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When Sylvester Stallone first suggested making yet another Rocky movie, the studio executives he pitched to all but laughed in his face.
Now that the movie, called Rocky Balboa, is due out in US cinemas next week, the derision has spread to late-night comics and internet gossip columnists cracking jokes about a 60-year-old actor still trying to pass himself off as a muscle-bound contender in the boxing ring.
Stallone himself, though, is undaunted. For him, the derision is a by-product of Hollywood's abiding prejudice against older performers of all kinds. Just like Rocky, he's positioning himself as the underdog steeling himself to succeed against the odds.
"There is this incredible resistance to anyone who seems to want a second shot," he told one interviewer. "My hope," he told another, "is that people who have screened [the film] have enjoyed it and say, 'You know what? It's not as bad as you think'."
Rocky Balboa is Stallone's sixth outing as the Philadelphia boxer, and the first instalment in the series since 1990.
To his credit, the actor is in great shape for his age. But that doesn't get around the question of why he would want to squeeze yet more juice out of a premise that lost its allure for cinema audiences at least 20 years ago.
Back then, Stallone became a laughing-stock for his endless sequels - to both Rocky and Rambo, his macho Vietnam vet character. Rambo is getting a revival too, in a new film set for release some time next year.
It's been a tough few years for Stallone. Like all ageing action stars, he was forced to reinvent himself. And, like many of them, he failed - such as embarrassments like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot or the ill-advised remake of Get Carter.
- INDEPENDENT
