I Play Rocky (2026) Amazon MGM/Drama RT: 128 minutes Rated PG-13 (strong language, brief sexual material) Director: Peter Farrelly Screenplay: Peter Gamble Music: Dave Palmer Cinematography: Sean Porter Release date: November 6, 2026 (US, limited)/November 20, 2026 (US, wide) Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, Tracy Letts, Kiki Seto, Robert Morgan, Michael Fuchs, Saul Stein, Trevor St. John, Erik Palladino, Rob Demery, Scott Teller.
Rating: ****
The 1976 movie Rocky is a classic underdog story. Getting it to the big screen is an underdog story in its own right. 50 years later, it’s finally being told.
Peter Farrelly seems an unlikely choice to direct I Play Rocky. That is, if you’re only thinking of the crude comedies (Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary) he used to make with baby brother Bobby in the 90s. You’re forgetting he showed us a completely different side of himself with the outstanding 2018 Best Picture winner Green Book. It proves he’s a legit filmmaker. Peter reminds us of this fact with I Play Rocky, a gripping behind-the-scenes drama of the making of Rocky, one of the defining films of the 70s and one that still resonates with viewers today.
Before he was Rocky Balboa or John Rambo, he was a young actor named Mike Stallone (Ippolito, The Offer) who had a hard time finding work. It was his future wife Sasha (Robb, Soul Surfer) who not only suggested he go by his first name Sylvester but also encouraged him to take his destiny into his own hands by writing his own script. He comes up with the idea for Rocky after watching the Muhammad Ali-Chuck Wepner fight at a bar. It takes him three and a half days to finish it and that’s not even the hardest part of his endeavor.
Sly takes his finished script to producers Robert Chartoff (Kebbell, For All Mankind) and Irwin Winkler (Byrne, The Rainmaker) who love it. What they don’t love is the condition it comes with. Sly will only let them make it if he plays Rocky. They want a more marketable star like Ryan O’Neal or Clint Eastwood. Studio rep Sandy Maddox (Letts, Ford v Ferrari) refuses to agree to it. He keeps upping his offer to buy the young actor’s screenplay. Sly turns every offer down. He’s determined to play Rocky.
Obviously, the movie goes into production with Stallone playing the title role. It, of course, comes with conditions. It has to be made for under $1M and it can’t go even one day over schedule. It’s a challenging shoot rife with problems (e.g. injuries, the union, money runs out), but Sly refuses to give up. Rocky is his baby.
How terrific is I Play Rocky? I didn’t want it to end. I was sad to see the end title card pop up at the end. I wanted more. I was absolutely engrossed the entire time. A lot of that has to do with my passion for film. I love “making of” movies about movies. This one is especially well done. The casting is right on point. The resemblance between the actors in I Play Rocky and their real-life counterparts is uncanny. Ippolito, who played Al Pacino in The Offer, doesn’t just play Stallone; he embodies him. He looks and sounds just like him. I also have to give props to Kiki Seto, Stephan James (Race) and Robert Morgan (The Accountant 2) who play Talia Shire, Carl Weathers and Burgess Meredith respectively. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they were clones.
Matt Dillon (There’s Something About Mary) shows up as Sly’s dad Frank, a rough sort who dismisses his son as a moron. In the one part of I Play Rocky that I think could have been improved, they don’t have a close relationship. It’s this relationship that shapes one of Rocky’s emotional high points, the scene where he finally confronts trainer Mickey over his treatment of him. Farrelly should have explored this a little more. I definitely would have liked to see more of Dillon. He’s very good as the elder Stallone.
Robb is also very good as Sly’s supportive wife, a tough cookie who both encourages her husband and calls him out when he makes a mistake. She’s right there on the sidelines to support him while he puts everything he’s got into his first lead performance. Jay Duplass (Other Mommy) delivers a dynamo performance as Rocky director John G. Avildsen, a guy who knows how to make a movie quickly and cheaply. He takes a page from book of William “One Shot” Beaudine. He’s also the one who brings in Steadicam operator Garret Brown played by real life cameraman Michael Fuchs.
Letts has some good scenes as an amalgam of several United Artists executives. He’d love nothing more than to see the brazen young actor fail so he can make a movie he thinks might actually succeed. He needs to regain face after turning down The Godfather a few years earlier. Yeah, I’d say that was a colossal screw-up.
There is so much I love about I Play Rocky. I love the subject matter, writing, performances and the casting which definitely deserves to win this year’s Oscar for Best Casting. I enjoyed watching the recreations of scenes that have stayed with me over the past 50 years. Farrelly is completely respectful to Rocky and what it means to its fans. He even includes a post-credits clip of Johnny Carson interviewing Stallone on The Tonight Show. He says that the movie’s production would make a great film. It looks like he was right.
