YOUR LEGACY IS MORE THAN A NAME.

Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of legendary heavyweight champ Apollo Creed, talks his father’s one-time rival and best friend Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) into training him.

After six Rocky movies, Stallone was done… but then came the talented director of Fruitvale Station (2013) and convinced him to do a glorious comeback. Thanks to a good script that admittedly follows the formula of the old movies but finds a fresh, youthful and compelling way to do it, and very solid performances by Jordan and Stallone (the latter giving one of the best of his career), it works.

The film paints portraits of both Adonis and Rocky at their stages in life that we can believe in, and the climactic bout is intense.

2015-U.S. 133 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Ryan Coogler. Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, Aaron Covington. Music: Ludwig Göransson. Cast: Michael B. Jordan (Adonis Johnson Creed), Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa), Tessa Thompson (Bianca), Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew, Graham McTavish. Voice of Liev Schreiber. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Stallone and Irwin Winkler. Followed by two sequels, starting with Creed II (2018).

Golden Globe: Best Supporting Actor (Stallone). 

Last word: “I told [Stallone] all about my dad, and he goes ‘wow, hmm, okay.’ I can’t tell if he’s into it or not. I kind of got the vibe that he wasn’t, which I could understand. So I finally said, ‘Hey, maybe we could take a picture for me and my dad?’ He said, ‘Man, no problem.’ I’ve still got the picture. He says, ‘You want some stuff?’ And he grabs a bunch of T-shirts and signed them all for my dad. I’m freaking out, going home with this stuff. So right there it felt like a victory for me. Just the fact I even told Sly the story that was based on me and my dad’s relationship.” (Coogler, Deadline)

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