Bill Conti - Rocky II (CD)

All Music Guide

The rare sequel that improves upon its predecessor, Rocky II expands on the uplifting approach exemplified by Bill Conti's immortal "Gonna Fly Now" to create a score that's both more cohesive and more emotional. Writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone affords Conti a wider emotional berth this time around, allowing for poignant, melancholy themes like "Vigil" alongside fistpumping anthems like the climactic "Overture"as before, Conti employs little more than solo piano, a small string ensemble and a potent brass section, and it's to the composer's enormous credit that he can forge such largerthanlife music from relatively few instrumental elements. "Gonna Fly Now" even reappears, this time with a children's choir in tow, and sounds better than ever. Not even Frank Stallone's "Two Kinds of Love" can torpedo this one.

- Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide