Rocky still has it

Hell has frozen over. Sylvester Stallone has defied the gods and nature to make a sixth installment in the long-running "Rocky" film series, and even more shocking, it's a pretty good movie.\nIn "Rocky Balboa," everyone's favorite boxing underdog has finally retired to a quiet life in his home of Philadelphia. Instead of running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rocky is much more content running his restaurant and regaling patrons with stories of his legendary career.\nOf course, "Rocky: The Golden Years" would make for a pretty crappy (if not unintentionally hilarious) movie, and it's not long before he starts to get the urge to get back into the ring. At first, he's just looking for a few exhibition fights, but it isn't long before the handlers of untested current champ Mason "The Line" Dixon come calling for a fight to put over the unpopular Dixon.\nThe beauty of "Rocky Balboa" is that Stallone gets the joke. He's old. The mere mention of a new Rocky movie has been a joke for almost 20 years now. They're practically running out of Roman numerals.\nBut instead of denying that idea and trying to play a younger character, Stallone embraces the older, more wizened Rocky, a character who now is not just fighting for pride but for the respect of his adult son, who feels like he still lives in his famous father's shadow.\nThough "Rocky Balboa" treads new ground for the character, it also sticks to a pretty traditional formula. You will see the aging boxer punch slabs of meat, run through the streets of Philadelphia and flashback to important conversations during the final boxing match as "Gonna Fly Now" periodically wails in the background. Sure, we've seen all this (five times before, in fact), but it still feels as inspirational as the 1976 film that started it all, and Stallone looks to be in damn good shape for a guy pushing 60.\nI, too, initially laughed at the idea of a new Rocky movie, but it appears that Stallone will have the last laugh on his critics by putting together an incredibly entertaining and believable sequel.\nSupposedly the final bell tolls for Rocky in this movie, but dare I say that by the time the credits were done rolling, I was kind of hoping for a "Rocky VII"