I Play Rocky

I Play Rocky is the underdog story of how underdog story Rocky was made.

The idea itself is such an underdog tale you wouldn’t be surprised to see an ‘I Play Rocky in I Play Rocky’ movie in the future telling its very own underdog story.

Jokes aside, films can only be judged on extracting the maximum possible from the concept and, given that logic, I Play Rocky is remarkably strong.

A story of the making of a film, classic or not, award-winning or not, remarkable tale or not, has its limitations.

It depends on a love of the original and is destined to have to somewhat mimic its source in its footage.

Fortunately, the tale of how Rocky was made is so crazy and the attention to detail here is so on point.

The whole enterprise would collapse completely if the ‘feel’ of the original wasn’t there.

This is so spot on that even the non-movie sequences feel like Rocky. When it comes to the actual recreations, it is downright frightening.

It’s a shame there isn’t any ‘side-by-side’ style shots during the credits but the filmmakers must have pulled some strange voodoo here to get things so close. It’s uncanny and will drop your jaw.

Likewise, Anthony Ippolito is an unbelievable find. It’s rare to win awards for playing another actor, especially in this sort of movie and genre, but Ippolito quite simply has to be recognised for his achievement.

He just 'is' Sylvester Stallone and, again, there are frequent jaw-dropping moments in his performance.

It retains the underdog, feelgood spirit of its forebear and does well to inspire you to want a rewatch of Rocky rather than overspilling the pot.

By its very definition it’s limited by its concept but, as aforementioned, in terms of extracting the maximum from what it could be, I Play Rocky gets the championship belt.

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