"Rocky Balboa" -- The Verdict

Saw it last night and Stallone made a valiant effort to recapture the low-key, gritty charm of the original film. It's by no means a successful movie, but "RB" is a far more graceful exit than the last two Rocky movies. I had a brief hope they would let the aging Rocky be humiliated in the ring and take a lesson from that; my friend was aghast that Rocky didn't die at the end. Everything was far more conventional including -- can you believe it -- tons of flashbacks and scenes of Rocky and his opponent both training for the big fight. If I were in college, I'd do a story on the fetishistic use of flashback in the Rocky films.