Hey folks, Harry here with a great set report on ROCKY BALBOA from one of the cheering fans in the cheap seats. Here's the report - but beware - the fight results are talked about.
AICN guys.
While you guys were having at it at the Alamo, some of us have to slum it in
Vegas.
Hope you can use this.
Thanks for making AICN a daily timekiller at work.
-Charlie
ON LOCATION: ROCKY BALBOA: LAS VEGAS: DAY 1
There's good news and bad. First the good news.
ROCKY BALBOA should be a great movie. Stallone's showing his age, but the
old coot looks better than any 60 year old I've ever seen. The guy's a few
pounds heavier than his advertised weight back 15-20 years ago, but there
wasn't much sign of flab on that frame.
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS.
It's the conclusion of the movie, with Rocky and Mason "The Line" Dixon
(Pro Boxer Antonio Tarver) as the special attraction at Mandalay Bay. The ring
was still configured for an HBO PPV from the night before, except for the god
awful addition of GoldenPalace stuff splattered all over the ring floor, and
turnbuckles sponsored by Ameriquest and NetJets. Oh, yeah...and Paulie's a
walking billboard. His porkpie hat even has goldenpalace.com splattered on the
front, along with assorted sponsors on his jacket.
In the film, Dixon is the undefeated, undisputed triple crown champ, and
appears that there's some sort of mutual respect going on with Rocky. Like the
trades said, this isn't a bad guy and for that matter, if you think about it,
Apollo Creed wasn't one in the first two movies.
The crowd was first filmed with cheering for each as they made thier way
into the ring, with Michael Buffer on the mic. Then, out of nowhere for a
cameo (*see end for spoiler*) was ringside and giving Mason Dixon a whole lot
of grief. It doesn't take rocket science to know that there could be some
legitimate heat between the two outisde the movie, especially if Antonio Tarver
chooses to really take the leap up to heavyweights. Okay, cameo over and then
break.
Some miscellaneous shots then break.
Jim Lampley, and Larry Merchant from HBO were joined for the filming by
that annoying dingbat Max Kellerman. Max...hmmm, Max reminds me of
obnoxiousness of Jim Rome with the Opie Taylor-ishness of WWE's Michael Cole.
I really don't want to hate the guy, but he's too much like Rome. All feelings
aside, those three nailed thier long string of lines it seemed in one take.
Okay, there was couple pickup shots, but hey they worked. It didn't hurt
things any that there was a couple guys in the ring mocking up the fight. I
think the Dixon stand-in is actually Antonio Tarver's sparring partner, while
Rocky's stand-in resembled a high school PE teacher.
After a brief lunch break...
A few isolated shots of Merchant, Kellerman, and Lampley were done to make
for pre-and-post fight commentary. The bell ringer couldn't get a clear ring,
so they kept reshooting then finally switched to the 10-second clapper. Lots
of fun...yay!
Fianlly, we got to a meaty conclusion. The real Rocky and Dixon were in
the ring fighting for the last few seconds of the 10th and final round, while
everyone around the place was going apeshit. The bell rings and we all go
berzerk. Again...and again...and again.
(BIG ASS SPOILER WARNING -WIPE OUT TEXT) There's four finishes filmed, all
of them (so far) have the two going the whole ten rounds. This'll make the
first time in a Rocky film that the finish goes to the scoring cards.
* Rocky wins by Unanimous Decision
* Rocky wins by Split Decision
* Mason wins by Unanimous Decision
* Mason wins by Split Decsion
The final shots were re-shoots from the earlier scheduled shots. My 10
hours were up, so I hauled ass home. See my reasons below.
BeInAMovie.com sucks. But why, you ask, do they suck?
* They waited until the absolute last second to distrubute the
information out to the people who signed up, which made the other five people
in my party cancel.
* Most of us ended up parking on city streets in a really...REALLY
shitty part of town. This really sucks partially because of the Las Vegas
Marathon shutting the streets down that got us access to Mandalay Bay, but the
BIAM.C got the Sin strip joint's parking lot but didn't use all of it...instead
most of us ended up parking in BumFuckEgypt in anything but "SECURE PARKING".
* They advertised "hundreds of free prizes" including CD players, TVs,
and Autographs. Those stingy cheap bastards managed to get A TV, some bargain
basement DVDs and a few teeshirts. They totally hosed us out.
* We volunteers were treated like total fucking trash. We weren't told
ahead of time that we'd be pushed to the side to make room for SAG and
non-union paid extras. That included lunch...while they got a full hour for
lunch, we had to wait until the set was cleared of important folk and (bitch
bitch bitch).
* The coffee tasted like shit. Not that I know exactly what shit
tastes like, but if I had to hazard a guess, it tastes like that coffee they
served.
* No soda. I went into caffiene withdrawl.
* The water was room temp. No cold water for the Volunteers.
* Stale Bagels
* Mealy apples.
* Thier warm-up guy, "Dante," is a total tool. After punting the prize
giveaway, he had the balls to beg us to come back Monday and Tuesday...fucking
wank...most of us (damn near 100) decided to bail during the filming of a
pickup shot that had a hard camera on us. Some of us (and I'm not saying who)
also took the opportunity to snap a few shots of the set during filming. I'm
not saying when, but I'm sure I'll get a couple shots to post in addition to
the ones that'll appear on thier official website.
So, fuck beinamovie.com. I'm glad the other five didn't come, 'cos they
would have hated the experience.
Oh, and that cameo was Mike Tyson. Surprised? Didn't think so.
