Word: talia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tells the story of Ellsworth "Sonny" Wisecarver, a youth who was too young to be kicking Nazi butt during that gloriously simple timne, so did the next best thing: ran away with an older woman. Two, in fact--one played by Beverly D'Angelo and the other by Talia Balsam...
Phil Alden Robinson, the writer-director of In the Mood, does not seek even the modest parable. He is all amiability recounting the true tale of "Sonny" Wisecarver, the 1940s California teen who twice eloped with older women and became a media sensation. Patrick Dempsey, Talia Balsam and Beverly D'Angelo agreeably impart the message that adolescent sexual energy can cheerily compensate for lack of sexual sophistication. But one cannot help feeling that there is a wicked craziness in their odd couplings that escaped a directorial eye looking merely for goofiness...
Stallone further pares down the film by eliminating all the interesting characters. Creed of course is dead, as is his manager Micky Goldmill, who bought it in Rocky III. Adrian Balboa (Talia Shire) has approximately five lines and the dreaded Drago even less. In place of the grimy hodgepodge that peopled the now primitive Rocky I, Stallone gives us a talking robot maid, droves of stony-faced KGB agents and a shadowy figure in the royal box who bcars marked resemblence to current Soviet Premier Gorbachev...
...writing and directing efforts, with heart-in-the-right-place primitivism. That is not necessarily a defect in movies that depend for effectiveness on walloping blows to the audience's emotional solar plexus. Stallone is unabashedly faithful to his character and his friends. The old gang is reassembled. Talia Shire is freshly steadfast and inspirational as Rocky's wife Adrian, Burgess Meredith is back as the wizened trainer Mickey and Burt Young as the earthy brother-in-law Paulie. Carl Weathers reprises his wily Apollo Creed. It is all durable and somehow innocent. There are no crooked managers...
ALMOST THE ENTIRE supporting cast similarly lacks freshness. Rocky III has almost become it self-parody. In interviews, Talia Shire insists that she doesn't just want to be known as Francis Ford Coppola's sister. Better the sister of Apocalypse Now's maker than this most recent incarnation of Rocky's main squeeze. Shire parades through the film with but two emotions, and you can't miss them. When she's proud, she smiles hesitatingly, blanks back tears, and lowers her head. When she's worried, she frowns hesitatingly, blinks back tears, and lowers her head. Her character, however...