COUNTDOWN: PAUL VS TYSON (2024)

If you count how long the left-wing streaming company Netflix deals with Mike Tyson's downfall, particularly his going to jail, it lasts shorter than his early one-rounders... and you never hear the word rape, not once... Hence the liberal media has stopped/paused the cancel culture... especially if there is money to be made... as happened with the novelty fight between former world champion boxer Mike Tyson and You Tube Influencer Jake Paul...

Watching Tyson's bio followed by Paul's is like comparing George Washington to a district councilman in Cleveland with a dog that has hiccups... one's genuinely historic; the other got famous for getting tons of hits from what even this documentary doesn't fully explain...

The Ryan backers use the word "haters" when describing what/who he was up against... Haters is a term of a lot of people suddenly being against something or someone... And haters only exist in a world where someone goes from nobody to celebrity because of an overnight "viral" sensation... So basically, haters exist in a world to counter celebrities who become famous for no actual reason, which is unlike Tyson... So if haters hate for no reason, they're hating people who became famous for no actual reason... It all evens out... And if this documentary was more on Tyson and his struggles, it would be a lot better and would last longer because at this point we've already seen the Tyson/Paul cash-grab fight... this is all basically promoting something that has already happened. Rates: **

ROCKY III

title: ROCKY III

year: 1982

cast: Sylvester Stallone, Taila Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, Tony Burton, Frank Stallone, Stu Nahan

writer/director: Sylvester Stallone

rating: ****

Taking away the dated and often preposterous factors, including an over-the-top battle against Hulk Hogan that makes us believe professional wrestling isn't scripted, and the casting of eighties icon Mr. T as the mega-villain rival Clubber Lange (who's performance isn't bad, but the character is blatantly one-dimensional), this, the third outing in the ROCKY series, is a terrific ride. The first two films were seemingly-realistic studio-driven-indies while this is the big budget mainstream peak of the franchise: for better or worse, it's all here. The opening credit sequence (after two back-to-back montages), as Burt Young's sloppy and desperate (and often comic-relief-providing) "Paulie" wanders the streets in a drunken stupor, we're reminded of the street-savvy original. And during both of Rocky's training sessions... the first where he's not taking things seriously (an inside-satire of the franchise's corporate megalomania) before going up against his formidable opponent - and then, after getting knocked-out and losing his beloved "Mickey", teaming with former rival/new trainer Apollo Creed in urban downtown Los Angeles - there's a genuine base delivering the goods to near-perfection. Just turn off and have fun.