CREED (Rated PG-13)

Rocky Balboa is back in the thick of boxing action almost 40 years after the original “Rocky” film lifted an essentially unknown Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the script for his starring role, from obscurity into a major player in Hollywood.

Aside from garnering box office gold, “Rocky” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, while John Avildsen took home the Oscar for Best Director.

The film became such a fixture in the culture that a statue of Rocky Balboa was erected long ago in the boxer’s hometown of Philadelphia.

Though the script was not written by Stallone this time, “Creed” could easily be considered the seventh “Rocky” film, not just because Rocky Balboa is still in the picture, but for the lively spirit of an upstart boxer making his mark.

In the film’s initial flashback, a young boy named Adonis Johnson is bounced around foster homes. He’s rescued from juvenile detention by Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), the widow of heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, former rival and later best friend of Rocky Balboa.

Followers of the franchise should recall that Apollo died in the ring in a bout with Ivan Drago. Around this time in his life, Apollo was involved in an affair, the result of which was the birth of his son Adonis after his death.

Flash forward to the present, Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) has boxing DNA coursing through his veins, and despite his white collar job in Los Angeles, he spends weekends in gritty Tijuana venues fighting other boxers.

Even though his adoptive mother disapproves, Adonis, or Donnie as he’s known to friends, decides to leave the comfort of the Creed mansion for Philadelphia, where he hopes to get trained by the venerable Rocky Balboa.

Now a senior citizen facing medical issues, Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa runs the Italian restaurant named after his late wife Adrian, and though he was obviously close to Donnie’s father, he now has no desire or interest in returning to the boxing world.

Moving into an apartment building where his neighbor is the beautiful aspiring singer Bianca (Tessa Thompson), the self-trained Donnie doesn’t shy away from hard work, which says a lot to someone like Rocky, who decides to take him on despite his original misgivings.

Anxious to keep a low profile and to earn his stripes on his own merit, Donnie refuses to use his famous surname to get ahead, though soon enough his identity becomes known after some initial success impresses observers of the sport.

For his part, Rocky has gone full circle in his life. At one time, he was a lonely guy just trying to be a fighter. Then, he had success and formed a relationship with Adrian that blossomed into a lifelong love.

Now with family and old friends gone, Rocky is alone once again, but not looking to fight anymore, at least not in the ring. Donnie’s presence, which proves persuasive, forces the old boxer to rethink his priorities.

The nice thing about “Creed” is more than its crowd-pleasing reboot of a successful franchise in the hands of youthful writer-director Ryan Coogler, who has reinvented the underdog story in a way that excitingly connects with the legion of “Rocky” fans.

Without the benefit of any background knowledge of how the novice Ryan Coogler came to represent the new face of the franchise, it is readily apparent that the theme of a sentimental journey through the “Rocky” legacy has the Sylvester Stallone stamp of approval.

Where Donnie is brash, anxious and willing to take on all comers, the aging Rocky is all-too-aware that he is looking at the mirror image of his youthful self. Rocky needs his protégé to understand that boxing is as much a mental game as a physical one.

Donnie show early promise, and then things start to move very fast when agents for British light heavyweight champion “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Anthony Bellew) seek to stage a big fight with Donnie in Liverpool for an HBO telecast.

Facing legal troubles in his homeland, the arrogant Conlan seeks to fight Donnie on the condition that the American boxer uses his given surname of Creed. Staging a fight with the offspring of a legend will only increase the return of a major payday.

Naturally, the big fight with Conlan is the climactic showdown, and without giving too much away, the match is brilliantly staged to maximize the emotional impact on the audience, reminiscent of earlier “Rocky” films.

Almost without question, Sylvester Stallone turns in one of the most impressive performances of his career, even if he appears to be called upon for little more than to be a mentor, much like Burgess Meredith in the first film, to a willing young charge. 

With Michael B. Jordan proving worthy for his titular role, “Creed” should be a major contender at the box office because this surprising film delivers a real knockout punch with action and nostalgic sentiment.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

MENDOCINO, Calif. – The Redwood Community Chorus Fall Concert will take place Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec. 12.

It will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 11 and 2 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Mendocino Presbyterian Church, 44831 Main St., Mendocino.

Admission is Free. A donation is requested.

The Trebl’d Women will open the concert with a medley of songs.

Music from Christian and Jewish traditions plus the English folk carol “The Holly and the Ivy,” and the carol “Angels We Have Heard on High” are included.

A highlight is the song “Inscription of Hope” with words inscribed on the walls of the cellar of the Cologne Cathedral, where World War II Jewish refugees hid from the Nazis.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1945 comedy, “Christmas in Connecticut,” starring Barbara Stanwyck and Sydney Greenstreet, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport on Tuesday, Dec. 8, with show times at 1 and 6 p.m.

The story begins with a war hero (Dennis Morgan) who wins a Christmas dinner to be prepared by a popular magazine’s housekeeping expert (Stanwyck) in her lovely rural home in Connecticut. 

The publicity stunt, dreamed up by the magazine publisher (Greenstreet), fails to take into account that the expert doesn’t live in Connecticut and she can’t cook.

It’s the perfect screwball farce and a perennial holiday favorite.

The movie is sponsored by John H. Tomkins Tax Consultants and is rated G. Run time is 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Entry to the film is by donation.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com . 

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Local artist Michelle Price will host a stemware painting party at the Lake County Wine Studio from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28.

Price will guide participants in painting their own wineglass and they can opt to paint a glass for themselves or as a gift for a friend.

Paints, tools and a wine glass will be provided along with a glass of wine for sipping for $20 per person.

If participants want to make a matched pair or set of painted glasses, additional stemware will be available for purchase.

Price was born in Lyon, France, lived in New York for several years and then moved to the Bay Area in the early 1970s, where she studied Beaux Arts and obtained a degree in cosmetology, massage therapy and health education. She later graduated from the International Tour Management Institute of San Francisco.

In 2000, Price relocated to Lake County where she became inspired to return to art and developed her own style of expressionism in glass art and acrylic and oil paintings.

Some of her paintings have been influenced by her many years of Latin dancing and specializing in ChaCha, Rumba, Meringue and the Argentine Tango, which Price taught a few years ago with the Reach Out Program. Her artist name, Michou, is her signature on all of her artistic creations.

Price has served on the Arts Council Board of Lakeport and has shown some of her works at the Main Street Gallery and Bell Hill tasting room in Lakeport, Featherbed Railroad B&B in Nice and the Alpine Café in Lucerne. Some of her finished and in progress artwork can be viewed on her Facebook page, Michelle Price Art Creations.

For reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-293-8752.

Marge Saiser is a Nebraskan who has written a number of deeply moving poems about love. Here’s one for our holiday season:

Thanksgiving for Two

The adults we call our children will not be arriving
with their children in tow for Thanksgiving.
We must make our feast ourselves,

slice our half-ham, indulge, fill our plates,
potatoes and green beans
carried to our table near the window.

We are the feast, plenty of years,
arguments. I’m thinking the whole bundle of it
rolls out like a white tablecloth. We wanted

to be good company for one another.
Little did we know that first picnic
how this would go. Your hair was thick,

mine long and easy; we climbed a bluff
to look over a storybook plain. We chose
our spot as high as we could, to see

the river and the checkerboard fields.
What we didn’t see was this day, in
our pajamas if we want to,

wrinkled hands strong, wine
in juice glasses, toasting
whatever’s next,

the decades of side-by-side,
our great good luck.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They do not accept unsolicited submissions. Poem copyright ©2014 by Marjorie Saiser, “Thanksgiving for Two,” (2014). Poem reprinted by permission of Marjorie Saiser. Introduction copyright © 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Sunday, Nov. 22, the Lake County Symphony will deliver a program featuring three of the world’s greatest composers of classical music – Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.

The performance will take place beginning at 3 p.m. at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre, 275 S. Main St.

John Parkinson, conductor and music director of the 70-member orchestra, says he was inspired to find compositions that Lake County music lovers would appreciate and to do so he would go to the top of the list of great composers. And he did.

Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the best known names in classical music, is also one of the least-known in both his private life and in the personal construction of his music.

For example, his “Concerto for Flute in C Major” appears to have been recycled from earlier works featuring instruments other than the flute, but in any case his most current arrangement remains a crowd pleaser. The symphony’s Catherine Hall will be the featured soloist.

Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote his “Creatures of Prometheus” as a ballet, the only full-length ballet he ever composed. The theme was based on Greek mythology, wherein the god Prometheus was creator of mankind and all things good about mankind.

The ballet dancers responded to Beethoven’s vivid musical descriptions of their roles. The result was an extremely popular presentation at the time. The symphony will play the noted overture to the piece.

Another less well-known Beethoven piece will also be on the program. It is the “King Stephen Overture” which the composer was commissioned to write commemorating the founder of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a Lake County favorite since the inception of our symphonic orchestra, will be featured with overtures from two of his works as well as one of his symphonies. They are “The Impresario,” “Il Seraglio” and his “Symphony No. 41,” better known as simply “The Jupiter.”

“Impresario” was described by Mozart as a parody, aimed at singers squabbling over such things as artistic recognition or salary. “It is a comedy in music,” he said.

“Il Seraglio,” however is a real opera with complicated plot lines involving a kidnapping, escape and rescue and all the drama inherent in such a piece.

Finally, the “Jupiter” – named after the Roman god, not the planet – was the last and longest of Mozart’s Symphonies. As such it will be given the final place on the program.

As is traditional the 23 members of the LCSA Youth Orchestra will open the show. This time, and in the spirit of their senior’s music, they will play two pieces by Mozart.

The first is his movement one from “Symphony No. 29, K. 201,” arranged by Janet Farrar-Royce. This is an early symphony by Mozart written when he was only 18. Contrasting themes fit together to create delicacy and vigor.

The second piece by Mozart is the fourth movement, or Rondo, from “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” often better known as “A Little Night Music.”

According to Sue Condit, music director and conductor of the Youth Symphony, in Mozart’s day many serenades and divertimenti (musical diversions) were written to be played at outdoor evening social events, generally before small gatherings. Mozart’s “Night Music” reflects this tradition.

Admission is $20 for symphony association members and $25 for the public.

As is customary a full rehearsal will take place at 11 a.m. with free admission to young people under 18 while others pay only $5.

Since concerts such as these are limited in Lake County they are very popular – particularly when Mozart is on the program, hence reservations are suggested.

Tickets can be ordered online at www.soperreesetheatre.com or by phone at 707-263-0577.