Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is enjoying great success as the defending world champion. His manager Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith) has been picking fighters for him until he is challenged by the arrogant Clubber Lang (Mr. T) at the unveiling of his statue. Lang is exactly the one that Mickey has been avoiding. Rocky not only loses the fight but also Mickey and only Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) can help him recover from the loses.
First Rocky fights Hulk Hogan and then he fights Mr. T. It doesn't get more cheesetastic 80s than that. The story has all the iconic Rocky formula. He is put into an underdog position and he has an insurmountable hurdle to overcome. And Rocky has to have an opponent above all. Mr. T serves that purpose. The movie's big move has to be killing off Mickey and bringing back Apollo as now a good guy. It's a brilliant move. This is a mix of good 80s cheese and a broadly written sports movie.
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