MovieChat Forums > Southpaw (2015) Discussion > Shameless ripoff of the Rocky movies

Shameless ripoff of the Rocky movies

posted 7 years ago by MaximRecoil (4617)
7 replies | jump to latest

The vast majority of this movie consisted of a mishmash of elements from various Rocky movies, mainly parts III and V.

- At the beginning we have not-Adrian trying to convince not-Rocky to give up fighting out of concern for his safety/health, which can be seen in Rocky II, IV, and V, and Mick does it in place of Adrian in Rocky III.

- Then we have not-Clubber Lang show up at a public event and challenge not-Rocky to a fight. Not-Clubber Lang eventually uses the same tactic as Clubber Lang did to goad Rocky into fighting, i.e., insulting his wife.

- Not-Clubber Lang indirectly causes the death of not-Adrian, much like Clubber Lang indirectly caused the death of Mick.

- Not-Rocky loses his title due in part to being upset over the death of not-Adrian, in the same way that Rocky loses his title due in part to being upset over the death of Mick.

- Not-Rocky loses all of his money, cars, and house, complete with a scene showing people removing his property for auction (see Rocky V).

- Not-Rocky's annoying kid turns on him (see Rocky V), and also, there's a custody battle (see Over the Top, featuring the arm wrestler version of Rocky, for that bit of "brilliance").

- Not-Rocky gets a job cleaning the gym (see Rocky II).

- Not-Rocky's trainer has not-Rocky spar with a lighter, faster fighter (see Rocky II).

- Not-Rocky gets a new black trainer who shows him a new way of fighting which emphasizes defense (which he was previously lacking), in preparation for his upcoming fight with not-Clubber Lang (see Rocky III).

- Not-Rocky, a right-hander, is taught to switch to southpaw, in the same way that Rocky, a southpaw, is taught to switch to right-handed fighting in Rocky II.

- The final fight goes the distance and ends in a split decision (see Rocky and Rocky Balboa).

Unfortunately, Not-Rocky wasn't anywhere near as likeable as Rocky; Forest Whitaker's character was nowhere near as likable as Mick, Apollo, or Duke; not-Adrian was a poor substitute for Adrian; not-Clubber Lang was a joke compared to Mr. T's performance and screen presence, and not-Rocky's kid was way more annoying than any version of Rocky's kid, including the highly annoying part V version.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

yer never gonna make a movie about boxing without including half a dozen tropes from other boxing movies.
good list though, still dosent count as a "ripoff"

[–] catsidhe (1649) 6 years ago

I agree....and this one had a little bit of The Champ in there.

[–] MaximRecoil (4617) 6 years ago

Of course it's a ripoff. Most of these are not tropes; they are events specific to the Rocky movies, and there are too many of them for it to be a mere coincidence. Change the character names to match the corresponding character names in the Rocky movies, and maybe make some casting changes, but leave the story the same, and it could pass for a Rocky reboot, in the same way that the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot combined elements from the first four Friday the 13th movies (and added some new elements) into one movie.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

is "Best of the Best" a ripoff of "kickboxer" because 'you killed my brother!!!'?

[–] MaximRecoil (4617) 6 years ago

I haven't seen Best of the Best (or, if I have, it was ~30 years ago and I don't remember it), however, in Kickboxer, Van Damme's character's brother brother wasn't killed, he was injured, resulting in him being a paraplegic. Also, those two movies were released almost at the same time (about a month apart), and even if you were right about the killed brother thing, that would only be one element. I listed eleven elements that Southpaw lifted from the Rocky movies.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Its an impressive list to be sure!
Some of the comparisons are a bit strained like #4.
killed brother vs plarapleged brother is still - you hurt my brother!!
A trope of many kung fu movies , not just those 2 , many many.

Boxing is a very small subject - kung fu can happen anywhere , boxing only happens in controlled circumstances - in the ring, so , you know , theres limited story angles.
Look how many Rocky films there are , 6 is it?
Dont you think over the course of those films Stallone will have covered every possible thing that could happen to a boxer, therefore any other boxing film will have most of its plot points covered in rocky.

How long would your list be if limited to one rocky film?

[–] MaximRecoil (4617) 6 years ago

"Some of the comparisons are a bit strained like #4."

Not strained at all, especially since the deaths were the result of the same type of scenario in both movies (see #3). Having two elements that are tied together happening in both movies makes #3 and #4 among the stronger indicators of a ripoff on my list. Had #4 not been accompanied by #3 it wouldn't be anywhere near as strong.

"Boxing is a very small subject - kung fu can happen anywhere , boxing only happens in controlled circumstances - in the ring, so , you know , theres limited story angles.
Look how many Rocky films there are , 6 is it?
Dont you think over the course of those films Stallone will have covered every possible thing that could happen to a boxer, therefore any other boxing film will have most of its plot points covered in rocky."

I've seen lots of non-Rocky boxing movies, and none of them lifted as many elements from the Rocky movies as Southpaw did; not even close. Lots of movies follow the Rocky formula, such as The Karate Kid and countless others. In fact, while looking up the release date for "Best of the Best", I noticed that Leonard Maltin called it "Yet another Rocky clone". But that's only a general formula. Southpaw on the other hand, goes well into ripoff territory.

"How long would your list be if limited to one rocky film?"

There are five from Rocky III, including the two aforementioned interconnected ones (numbers 3 and 4). Like I said before, with the way it lifted elements from most of the Rocky movies, it was as if it had been written as a Rocky reboot, but since it wasn't a Rocky reboot, it was a Rocky ripoff.