11/11/2026

Cineworld, Edinburgh

We all love an underdog story – and this true-life account of how the most famous boxing movie in history was created is the very essence of what we mean by that term.

It’s the early 70s and wannabe actor ‘Mike’ Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) is making ends meet doing a series of nondescript jobs in and around New York City. In his free time he grabs every opportunity to attend auditions for minor character roles such as Thug No 3. When he gets desperate enough, he even dips his toes into the waters of soft porn, though that lucrative career path is quickly abandoned as soon as his bills are paid.

One job has him tearing ticket stubs in a movie theatre and it’s here that he meets Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb), who soon becomes his significant other. She persuades Mike to switch back to his real name, Sylvester – so much better for the movie star he longs to be, she tells him. Sasha is even introduced to Sylvester’s father, Frank (Matt Dillon), a hairdresser by trade and an opinionated asshole by nature. Frank never misses an opportunity to criticise his son, who he believes doesn’t have a hope in hell of ever landing a proper film role. “You’re just not handsome enough,” Frank insists.

But, nurtured by Sasha’s absolute belief in him, Sylvester refuses to give up. Inspired by a boxing match he sees on TV between Muhammad Ali and a much older boxer called Chuck Hepner, he pens the screenplay for Rocky in just three days and even manages to get a couple of bigshot producers, Irwin Winkler (P J Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell), interested in the script. They take it to money-man Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts) to ask him to come up with the necessary finance, a cool two million at a time when that was considered big money. He’s happy to be involved in the project provided they can get a star name to take on the lead role. Ryan O’Neal or Clint Eastwood, maybe? Somebody like that.

But Sly is determined to take the lead and, no matter how much money he’s offered to step aside – and as the months pass, he is being offered big bucks – he stubbornly sticks to his guns…

Of course, a concept like this can only work if the actor playing Stallone is credible – and Ippolito does an extraordinary job with the role, delivering a really convincing impersonation of the man, nailing that unmistakable gravel-toned voice, while at the same time, giving us insights into Stallone’s character and what drove that stubborn determination to succeed. Peter Farrelly directs Pete Gamble’s script with genuine verve and the 70s period detail is faithfully reproduced, right down to the early steadicam shots used to capture Rocky Balboa’s iconic victory ascent up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

If there’s an issue with I Play Rocky, it’s simply this – how can the makers ever hope to surprise an audience with a story that’s so universally familiar? Okay, occasionally I encounter a few things that I didn’t previously know, but they are few and far between. On the other hand, I cannot deny that I really enjoy the mid-credit sequences, where short scenes from the original film are uncannily reproduced in tiny detail. Is this film, like its illustrious predecessor, likely to win an Oscar? Ippolito seems a good bet to get a best actor nomination and, should he end up lifting the gong on the big night, it will feel suspiciously like history repeating itself.

But I’m not convinced that this film has the necessary clout to win by a knockout.

4 Stars

Philip Caveney