The director (Ryan Coogler) and star (Michael B. Jordan, cut like an Abercrombie & Fitch model) of 2013’s Fruitvale Station re-team for a Rocky remake retooled for Generation Affirmation. Their first collaboration had a real-life tragedy to ground it. This one, unfortunately, has an increasingly fantastical franchise to give it wings. It seems that retired boxing champ Rocky Balboa’s old friend Apollo Creed (RIP) had an affair and a son. His widow graciously rescues the boy from juvie and gives him a good life, but he chucks it to climb into the ring where Daddy died. Why o why? The answer, long in coming, makes little sense but sounds cool, so just go with it. There’s a lot of that sort of thing. Sylvester Stallone low-keys it and still overshadows his protégé, mostly because he’s playing a person and not the living embodiment of Doing It My Way and Believing I Can Do It. But not even Rocky can deliver a line like, “It’s you against you; he’s just in the way” without sounding ridiculous. Coogler and cinematographer Maryse Alberti do manage some nice close camerawork during the Big Fight, so there’s that. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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