As many of you who follow my Twitter or are my Facebook friends can well attest, my latest mental obsession has been with viewing the Rocky franchise of movies.
I've been annoying my co-workers by calling myself "the Ultimate Male" as Thunderlips did in Rocky III.
I have been yelling "Hey woman!" at my girlfriend as Clubber Lang did in that same film.
It's only a matter of time before I start running laps around an outside track and facing cutaway shots of mysterious substances being shot into my rippling shoulders like Ivan Drago in the fourth installment, or sprinting up a series of steps like Rocky did in every film.
The bigger situation with this though is that I realized that these films actually teach life lessons.
The first installment taught us to never give up, no matter what the odds.
Rocky II preaches the same thing, only this time Rocky gets the big payoff by defeating Apollo Creed.
Rocky III teaches you to stick up for your woman, an archaic idea, but still a value to have for any young man growing up.
Rocky IV taught us all that one fictional boxer could topple the entire Soviet Union.
Rocky V taught us that Tommy Morrison has no business being an actor.
The main idea is that no matter what the obstacle, you can always persevere. Although the filmmakers almost ended that idea by having Tommy Gunn kill Rocky in the famous streetfight in the unwatchable Rocky V.
Luckily for Rocky, the ending was scrapped.
Not as lucky for movie fans, there would be another installment.
Mason "the Line" Dixon?
Really?
Really really?
