money flowingeverywhere, and I can't name a champ,
(21:21):
you know what I mean, Solike Rocky could have been the champ
and no one really knows besides Phillylike grabbed on to him. Maybe you
know. I don't know, youknow, cause it is such a local
thing and that's so cool. Likewith every city. Obviously, Philadelphia is
a giant city, and they showsome better parts of it this time versus
Rocky One. They just literally showthe hood yea here, even though they
(21:42):
try to show some of that culturewith Meek Mill rap and all the guys
on motorbikes, which is a verymeek mial thing. I know it's a
very Philly thing, but Meek Millmade that really cool on the internet.
I think it's actually how he gotarrested in New York. He was screaming
around on all of those bikes.Yeah, but they show like the Philly
culture, they show the hip hopculture. They show the evolution of boxing,
(22:04):
which did start to intertwine with hiphop culture in the nineties and two
ks, So I thought all thatwas kind of cool too. Where I
don't know if they're I mean,it probably is Italian. I don't know.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that Rocky'sItalian and my uncle was from Italy
that was a pro boxer. ButI feel like there is an Italian American
(22:25):
root of boxing too. In likethe World War two Ish era with Rocky
owning a restaurant and essentially like heowns a restaurant and he's essentially the host.
He's not yeah, he's not reallyrunning it, no. I mean
you see him hosting kind of andyou see him packing stuff from a van.
(22:45):
It was the only work you see. But yeah, that's that's only
work you see for sure. Butin Raging Bull, Jay Clematta, as
a retired fighter owns a restaurant,owns a restaurant. Interesting, yeah,
yeah, and that's kind of veryItalian too, Yeah right, oh for
sure, like Irish folks. Yeah, I might open a bar or something
and fucking Italian folks opian restaurant.Yeah, because I mean the generation,
(23:10):
that's where things start to get reallytight. And on the West Coast,
you know, for Sebos or otherpeople that grew up there, it's very
normal to have like immigrant type familieswhere like half our members their parents moved
here from the Philippines or whatever.But on the East Coast that happened much,
that happened one hundred years ago,and so that's very common for me
because my family's tied into that.You know, my family literally floated over
(23:33):
from Italy. Onto Ellis Island.You know, like that's all very true,
and like I understand it, butWest Coasters might not understand that that's
Rocky is that generation, right,Like his dad probably floated over and so
he had to come up. That'swhy he grew up poor. Probably that's
how he had to build a careerkind of thing on the West coast.
Again, they're so so common tothe diversity. But back there, Yeah,
(23:56):
the Italians and the Irish were thethey're only immigrants. Yeah, they
were the immigrants in the early nineteenhundreds. And just my family came so
long, like so long before EllisIsland. So yeah, it's a totally
different or like Boston, totally differentexperience. Yeah, the Carolinas or whatever
in Virginia and yeah, the firstwhatever, the Colonially what I was I
(24:21):
gonna say, the love story isa million times better. Yeah, it's
creed than it is in Rocky becauseI don't want to say it's because neither
one of them seem like they're onthe spectrum. But yeah, I mean
obviously Adrians Adrian obviously isn't charismatic,No, and so like you can like
(24:45):
movies to not show charismatic people justseems backwards, like, yeah, you
want to set the scene, butif it's a main character, that's awkward,
like why are we filming that?Yeah, you know, it just
doesn't really make sense. Yeah,but Youanka has a lot of walls,
yeah, boundaries, and you startto dig into it a little bit more
in the upcoming movies. But thisone they show her and she mentions her
(25:06):
becoming deaf. Yeah, she's hasprogressive hearing loss. She wears hearing it.
She's a musician trying to make it. And maybe that's some of the
just like East Coast shit too,you know, like they always talk about
We've talked about it here too.There's a comedian that did it. I
just don't know who, but alwaystalks about the difference between being nice and
being kind, and they talk abouta lot of the East Coasters are truly
(25:26):
kind. They'll come off cold andthey'll tell you you're a fucking idiot,
but they're gonna help you change thetire on your car. Where in California
per se, people would say there, everyone's so nice. They'll see you
with the flat tire and they'll saylike, oh my gosh, I'm so
sorry. That's so inconvenient and thenthey'll speed off. Yeah, you know,
and that's just so true and solike I think she's kind of a
representation of that. Like you cantell her her heart's kind, like she's
(25:49):
really sweet, but like she doesn'twant to let him in the house.
She doesn't let them take on adate. She's like, no, fuck
you, buddy, let me domy thing. I'm over here. It's
kind of like a New York versusCalifornia joke, and Philly is obviously a
giant city, but it's basically fuckingNew York. Same people, same ship,
Yes, same general idea. Yeah, cold fucking hard working folk.
(26:11):
So yeah, they build her charactergood. They do build that good.
Although like the love scenes are fast, you know, like they have one
date and all of a sudden they'regoing to Rocky's house and she's at the
boxing matches and he's at the musicthing. Yeah, it was It was
interesting that that parts definitely interesting.Interesting the way that that Donnie Adonnas was
(26:32):
able to push Rocky in the directionhe wanted him to go. Yeah,
he I wouldn't say it was manipulativebecause it was too obvious to be manipulat
manipulative when I think it comes froma genuine spot, Like he calls him
unk, like lovingly. He knowsthat it was his dad's best friend.
Yeah, like he knows there wasties there. And that's where like this
movie just is better than Rocky sadlybecause there's there's like emotional ties there.
(26:56):
Rockies, everyone in his life thathe loved is dead, Adonnis, everyone
in his life that he knew orshould have loved is never around, you
know. So for them to havelike that, it's like Creed is their
mutual tie. And and and ifyou ever lost anyone that like died or
like lost someone that you loved,there is a tie there. Like there's
(27:18):
some friends that I had that weremutual friends with my best friend who passed,
and like there's just always something there, like, oh, like you
knew Jared, like you knew mybest friend, you know, like you
spent time with him. There's alwayssomething there. And so I think that's
kind of this Creed. Yeah,Rocky's lost, Rocky's just fucking running the
clock. And he talks about dyingand it obviously ends up he has cancer
(27:40):
and he talks about like, yeah, man, everyone's gone, Like I'll
die right now, Like, Idon't give a fuck U. Those scenes
were honestly hard to watch too.Well. Him going to the graves.
I don't really visit graves. Mostpeople I love were cremated and I don't
even know where they are. Uh, but but it just seems so raw,
(28:02):
Like he just sits there and he'sjust mumbling his words. He's like
vogging. Yeah, he keeps achair hanging in the tree. Yeah.
I love that. Yeah, he'sjust reading the newspaper. He's like,
let's see what's going on today.He just wants to kick it, you
know. Yeah. Yeah, becausehe's got no one. He's got no
one. And so for I thinkhim to come out of his shell once
he sees that Donnie isn't just therefor fame or something, I think,
you know, he had to feelhim out a little bit. So before
(28:26):
this movie started filming, Uh,Sage Stallone died of a heart attack.
His son. Oh, I didn'tknow that. And so because he's in
you know, like we said,he's in Rocky four and five or five.
Yeah, and then he's played bysomebody else in Rocky Balboa. Yeah
that's crazy. We didn't know that. Yeah, and he he nearly had
(28:48):
a full breakdown over it, andCoogler was able to convince him to use
that film as a dedication to hisson. So a lot of the ship
that you see him working through,you see Rocky working through. I think
that a lot of that is stalloneworking through some of the same kind of
issues. Probably true. I mean, yeah, the mental the mental hurdles
(29:11):
he probably went through as an actor, like human. Yeah, and we
see a parallel, we see apicture of Sage, just a little kid.
Yeah, and they mentioned it.Yeah, this is just a side.
You know what. Rocky is anickname for Robert. I never heard
that it's universally except you've got aRobbie or rob or whatever. You can
(29:34):
be Rocky. I worked with aRocky and his Uh, he's had a
female Rocky too. That might havebeen just her name though probably his.
Uh. His son's name is Robert, so he's or my dog. Rocky's
a good name. D is apretty good name. And so it was
Donnie. Yeah, Adonna's call himDonnie. It's a good name. Adonna's
(29:56):
is a bit much. It's it'sa little bit of a mouthful. I
realized why it was done, butwith just like even dogs, like a
lot of people name the dog Zeus, and I just grew up learning about
all that. It just feels weird. Yeah, And I know, different
cultures and different and some people justdon't care. And it's not like I'm
fucking I don't pray to Zeus,but it just feels weird. You know,
even naming my dog Jesus, thatwould feel weird. You know,
(30:18):
That's what I was gonna say.Different culture is kind of normal. The
name your Kidjyeshu's. But yeah,like to me, for some reason,
all that gets a little weird.So Donnis is a cool tie, but
then you just call him Donnie andthen it doesn't feel as weird. Yeah.
Uh. This was the first,uh, first Rocky film that was
not written by Sylvester Stilone, firstrocketing you know, extension. It's I
(30:41):
think we talked about this a littlebit before. It's probably the most seamless
like handoff. Yeah, it's good. There's a lot of Again, the
character building is good, the storieswithin them feel real and like emotional.
The music, the fighting itself isgood. There's more training and more fighting,
right, if you're gonna make aboxing movie, which they did in
twenty fifteen versus the seventies. You'regonna have to keep someone's attention. So
(31:03):
there's a lot more gym stuff,there's a lot more training stuff. The
music's turned up into like a hiphop vibe, much deeper culture. Again
that the Conlin it's a BACKU.Conlin's vibes are like kind of like Creed's
in a sense where like he's onlyin there like ten seconds, but he's
a big part of the whole thing. Yeah, the Creed in Rocky,
(31:23):
Yeah, I say, yeah,you know, like we said he but
he has more character development than Creeddid in the first Rocky. They do
build up like who he is ina sense because of the English stuff,
and they kind of build the Americaversus England ties. Graham McTavish is,
Yeah, his his manager, trainer, whoever. Yeah, he plays a
(31:45):
couple of different characters in Outlander,and he's in but he's been a character
actor for a long, long longtime. And again, I don't know
boxing in the seventies, and Idon't know that much about boxing now.
I'm a very casual fan. Butit seemed like a random stretch for Creed
to fight Rocky and Rocky one,right, yeah, like, oh,
they just picked this out of ahat. They got nothing to do.
(32:07):
This one feels like he could happen, the Conlin versus Adonnas. Yeah,
because he had fifteen fights, He'sgot his father's name, and boxing is
a business that would try to sellthat. Oh for sure, you know
what I mean. Like even theFrancis and Gano, Francis and Gano was
the heavyweight champ, but the UFChad no boxing and then he gets a
(32:28):
title shot. Yeah, because theyknow it selles tickets. And so the
Donnas one to Conlin feels like,oh okay, I could see HBO doing
this, like this is gonna makemoney for them. It just felt more
real where the Rocky One's like allright they did that for the movie.
Yeah, you know, it justlike takes me out of it a little
bit, like again the ESPN announcingon it, Like it just feels like,
oh, this feels like I livehere, and obviously generationally I did.
(32:49):
Right, I'm in my mid twentiesand twenty fifteen years, so it
feels more real to me. Yeah, or maybe in the seventies it did
feel real to this segment of PTIthat was in Yeah, and then uh
Kalerman was fucking outstanding in this movie. He was just playing himself but I
don't know if he wrote his linesor whatever, but I mean, it
(33:12):
was just it was just perfect.It was literally perfect. Yeah. I
wonder because this movie got some lovewhen it came out, but I feel
like it is a better movie.Like I feel like it's kind of underrated
still, it may be, it'sit's I think it's got to be the
very best of the whole series,probably because he had two and three.
You know, they're gotta make them, but they're solid. And yeah,
(33:32):
maybe we will have to do likea Rocky four or five to see the
evolvement of it, because again I'veseen them all, but I've never like
watched them to report on it.So maybe Rocky four and five speed up
a little bit. And obviously thecharacters developed because Rocky has five movies six
really, so maybe it gets there. But just how much how much good
story, good emotion, and likegood action they show within just introducing all
(33:59):
the characters are new besides Rocky.I mean, mary Anne's kind of around,
but yeah, different actress obviously,Yeah, Marianne was the name of
my godmother. I think that twodifferent women played mary Anne over the course
of the Rocky movies makes sense,and I get that why they didn't.
I think one of them was notavailable. On the other one they decided
not to bring back. If you'reif you're casting this movie, you get
(34:21):
a whole lot more out of bringingFelicia Rashad, then you do just the
legacy actress for that for the oneof them for the role. I just
I don't think so. I thinkthat that's just that's a business note brainer,
right. And she was at it, Yeah, No, she was.
She was great. And most ofher scenes are by herself yea or
(34:44):
good half of her scenes are byherself. Yeah, and they're fairly short.
Yeah, they're kind of monology.Yeah. Uh. Salloane rewrote all
the Rocky dialogue because he said thatthe timing, the cadence of the of
the lines wasn't right interesting. SoI'm sure that they probably came around to
say the same thing. But likeyou can see, it's the same character.
(35:07):
It's just an it's an evolution ofthe of the same guy. No,
Rocky becomes cool man, he's wise. Yeah. Yeah, Donna's trying
to keep getting coaching from him,and he's like, this is what I
do, Like, I'm coaching yourbrain, basically says you know, Like
he says, like, I'm notgoing to coach you. I can't.
I can't do all this stuff.I can't teach you how to hit like
I used to. But I canteach you. I'm coaching your brain,
yeah, heart, And I cantell you about strategy. I can tell
(35:28):
you about you know, he wasgood. He was really good, and
I'm clearly a very good conditioning coach. Yeah. Yeah. I thought they
would maybe lean more into Donnie watchingfilm like they did in the beginning,
to show that he like studied thegame. And then obviously when he first
meets Rocky, he talks a tonabout the history. But it was his
dad, so like I thought,maybe his niche was that. And obviously
(35:51):
they don't really go into it likeRocky. They go into saying he's not
athletic, right, They basically showlike Rocky is just he hits pretty hard
and he's just a tough son ofa bitch and that's how he succeeds.
They haven't really showed you or toldyou why Michael b Is good yet Yeah,
you know, like in the fightthey show like, all right,
he's pretty tough and he's athletic,but they don't like give him a style.
I guess per se. And Ithought maybe his niche as a fighter,
(36:13):
because you watched all that film,would be like he's just stud like
you work out works like that,the non ring shit, Like yeah,
yeah, you know, because becausethat's what they say about like the Tom
Brady's and the Peyton Mannings and man, they just watch tape and they just
know football better than anyone knows fuckingfootball. Lebron James. They talk about
how much he knows the game.So I thought maybe that would be his
story, but they that's the onething that I feel like planted seeds and
(36:36):
didn't develop. Yeah, that's agood point. Did you know the speaking
of watching film though, when he'swatching the footage from the first uh Rocky
Apollo Creede fight, Yeah, helpedme. If it's if I'm remembering this
correctly. I felt like he wasfighting as Rocky yeah, with shadow boxes.
(36:59):
Yeah it was going to get Yeah, I feel like he was fighting
his dad yeaheah, Yeah, soI'm not I'm not wrong. So that
was a cool scene. That's whyI thought it would all tie in,
like, oh, maybe this guyis just like mega studying and this is
how he learns, so he justgoes no. He was definitely trying to
like, yeah, kind of fighthis dad. So there were like basically
three big boxing sequences in the wholethe whole film. When he's fighting in
Mexico, there's the his first youknow, real fight, which is,
(37:24):
uh, all one shot. It'sall steady cam. There's no there are
no cuts in that one at all, which is as we talked about in
Rocky. Rocky was in the thirdthird movie ever to use a steady cam
and so appropriate that they that theyshot that shot it this way, that
(37:44):
shot that uh, that fight isa shot for shot recreation of the fight
in Rocky four. Yeah. Iwas gonna say, I'm sure there's a
tie someone. Yeah, it's it'sit's it's shot for shot for Rocky four.
It's just shot, you know,all all in one. Yeah,
yeah, all in one one,no no cuts. And then there's the
(38:07):
final fight, the twelve rounds versusfifteen in Rocky twelve in Creed Yeah,
yeah, and he loses obviously bysplit decision kind of a similar ending ish,
Yeah, very similar to although hedidn't set his goals either. I
think his goals were to get thebelt. Yeah, you know, he
didn't say like, oh, Ijust gotta last with this guy. There
(38:28):
wasn't kind of that story. Itwas just like I think it was.
The story for this was slightly orthe goal for the fight was slightly less
spoken. But it was just toprove that you belong. Yeah, right,
because the whole thing he has Creedon the shorts. Now he's getting
announced as a Creed. He's like, am I a Creed? And like
do I deserve that name? Ina sense like the deeper meaning I love
(38:51):
that the shorts say Creed in thefront and Johnson on the back. Yeah,
they're dope. Yeah, it's acool touch. It's sent by his
mom, who he hasn't talked to. Yeah, that made me cry.
Yeah, that was dope me too. And then yeah, and then obviously
the girlfriend coming in at the end, very very similar. He's all beat
up at the end, very verysimilar, similar vibes. Yeah, and
then the end of the film iswalking the up the Rocky Steps Philly with
(39:20):
Rocky who is diminished from his howeverlong he's been on chemo. Yeah,
there's a couple of scenes where he'slike throwing up and ship and the makeup
and s Souff is crazy. Yeah, like they made him hell a bold,
hella pale. Maybe it's c GI even, I don't know,
but he actually looks like insanely oldand sick, where in a couple of
the earlier shots in the restaurant helooks good. Yeah, for sure,
(39:42):
for sure, and just uh showingthe way that that Adonis was taking care
of of Creed and really forcing himto to to get chemo and to get
treatment because yeah, neither of themmad families. Yeah for a long time,
Like Rocky kind of seems like hegrew up like Adonnas a little bit,
(40:04):
like you know, yeah, youdon't really know anything about his family
or Yeah, and then obviously loseshis adult family and then yeah, Adonnas
doesn't really have one, so itdoes feel like full circle in a sense.
Yeah, I just I love thismovie. Yeah, like it's so
so good. Yeah, like ita lot. Yeah, you guys should
watch it. You should definitely watchThe Rocky so too. Even though there's
(40:27):
slow, there's there's pieces to getfrom it, and I think it makes
all this the better. And Iwe were talking about this in the Rocky
thing. It's it's impossible to watchthe first movie and imagine all that would
come from it, right, Yeah, you don't think it grows, but
it's a whole universe. It reallyis. And I think it's pretty clear
(40:47):
that Coogler is probably a better writerdirector than Stallone. But Sloan, it's
difficult to argue with his success,right, you know, between between the
Rocky movies and h the First Bloodseries and all the other action adventure ship
that. Yeah, did I meanthey're iconic? Yeah, so like he
(41:09):
obviously had some kind of recipe otherwisethey would never stick in everyone's lives and
brains. Right, even Rainbow asa fucking five movies or some shit,
we're gonna wrap her up. I'msure we get a little rating here.
Yeah, Rainbow shorts, not rainbowshorts, flag shorts that June, Yes,
that flag shorts, flag shorts.What I give the other one?
(41:34):
I give the other one like afour to five. Yeah, I think
I'm gonna give this one a fourto four. I think it's a better
movie. I enjoyed it. More. But again, without Rocky, there's
none of this. So like Rockyagain because of the nostalgia for me,
because it built all that. Again, there is no Creed without no Rocky,
there is no Adonnas And because evenin Creed, my favorite character is
(42:00):
Rocky. Yeah, you can't.He's so good. He's so fun like
Donnie's good too. And I actuallydon't really like Michael B. Jordan.
Yeah, me either. Besides,he's my twee in He's fine. He's
fine, like I like him inFruit Fail and stuff, and he's you
know, I like him in BlackPanther. He's in movies that I like,
but for some reason, there's somethingstopping me from loving him. But
Rocky in Creed is one of myfavorite dudes about a little rating like me
(42:24):
personally, it's one of my favoritemovies. I'll give it a five out
of five. It's good. Igotta say, I think it's a I
think it's a five. It's sucha great evolution of the story, and
it's it's an emotional film in theway that that most of the other ones
are not. You were like tiedinto very recognizable, grounded emotions, and
(42:49):
that's Coogler yeah, it feels it. I mean, yeah, obviously not
everything in this movie is something thatis likely to happen, but it's not
impossible everything, but everything feels youknow, real. Yeah, No,
it feels like a ESPN thirty forthirty feels like definitely could happen. Yeah.
Uh, Ladies and gentlemen. Thenew episode is Wednesday Friday. I'm
(43:09):
saying, Michael, you gonna findme Thirdtree Barbers talking about California throughs be
dot Coe for all your clothes andneeds. I am at dij McDean on
those social media. Oh wait,Sea Bass, I am Sebastian, Sebastian
Underscore brand, Bila on Ig.I am Mat dij McDean all the social
media. This show is fifty percentfat percent is a word in the fifty
is just number. It's fifty percentfacts. It's a speaker of pri podcast
association with my R Media. I'llbe Obscurio Celebrity Network and we'll talk to st
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