Cinepals - Creed III Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Jaby and Achara react to Creed III, the latest entry in the Rocky spinoff franchise following Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan (Raising Dion, Black Panther, The Wire), as he navigates the challenges of balancing fame and family, when he is suddenly faced with his complicated past when his childhood friend Damian, played by Jonathan Majors (Loki, Devotion, Lovecraft Country), returns to challenge everything he values most. The film is also Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut, and stars Tessa Thompson (Thor: Love and Thunder, Westworld, Annihilation), Wood Harris (Empire, Ant-Man, The Wire), Phylicia Rashad (Soul, Empire, The Cosby Show), and Mila Davis (The Resident). Watch the full length reaction to the movie on our Patreon https://www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay or join us for the cutdown reaction on YouTube https://www.YouTube.com/@CinePals SOCIAL MEDIA ~CinePals~ Tik Tok, Twitter & Instagram: @TheCinePals https://www.YouTube.com/@CinePals ~Jaby Koay~ Twitter & Instagram: @JabyKoay ~Achara Kirk~ Twitter & Instagram: @AcharaKirk

Pals! We are watching Creed 3. Finally, with you and me. Oh. I really, really like that a lot. I know you did as well. I could see your reaction. I was there with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, please stop. Please stop looking at me when I'm having a tear because then you make me self-conscious about my tears. It's okay. I cried too. I saw that. Here's what happened. Let me reenact it. No, I'm a charra. I'm a charra. I'm like, God damn, let me have my moment. Stop looking at me.

No, I pulled a tissue for myself and in much the same way as when you're at a restaurant and like you're thirsty before you pour a drink for yourself, you've got to pour it for the other person. So I wanted to tissue myself, but I was like, oh shit, he needs a tissue. Kirk. Let me just throw one at you. That was so rude. Like, it was like, how dare you?

You're like, here, bitch. I'm like, damn. Did you? Ouch. Ouch. Like, let me have my feels. So anyway, I really enjoy it. I thought, I thought Michael B. Jordan did a bang up job.

I, truly. I have three issues, but there. Let's not talk about the issues yet. Fine. Can we talk about the things that we liked before we go into the issues? If you want to listen to Jabby's issues, you may need a tissue. Well, let me throw one out. Let me throw one out.

Then you can go on your, on your little soliloquy of love. So one issue, I. I felt was I missed Sylvester Stallone. I wish he was in this to coach him through. Oh, yeah. That would have been fun. Anyway, go ahead. No, I mean, I think that, you know, for directing himself and being in so many of the scenes,

my baby Jordan did a fantastic job. He was definitely taking chances with a lot of the cinematography and everything. Compliments to his DP. Like, whoever he hired for his DP, they must have had a good relationship going, because he's got to be on camera, he's got to trust that guy. Yeah, yeah, totally. But, like, I would say for the most part, I thought that the creative shots,

like the fancy shots were really cool. There were a few things where I was like, I'm not 100% sure, but, like, yeah, why not? Like what? Like what? A lot of the stuff where, when they were boxing, and then it went into the artsy mode, like when the jail bars came up,

I was kind of like, yeah, I get it. It's got a little bit too much now. They're on that nose there. Yeah, yeah, it was very, very on the nose. That was my second complaint. For that. Yeah, that was my second complaint. It was just a little too hard.

See, I'm like, yo, you're losing me here a little bit here. Yeah. You know, I don't need 11, 12 rounds. I could have done with like three or four, and it's just like keep me in the drama of it. I was enjoying some of the little in-between stuff, like the dialogue they had with each other, the looks. Because they did that a lot in this movie.

Jonathan Majors was giving so much just subtlety, and it was great. And, like, you could see the camera was just on him. And he was, he had, like, a lot of homework he must have done for this. And it was like, yeah, because you really, you really felt that history. And I enjoyed the storytelling where they were just kind of, where they were just kind of feeding it to us in like little bites. Nuggets, yeah. Like little nuggets, exactly, without really giving us the whole story. But we just had to watch along or try and put the pieces together ourselves before the movie finally goes.

Okay, fine, we'll tell you exactly what happened, which I enjoyed, you know. Like, I don't, I don't need you to tell me everything right up front. Like, the actors were doing such a good job of carrying that history and in the interactions with each other. Like, you could tell a lot of what happened without them having to say a word. I want to second what you said about Michael B. Jordan helming this and starring in it and all that because I can imagine how much work it. It's like I already know what that kind of feels like doing that in a short film. Yeah. The little thing.

To do that on a full major motion picture scale, that's crazy. That's just crazy. And he managed to do an excellent job of, like, for the most part, like, staying in the scene work and making me buy into him and believe everything he's feeling in those moments. In the first 15, 20 minutes, I was like, I don't know how it was going to go. But then after that, it was strong. Very, very strong. Yeah. And I think, as well, like, him coming at it from being an actor, you can tell, like, he's really allowing the actors to do their work, especially in that last scene between him and Dame,

there's a long pause that he just let play out as they're both just sitting there and just like the breathing room of like okay well we're both here and i think i'm i'm gonna apologize now and all of that like i feel like as actors that's what we love to do is like we love to take time like in the scene when you're doing the scene you let it breathe because it helps you with your your work right but i feel like that stuff gets edited down or it can get edited down and it's nice to have that breathing space where it's like this feels like a real moment between the two of them. Well, yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where, like, there's a lot of actors, there's a lot of directors who were actors first or had acting background, and they make for great directors because they understand. The process. Yeah, they understand the process. And I do really appreciate fighting against the trend of, like, just editing the shit

out of stuff. It, like, he allowed, like, you said, you know, it allowed the moments to just be for a second, so you could be there with those characters. And it did a nice job of kind of getting us back to what the original Rocky did, which is, like, it's a drama at heart. It's not a boxing movie. Boxing is just like what they do in the movie, you know? Like, that's the, that's the culmination of things. But at its heart, we're dealing with people. And I felt like we really got to know these people over the course of this journey. I got to feel things over the course of this journey. You know, when the movie lost the

mom, it was just like, damn, that hurts. Oh, God. Yeah. And just, yeah, that was a really, really powerful scene and like a scene that was full of healing and forgiveness as well as being incredibly sad. And it was on the heels of that moment he had. where he blamed his mom for, like, this tragedy that was happening to happen in his life. Right. It was really great. And I think also, you know, it's a really nice homage to the first Rocky movie as well. Because they were definitely, like, playing out the same beats. You know, it's like, oh, the underdog is going to fight the reigning champion. But instead of the moral of the story being like, it's not how many times you get hit. It's like whether you get back up and like about him going the distance, even though he doesn't actually win that round, that, that, that, that, that, that,

fight, right? This is like, oh no, we're going to take that, but then we're going to turn it on his head. Like, what if he actually won the fight? Like, how would that change and all of that? And so, I really enjoyed that nod to the original. And then also having, like, the OG music come on at the end was really cool. If I, you know, I really, really like the film. Okay, just want to say that again. Uh-huh. There were two things I wish they had done slightly different. I wish that he tried to talk to, to Dame earlier before the fight, you know, Because he just went straight to, I'm going to fight him, right? When he was talking to his wife, lady person.

Right. You know, he's like, he's never going to stop. It's like, we already accomplished that at the beach. And so we got that scene. Sure, yeah, because he did approach him. But it would have been cool to kind of see some of that attempt one more time before committing, like, I have to go this direction. And whatever he says in that moment can be brought back when they're sitting next to each other after the fight, you know. Sure.

Something like that. But I guess, like, they were just going for, he knows this guy. Sure. He knows exactly what. going to happen if he tries to talk to him again. So, like, what's the point? You're not wrong. You're not wrong.

I mean, like I said, I really enjoyed it. The other thing is during the montage, I kind of wish they slowed down a little bit to really, like, let us have some doubt because he's older now. They went through it real fast. Like, oh, he's got this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, this wrong. And they just moved on. I'm like, he's going to be all right. Like, I have no doubts. Of course he's going to be all right.

Yeah, but like. But instead of giving me all that artsy-fartsy stuff with like, you know, the jail wall and all that. Yeah, yeah. It's like, show me his weaknesses. Coming into play, give me some doubt. I know he's going to win, but allow me to buy into the illusion of the possibility he won't make it,

because the only time I got that was when he got that solar plex punch and then like the water flew off his back. I thought it was nuts. Also, at the beginning of the fight, Dane came in and like hit him in his injured shoulder. Yeah, I needed more of that. That's what I'm saying.

Okay. Yeah, I just needed a little bit more of that. So it felt like a crawl to the finish line. I mean, they both were fighting tooth and nail. Yeah. You know, like you really felt the stakes of how important it was for each of them that they win this fight. While I didn't like all the artsy-fartsy stuff,

I did appreciate some of the creative choices that were made that I haven't seen any previous films in this entire run, whether it's Rocky or Creed or whatever, where it's like a close-up on a body part and the face, like looking at the body part, you know, and then like taking advantage of what he's spotting. That's cool storytelling. Yeah, they did it again when he opened up the gate for a second.

And then, like, got him straight in the jaw. I thought that was cool. I liked that as just like something extra that we haven't seen before with this franchise yet. This was really, really strong, you know? I guess it just goes to show that there's still more to be had with the franchise.

There's still more stories to be told or at least one more story, you know what I mean? I do wonder if we'll, I don't know, maybe it's just for funsies and just a character thing, but it would be interesting to see if they went younger and followed the little girl going into the same profession. Yeah, that's a possibility.

You know, like... Assuming there's any life left in this. In this franchise. I mean, it seems like the time, honestly. You know? Yeah, that seems to be the direction that a lot of things are going. It's like, the boys have had their time.

Now it's the girls' turn. I would totally watch that. And I thought the casting was great for the young people in this movie. The young Michael B. Jordan, I thought, was... He didn't just look like him. His acting was similar enough to Michael B. Jordan, that at least my recollection of Michael B. Jordan,

and his acting just as that character was really strong. All the people, and the guy playing young Jonathan Majors was also good. Yeah. You know, I liked all that. And the little girl really, really strong as well. You know, I just recall my experience with Echo and I was just like getting frustrated and kind of bored, you know, especially during the sign language stuff. Versus here, I felt, except for one scene, I don't want to go too deep into Echo. But like here, any time there was sign language, it didn't take me out of it.

I still felt like I was there with these characters part of the journey. Well, it felt super natural and lived in. lived in. Yes, exactly. Like, it just felt like these are people and signing is just a part of their life. Yeah. Which is how it should be. Yeah.

And so I completely bought into that. It was really cute, like all their interactions with their little girl. Yeah. She was great. I wish that there was just a better bond between him and Adonis Creed in this film because part of the experience of Rocky is Mickey. Yeah. He's like the heart of the movie, you know?

And I didn't feel that sense. of like the boxer and the coach as much here. The coach was more throwaway in this film on both sides for Creed, for Adonis, and for Damien. It's just like, they're just kind of there. It's not really about them, you know? They made such a point of that that they took everybody else out of the movie for a second

but the artsy-fartsy boxing moment and this is just the two of them. I didn't mind that for just like a hair of a moment, but then it overstayed it's welcome. Yeah, exactly. I agree with you there. It's like, oh, conceptually love it. Yes, they're, you know, they're here. They're fighting.

It's just about them in the ring, you know. But then it went on a little bit too long and it's like, okay, okay, okay, you need to just rein it back a little. We got it. It's fine. The last compliment I want to pay it is I appreciated some of the long takes that were done in this. And I wish that we had a couple more here and there. You know, like I remember my experience of the first Creed film and Ryan Coogler had this long shot for the first fight with Adonis in the ring. And it was awesome.

Like, I'd never seen anything like that before. And it felt like you were just part of it and it felt real. And it would have been cool as an homage to the first Creed film to have one thing like that in this movie. But we never got it. It's okay. It's okay. It's fine. But, you know, just, you know, wish list.

Anyways, I really like this one a lot. Hopefully you guys did too. I'm Jabby Kui. This is- Achara Kirk. Peace out.