This Is the Night

9/8/2022

Rule of thumb: never remind the audience that they could be watching a much better film. Rocky III may not be the haymaker that the first two films of that franchise (a true one-two knock-out combo) were, but it’s arguably the saga’s last great chapter, and it might as well be Citizen Kane compared to This Is the Night, which appears to have been written and directed by a concussed Rocky Balboa. Dr. Johnson said that puns are the lowest form of humor, but this movie resorts to an even lower form: retrospective humor. For example, it's 1982 and Anthony Dedea (Lucius Hoyos), the young protagonist, calls Rocky III "The end of the trilogy, the last Rocky movie." HAHAHAHAHAHA! Get it? It's funny because they’re still making Ricky-related films. Anthony and his two friends (the lead in a t