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Creed | 2015 | PG-13 | - 4.5.5
The son (Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed, the late world heavyweight champion, enlists the help of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), his father's biggest rival, to train him to fight and make his own name in boxing. Also with Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Andre Ward, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster and Jacob 'Stitch' Duran. Directed by Ryan Coogler. [2:12]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A man and a woman sleep on a sofa; they wake up and talk and kiss passionately, they remove their shirts (we see cleavage and his bare chest and abdomens are seen) and the man climbs on top of the woman and sex is implied.
► A woman carrying the round numbers at a boxing match wears a skimpy outfit that reveals bare abdomen and legs to the hip. We see a pornographic magazine in a man's room and the cover shows a woman wearing a skimpy bikini that reveals cleavage and bare abdomen. Two boxers are shown in a locker room preparing for a fight and they are shirtless. A woman wears a low-cut top while performing on stage in a club (we see cleavage).
► A man kisses a woman on the cheek; they lie on the floor next to each other and she kisses him on the mouth. A woman kisses a man in a boxing ring after a match. A shirtless man and a woman set in a bed and he unbraids her hair.
► A man asks another man, "You walk around naked?" when they talk about living together.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Two young teenage boys fight in the lunch room of a juvenile detention center: one boy knocks the other to the floor, straddles him and punches him in the face repeatedly (we see bruises on the faces of both boys) before the boys are pulled apart by guards. A man punches another man in the face at pre-boxing match event and we hear that his jaw is broken.
► Several boxing match scenes show fighters landing heavy blows and a few show bloody wounds and knockouts; one boxer is punched repeatedly and is shown with a bloody eye. A boxing match shows one fighter being struck repeatedly and he ends up with a bloody and swollen eyelid while his opponent is knocked out. An extended boxing match shows many heavy blows land and both fighters end up bloody; one fighter talks about smacking "this kid to bits," and we see them swilling bloody water, spitting blood on the mat (blood also splatters with heavy blows).
► A man is told that he has cancer and he declines treatment saying that it didn't work for his wife. We see teenage boys locked in solitary cells. We hear that a boxer was arrested for gun possession charges and that he will be serving 7 years in prison.
► There are many scenes of boxers training and sparring with punches landing (no blood is shown) and some fighters are knocked down while sparring. One sparring scene shows the fighters punching each other and after the bell rings, they don't stop right away. A training sequence shows a boxer running behind a van as it drives to a gym. A boxer trains by shadow boxing and boxing with his reflection in a mirror in a few scenes.
► Two men argue in a hallway and one punches the other; a woman and many other men surround the men and separate them. Two fighters yell at each other and talk trash and then one punches the other in the face. Two boxers argue at a press conference, lunge toward each other and are separated (no punches are thrown). A man argues with another man and says, "You got my real family killed." A woman argues with her son about not wanting him to box and describes what she would have to do for his father after he would box and makes a reference to concussions and brain damage. Two men argue about whether one will train the other to fight. A man and a woman argue and they don't see each other for a while. A woman says about a young teenage boy, "He fights all the time." A young teen boy says that another teen boy said something about his mother and then he beat him up. A woman tells a young teen boy that her husband passed away before the boy was born.
► A man pounds on a neighbor's door when the music is too loud and the neighbor answers, they talk and she turns the music back up after he leaves. A woman talks about having progressive hearing loss and that she will eventually be deaf. A man visits a cemetery and places a bottle of liquor on the gravestone of a man and flowers on the gravestone of a woman and talks about what is happening in his life.
► A man blows fire several times before a boxer enters a boxing venue; the fighter enters and a lot of smoke blows around him.
► A man perspires and stumbles to a bathroom where he vomits into a toilet (we hear gagging and do not see goo). A man vomits over the ropes of a boxing ring (we see goo), then he collapses and we see him in the emergency room with an IV line in his arm. A boxer panics and yells for someone to cut off his gloves because he is nervous and he has to use the bathroom (using crude terms).
LANGUAGE 5 - About 3 F-words, 9 scatological terms (2 performed in sign language with translation), 4 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, 3 derogatory term for African-Americans, name-calling (clown, fraud, fake, macho ), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, My God, God, Jesus, I Swear to God).
SUBSTANCE USE - People in a bar drink alcohol while they watch a boxing match on TV, a man visits a cemetery and places a bottle of liquor on the gravestone of a man, a woman holds and drinks from a glass of wine in a few scenes, a man has a glass of wine on the table in front of him at a meal, and three people toast with glasses of wine.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Boxing, concussions, brain damage, life choices, gun possession, anger management, secrets, bloodlines, passion, infatuation, infidelity, embarrassment, honesty, cancer.
MESSAGE - Follow your dream and with the right support you could be a success.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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