Creed II (2018). Rating: 12a.
Raitng: 4/5 - Very good lots to enjoy
Synopsis
Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has retained his World Heavyweight boxing title, won thanks to the training of his wise mentor and former champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).
Marital bliss with his pregnant fiancee singer Bianca (Tessa Thompson) seems assured until a deadly foe from the past, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) reappears in Balboa’s restaurant.
The two fought each other 30 years ago, partly a revenge match as Drago killed Balboa’s foe turned friend Apollo Creed – Adonis’ father – during an earlier bout. Drago wants Adonis to fight his own son, the angry, emotionally neglected Viktor (Florian Munteanu).
The Drago’s are damaged goods in their Russian homeland and are desperate for glory. Balboa steps aside to let Adonis step into a dangerous boxing ring, against his better judgement.
Review by @Reelreviewer
Hindsight is always 20/20 according to Billy Wilder, who knew a thing or two about directing great movies.
Perhaps the producers of Creed II (also producers of the original Rocky series, from which this new boxing film series has been sired) had that rapier-sharp insight when approaching how to make a sequel to the 2015 'son of Carl Weathers' blockbuster.
Where the original Rocky sequel was degraded with syrupy gabble about settling down, buying a house and making babies, the first Creed sequel has bypassed that mucus for a better scripted, sharper return to the ring.
Stunning performances all round, especially Stallone and Jordan but most impeccably (and surprisingly) from a near-sociopathically deranged Lundgen who returns as the Russian "breaker" Ivan Drago.
For more, see the full review: http://bit.ly/creed2film
Cast & credits
Director: Steven Chaple Jr. 2hrs 8 minutes/128mins.
MGM/New Line Cinema/Warner Bros./Chartoff-Winkler Productions. (12a).
Producers: William Chartoff, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin King Templeton, Charles Winkler, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler.
Writers: Sylvester Stallone, Juel Taylor.
Camera: Kramer Morgenthau.
Music: Ludwig Göransson.
Sets: Franco-Giacomo Carbone.
Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren, Florian Munteanu, Russell Hornsby, Wood Harris, Brigitte Nielsen, Milo Ventimiglia.
Image: Warner Bros
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