REVIEW

REVIEW from http://forum.play.com.my
By demonHunter (The Professional)

I was at Borders today, wanted to check out Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki's Why We Want You To Be Rich.

But ended up reading parts of Gerald Chuah's In The Eye of The Tiger.

I'm a fan of Rocky Balboa and Slyvester Stallone.
Rocky Balboa and Rambo are the most iconic characters Stallone ever portrayed on films. But more remarkably, Rocky Balboa was his own creation and the award winning franchise movie was written by Stallone.

A quick search on Amazon.com doesn't show the book.

But here's the rundown of the book:

It's a good book to look into parts of Stallone's personal life, and the characters he created and portrayed.

The charm of Rocky Balboa is that it tells the story of a man who never gave up. A man who was not willing to lose, but would only agree to lose on his own terms. A story about perseverance, determination, hard work, triumphing against impossible odds and come out a winner.

This theme has a powerful attraction across all stratas of society.

Most of us can be drawn to it and identify with it.

Gerald Chuah started writing In The Eye of The Tiger in 1988.

 
It was on one day when he felt down in his life, and in the quiet time inside his room, facing posters of Sylvester Stallone, his hero, on the walls, he thought about Stallone, his life, his characters, and the teachings taught through those movies. That's how he started.

9 years later, he would be introduced through a Tan Sri to Slyvester Stallone himself at Planet Hollywood in 1997.

Another 10 years later, he official launched the book at TimesSquare Borders with Jacqualine Stallone; mother of Sylvester Stallone.

It was said that when Jackie Stallone was showed the book to Sylvester, he remarked: "How did this kid know so much about me?"

It is easy to read. Some chapters are larger than others.
The book uses many quotes from Stallone movies. Mostly Rocky series. With each quote, there is a theme to discuss. Such as rising to the challenge, overcoming despair, something like that.

On the sides, there are also a collection of famous quotes from historical rulers, poets, and other famous people in regards to the theme being discussed. Here and there, parts of Stallone's personal life are injected into it. You will find out why Stallone's Rocky movie had a part where he said: "My dad used to tell me that you ain't got much of a brain, you gotta develop your body". This quote was said by Stallone's real life father when he was younger, and that's how he put that in the script of the movie.

This is a good book to get some reminders on fighting on, moving on, and always taking the challenge. Win on your own terms, but never give up. A good motivational book. It may also shed some light into Stallone's progressive years, younger years as parts of his personal life are peppered through out the book.

One interesting part that the book talked about was called the Bum's Club. Taken from the Rocky movies. There's no such club in the movie. But it talked about how some people are just mediocre and just lazing about. They're not fighting like Rocky. Just bums letting life past them by, being content about where they are, or making excuses, and hooking up with other bums in the club.

I find this very true. Some people act like bums, few of us are like Rocky Balboa, going the distance even though he may not win. Always fighting.

But, I think positive. Gerald Chuah is currently a journalist with the New Straits Times. By analyzing Stallone and his characters through his movies, he wrote the book in two months. It takes a man who believes in the thing he was writing and patience to keep his dream alive until 2007 to get it published. Chuah showed the Rocky Spirit!

Note: Don't read this book if you're afraid of spoilers, lots of movie scenes are described in the book, from Rocky I, II, III, IV, V and others. So, you get to know what happened,why and how to illustrate the points discussed.

"No one can hit as hard as life. But the key is to keep going, and keep going forward even after getting hit!" -paraphrase from the Rocky movies.

Head here for the webpage on this book
http://www.stallonism.com/

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