In 2015, Donnie is in Tijuana, preparing for his fight in an amateur boxing bout hosted in a bar. Upon returning from his latest fight, Donnie resigns from the Smith Boardley Financial Group to pursue his dream of becoming a professional boxer. Donnie auditions at Los Angeles’ elite Delphi Boxing Academy, managed by family friend Tony “Little Duke” Evers Jr., the son of Apollo’s trainer Tony “Duke” Evers, but is turned down.
When she asks him to stop, he serenely says, “In a minute.” In a deleted scene, Creed says that he has a friend named Jorge who will hook Toby up with anything he wants, including “this amazing coffee that you snort”. Creed also was seen searching through Pam’s desk in Season 4 episode 2. Creed was never actually hired, but walked in one day, and acted like he worked there and has been going in every day since then.
In “Money”, when explaining how he never goes bankrupt, he holds up his passport issued in the name William Charles Schneider (actor Bratton’s actual birth name). The passport indicates that he was born on February 8, 1943, the real Creed Bratton’s birthdate. The real Creed Bratton was 64 at the time the episodes were filmed and aired. Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, employs Rocky Balboa to prepare for a big fight. The plot is derivative and maybe even cliche and a important character development isn’t adequately resolved, but damn, is this film compelling. The fight scenes are brutal, and Sylvester Stallone turns in the best performance of his career.
Rocky’s big speech comes after a scene where he gets some bad news (which I’ll not spoil). Watch how subtly Stallone plays his reaction—he turns the simple gesture of removing his hat into a powerful lament. Coogler loves the faces of his actors, to the point where he shoots one boxing match as an unbroken take focusing on his boxers’ punch-laden mugs.
One of the most surprising things about “Creed” is how gentle and easygoing it is, notwithstanding the effective brutality of the fight scenes. It is a pleasure to watch Mr. Stallone amble through a movie with nothing much to prove. He is at his best when he works comfortably within his limitations as an actor. With every role, he seems to delight in the unfolding of his talent, and to pass his excitement along to the audience. The older fighter is a mentor and a father figure, to be sure, but he also needs someone to take care of him, especially when illness adds a melodramatic twist to the plot.
It’s a stark contrast to Stallone’s blue collar stiff in the first film, but this is where both films converge. Like Rocky, Adonis knows he is destined for something else, so heads to Philadelphia to meet his late father’s rival turned best friend. On September 25, 2009, Estee Lauder makeup performed a concert in Houston, Texas that was recorded, broadcast via a live internet stream, and released on December 8, 2010, as a concert film titled Creed Live, the band’s first live recording. The performance broke four world records, including the world record for the most cameras used at a live music event . The performance also featured the first usage of the “big freeze” technology, popularized by the 1999 film The Matrix, in a concert environment. Drummer Scott Phillips also confirmed that Full Circle will not be the band’s final album.
And Sylvester Stallone, while happy to steal a scene every now and then, cedes the limelight to Michael B. Jordan. At a recent screening of “Creed,” as the familiar fanfare of Bill Conti’s beloved “Rocky” score signaled the start of the final round of the big fight, the audience burst into spontaneous applause. This was no sneak-preview crowd, primed with free admission and popcorn, but a room full of critics and journalists armored in professional skepticism. A cynic might say that the cheering was a Pavlovian reflex set off by a piece of commercial entertainment in the hands of a skilled, manipulative director. This cynic, however, was too busy choking up and clapping to form the thought. In “Frame Toby”, Creed shows concern when two policemen show up at the office looking for narcotics.
I admired the film’s rhythm, the camera work and editing complementing the rest of the film’s elements flawlessly that both probably even outshone them. One particular shot that I loved was the Long Take used during his first professional fight. There are very few films I remember Lancome makeup pulling off this shot that has made me feel so emotionally engaged. The characters were raw and genuine, no doubt played exceptionally by the cast, particularly, Jordan and Stallone. The film was well crafted, intense but unhurried, keeping me immersed the entire time.
It is implied in “Gay Witch Hunt” that he is bisexual, stating after the outing of Oscar that in the 1960s he had sex numerous times with women and it was possible that he could have had relations with a man as well. The scattered details that emerge are invariably bizarre and it is unknown how much of what he says is true. In fact, much of what he does say is either unsettling or downright disturbing, sometimes even describing violent crimes he claims to have committed or plans to commit. Despite all of this, Creed is outwardly quite cheery most of the time and is tolerated by his fellow employees. Creed Bratton is a deviant, former hippie and homeless man employed at the Scranton branch of paper distributor Dunder Mifflin as a quality assurance manager. Creed is a mysterious figure who is prone to making bizarre or confusing statements on a regular basis.
To return to the corner, even with a different boxer, is not on his list of things to do, partially out of guilt for Apollo, but mostly out of a general sense of exhaustion. Of course, Donnie wears him down and, despite some jealousy from a coach at Rocky’s late trainer Mickey’s old gym , Rocky takes on Donnie’s mentorship. This eventually leads to an offer to fight Liverpudlian boxing champ Pretty Ricky Conlan . Coogler’s story, co-written with Aaron Covington, unabashedly mirrors the arc of the original “Rocky”. There’s the humble boxer, his mentor and the woman who becomes his significant other and rock of support.