Inspiration isn't necessarily sappy, it's the way sports films tend to present it. It's like, Rocky... What's to be inspired about by watching a midget on steroids beat a couple of communists to shit? Well, there is the whole notion of presevering and reaching your goals, but I think it's far too straight forward and precise, so much that at some point it all becomes extremely stereotypical and irrelevant to the audience, that I can't help but laugh at the cookie-cutter ideals the film makers are attempting to present.

Inspiration comes in strange forms. I don't need to watch some Silverster Stallone work his way around a speech impediment for two hours to feel inspired. I can so easily stumble upon a film like Taxi Driver and feel inspired in so many of the realms of creation and expression that I often venture into... Be it writing, music, film, animation, paintings and sketchings, what have you; to be able to create something half as beautiful is a task. I don't see anything beautiful about Rocky, at least not enough, and thus I can't feel inspired in anyway, not even in athletics. Rocky doesn't inspire me to go mountain biking, it didn't inspire me to play better soccer back when I was on a team, and it doesn't inspire me artistically either. It totally and completely fails to maintain relevancy for me.

Million Dollar Baby is probably even sappier than Rocky. It's full of recycled emotions and jumbled scenes. That film is completely about inspiration and preserverence as they show the protagonist's persistence. It's a good try, but it just didn't work. Beyond that, I thought the film was horribly paced and just sort of dragged on. The last 20 minutes became so tiresome that I was begining to fall asleep in the theatre.

Wha'chu talkin' bout? You limey's are so naive!

In all seriousness, though, I don't find Spielberg's visuals particularly special. But, I've never really been impressed by landscape shots, or special effects, or giant computerized dinosaurs. And thematically, I think he is a bit dense. He tends to over simplify emotions. It's either that, or he always deals with the most basic emotions.

Leprechauns in da hood,is a film that springs to my mind.

You actually saw that? I've been meaning to watch it; it just looks so absolutely horrible that it'd be bordering hilarity.

Oh it does.I saw it on T.v the other day,it's great for a laugh.Had me in stitches,it's so bad.

The godfather part 3, it wasnt needed.

LLC, you're a good boy, but you HAVE to get past this Rocky hating phase. If you drink your milk, and eat your spinach, you can grow up to be big and strong, just like him.

Let's call this an intervention. Listen to him LLC. We're here for you. You can do this. You'll thank us one day.

Make sure you skip Rocky 5.LOL

I'll just skip them all.

Honestly, I was shocked when I heard Stallone didn't have an extra chromosome.

But Pizzaboy......most of the ROCKY movies sucked. What, you forgot about ROCKY V?

I know Stallone is your boy and all, but....

Anyway, as far as I see it, ROCKY BALBOA is the only true sequel made for ROCKY. The rest were silly fantasies.

I want to comment on lot of posts, but this is what happens if you don't have internet at home... too many interesting posts to reply.
Anyway, some points that I want to comment on:

1) LLC, I share your view about spielberg. I do remember enjoying Jurassic park in theaters when it was released. I liked the first Rocky and didn't hate Million Dollar Baby (it scores low on "cliche" scale compared to other horrible movies)
2)TIS, American beauty??? It is one of my all time favorites. What did you not like about it?
3) My suggestions to the list: oceans 12 and matrix-revolutions

OCEAN'S 12.......well, I've written many times before of how retarded I think the twist is, and the fact that its way too crowded, to the point it makes one point why several people were doing in the movie.

what about MATRIX RELOADED while you're at it? Both sequels had promising ideas, but of course promising ideas mean SHIT if they're botched in execution.

MILLION DOLLAR BABY's problem was the script from Paul "Melodrama" Haggis. Otherwise, Eastwood and Swank did just fine.

Stallone is my boy too.

Pizza, I think we're going to find a way to reason with these Board bigshots.

Yeah, just send some of your boys down here in Appalachia, and see how long they last not with spagetti with marinara but noodles and ketchup.

I don't remember any promising ideas in revolutions. All I remember is a bunch of new characters shooting away to glory sitting on huge robotic machines Makes me wonder if it was the same set of people who made the wonderful first part.

As far as part 2 is concerned, it did introduce a lot of ambitious concepts that it did not explore in part 3. Some hightlights were the idea of the ambiguous role of oracle and cloning of Agent Smith into several agents. The downside was introducing stuff like key-maker, going back to source (which if explained well, would have made sense), the scientist who speaks a 10-page dialogue which makes no sense, the bike chase which looked like a video game and the french-man (again unsatisfactorily explored in part 2 and 3). As I finish typing this post, I think part 2 was pretty bad indeed.

I loved all three of the movies she mentioned. Most particularly Boogie Nights... I think a lot of people overlooked the humor and weren't sure what to make of the mix of comedy and drama. But I list this movie up there as one of the funniest films I've ever seen, along with comedic gems like Duck Soup. I laughed so hard during my first viewing.

I have to go to my local Parish later on, St Benedict's. I'll light a candle for them.

Rocky, 2,3,4 were good. Rocky 5 sucked bigtime. Rocky Balboa was great also. IMHO.

Well, if Sly didn't do a thing with the character after the original, then came along last year with Rocky Balboa: Thirty Years Later, that would've been ideal. Although, I must admit, ROCKY II was an incredible movie-going experience for me and my dim-witted friends, back in 1979. Like Eddie Murphy said in RAW: Rockooooooooooooo!!

I haven't seen Rocky Balboa. Please, send me a PM and tell me about it. What happens in the end? I can enjoy a movie just as much even when I know how it ends (e,g, The Godfather) I'l see it eventually.