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Creed II

It’s about family

Ryan Coogler’s excellent Creed (2015) delightfully confounded our expectations and put a quick end to all the eye-rolling at the idea of a seventh Rocky movie. This time it’s personal, as Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), coached by Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), faces off against the very intimidating son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the man who killed his father Apollo in the ring. While Steven Caple Jr.’s sequel is a well-acted getting-hit-in-the-head movie, it lacks emotional impact and is entirely predictable (Sly co-wrote). Worth seeing, but kind of what we feared Creed would be. (130 min)