This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is frustrating to see people say Stallone doesn't want to give credit to Wepner for his inspiration. He gave Wepner heaps of credit over the years and he even offered him a chance to be in Rocky 2 and Wepner blew it. He even asked him if he wanted a role in Lock Up, and Wepner said no. Wepner has no right in extorting Stallone for money. He asked him for 15 million! Screw you Wepner. People get inspired by all sorts of things in life. Stallone is a doer, and he is the one who wrote Rocky based on something he was inspired by. I don't fee sorry for Wepner at all. He gambled and snorted cocaine and his life away and then thought....oh, you know what Sly owes me millions. Why? No one owes you nothing in life. You have to work hard and Sly has. This is such a bias documentary. Wepner owes Stallone gratitude for bringing his life into the light and also, to make one last point, why was it ok for Wepner to be going around for years using the film Rocky to promote himself and his business and make money off it?

And Stallone showed what he truly is made of.The Rocky Franchise is worth OVER a Billion dollars and Stallone could not throw Mr. Wepner a few crumbs? I admired Stallone for decades, laughed at his revolving door of broads, escapades, self- promotions, etc., and shook it all off as part of "the life in Tinsletown".But to make definite statements that Wepner inspired Rocky I, using Wepner's life almost to the exact T, then denying it when facing a legal court-ordered Deposition just turned me off.Is it me, or could have more good will and faith been brought on by Stallone had he done the right thing when Wepner called? Don't say that you did not know better, Mr. Stallone. Some of us can't be fooled twice by the same person.

This installment of "30 for 30" concerns the boxer Chuck Wepner--who, according to many, was the inspiration for the character "Rocky". About the only one in the show who felt this was NOT the case was Sylvester Stallone--who eventually was sued by Wepner for part of the film royalties. This is odd, as there is quite a bit of evidence Wepner WAS Stallone's inspiration--especially since they show footage of Stallone himself back in the 1970s saying how he was inspired by the famous fight between Wepner and Muhammad Ali. However, this is NOT the sole focus of the documentary. Instead, it told the story of Wepner's career before and after this very famous 15-round fight. It's all rather interesting--especially since Wepner himself spends most of the film narrating his underdog story. Not among the very best of the series but still quite good--and very interesting.

Real Rocky, The (2011) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Extremely good documentary about Chuck Wepner, a man whose name most people probably won't know but he was the main inspiration for Sylvester Stallone and ROCKY. For years Stallone kept using Wepner's life in a number of his movies but when Wepner tried to get paid for what he had done, Stallone then claimed that the boxer had not been an inspiration. The thing would eventually be settled out of court but this documentary really gives the viewer no doubt that the ROCKY series owed a lot to Wepner. The amazing thing is that it wasn't just the ROCKY movies that Stallone borrowed from. This documentary is a very entertaining piece and especially for those who don't know the full story of Wepner. I had only vaguely heard of him but after viewing this there's no doubt in my mind that Stallone really owed this guy a lot and it's a shame that it took so long for Wepner to get some credit. The most obvious example is when Ali offered a "nobody" a chance at the title. This led to a Heaveyweight bout where Wepner was able to go fifteen-rounds with the champ, which is something no one expect. All the stock footage leading up to the fight was incredibly entertaining and somewhat shocking when Ali wanted to turn this into a race fight to try and gather more attention. The film does a pretty good job at showing the comparisons of Wepner's life and not only the Rocky character but a few others from Stallone's movies.