There are a lot of legendary stories about movies, how they got made and what happened during the making. We only get to see this through “Making of” documentaries, but the really classic stories, we only hear about. One such story is the making of the 1976 movie Rocky: an extraordinary tale of how a complete unknown wrote a script so good the producers would go to any lengths to acquire it, but he held off all offers so he could be the star. I Play Rocky tells that incredible story.
Sylvester ‘Mike’ Stallone is a struggling actor who survives by taking poorly paid jobs and even appears in a soft porn movie. Working at a cinema, he meets Sasha, and his enthusiasm for telling her about how to make movies better convinces him to write a script. When he gets a chance meeting with producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, he slips one of his scripts to them, and they are impressed. They ask him to write something else, and he comes up with Rocky. They want it, but there is a catch. No matter the price, Stallone wants to play Rocky. After considerable negotiation, he eventually gets his dream, but without the difficulties.
Director Peter Farrelly, who gave us the Oscar-winning Green Book, and writer Peter Gamble, obviously have a real passion for the boxing movie. They capture the era impeccably, and when we get to the making of the film, it’s like watching the film all over again. Everything is almost identical to the film, from the settings to the costumes to the performers (though one does fall very short).
The film is broken into two halves. The first focuses on Stallone’s struggles, from sleeping on the streets and endless auditions that lead to nothing to his meeting with Sasha, a young woman who manages to change his world. The second half, when the couple moves to L.A., has the actor spending three and a half days writing the now-legendary script and insisting he wrote it for himself and that no star could play Rocky like him, because it’s his story.
The film is littered with moments that will excite cinephiles, including mentions of Stallone’s past efforts (Lords of Flatbush, Death Race 2000, and even The Party at Kitty and Stud’s, his soft porn movie). There are even cheeky moments about scripts that Stallone wrote (Paradise Alley and F.I.S.T.). There’s a hilarious sequence when they try to cast Apollo Creed and offer it to professional superstar boxers, until the overconfident Carl Weathers comes in with the attitude but none of the boxing skills.
This is a dream for those who love the original film (I’m one of them), and at times it becomes so hard to tell you are watching the film and not the real thing. The attention to detail is incredible, especially when the final product is shown to an audience for the first time. How they managed to make this production so identical is a masterclass by filmmakers who really care. It also follows the same filmmaking path in its storytelling. This is a film that is a love story and an underdog’s tale. This is Rocky Mark II.
The performances are superb. P.J. Byrne and Toby Kebbell make for an engaging double act as the producers willing to take a huge chance. Jay Duplass has plenty of attitude as the film’s director, John G. Avildsen, and Stephen James is a hoot as Carl Weathers.
AnnaSophia Robb, who made an impression in Bridge to Terabithia, is terrific as Sasha, a woman who has parallels to Adrian, a doting wife willing to support her husband at their lowest because she loves him. It’s a solid performance that works well with the incredible Anthony Ippolito. He last played a real actor in The Offer, the TV series about The Godfather, when he played Al Pacino. Now he has totally embodied Stallone. From the voice to the way he holds his body and the way he walks, he is Stallone in every sense of the word, even to the point you forget you are watching an actor playing the role. This could be his Rocky moment once the awards start coming out.
I Play Rocky is a glorious, crowd-pleasing triumph that will thrill fans of the biggest film of 1976, but should introduce it to those unfamiliar with it. It grabbed me from the moment it started and never let go, just like Rocky did. I loved it.
5 out of 5
Director: Peter Farrelly
Starring: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J.Byrne, Toby Kebble, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephen James, Kiki Seto, Robert Morgan, Steve Sweeney, Scot Teller
Written by: Peter Gamble
Running Time: 128 mins
Cert; 12A
Release date: 6th November 2026
