In Rocky Balboa (12a) our hero, reluctantly at first, sets out to prove a fighter may be down but is never out, no matter how old he is.

When the chance of stepping out of his restaurant and retirement and into the ring with today's unpopular champ Mason "The Line" Dixon he goes all out to show the world he's not done yet.

Leaving behind the restaurant he runs in south Philadelphia he heads for the bright lights of Las Vegas for a fight billed as a charity exhibition match but what turns out to be so much more for both men.

But this film is not about boxing, not really.

It's about a guy from Philadelphia called Rocky Balboa - the ultimate underdog when Stallone introduced him to the world 30 years ago.

At the same time this film is about a lonely man still coming to terms with losing his wife and his first faltering steps into a friendship with another woman.

It's also about a father and son struggling to find each other again after years of one living in the other's shadow.

This time around Rocky may be an older, not necessarily wiser, boxer but he yearns to feels the adulation of that world once again which loved him so much when he was at the top of the game.

Seconds out for what could be the final match of his life....win or lose.

Nicki Dixon