Oscar-winning film about a club fighter who gets the opportunity of a lifetime: the opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world.
A very moving, motivational, crowd-pleasing movie. Sylvester Stallone is fantastic as Rocky Balboa, the role he was born to play. Burgess Meredith is a show stealer as "Mickey", Rocky's trainer.
Talia Shire's meek, supportive and loving "Adrian" is a wonderful match for Rocky. Carl Weathers is great as the jive-talking, eccentric, joking and sometimes cruel heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed. And of course, Burt Young is great as Adrian's brother "Paulie."
Who can forget the memorable Oscar-winning song "Gonna Fly Now"?
If this doesn't get you exciting and has you cheering, you have no pulse. The only problem with this movie isn't in the movie, its problem lies in the subsequent sequels that have mellowed out the original film's impact.
Scale: 9
A sequel which lives up to the original. The rematch: Rocky Balboa-Apollo Creed. Who will win? Will Rocky duplicate his valiant, shocking performance of the first fight, or was it a fluke?
The sequel captures the energy of the original. Apollo is obsessed with fighting Rocky again to prove that Rocky can't last the distance with him. Apollo is no longer the playful heavyweight champ of Rocky I, but an angry fighter determined to beat Rocky and really beat the daylights out of him.
The first half of the movie is good, but not as good as I, but the second half that shows the training scenes and climax is nothing short of awesome.
If the fight in the first fight gets you going, wait till you see this one. It's like watching the fight of the year. The rematch fight makes it all worth your while and raises the whole film a notch from the first film.
Scale: 10
The movie starts out with a bang and gets the adrenaline going as it shows collages of Rocky's fights coupled with legendary song "Eye of the Tiger".
Watching these fights is rising, power-punching machine Clubber Lang, (played by Mr. T). Lang is the most unlikable opponent Rocky has ever had and ever will have. He is truly a mean SOB and tons of credit has to go to Mr. T for playing him the way he did (did we ever think we could hate Mr.T?).
Rocky has cleaned up his act and successfully worked his way out of Philadelphia and has become a very rich prize-fighter.
Apollo makes peace with Rocky and decides to help him prepare for his fight with Lang.
An enjoyable sequel. It's cool to see Rocky and Apollo, bitter opponents in II, make the peace and work together in this one. Still, you get the feeling that the "Rocky formula" is getting done to death by the end of the film. The final fight between Rocky and Clubber holds little suspense since it's a bit predictable, but should still satisfy action movie fans.
The best fight in the film is the boxer/wrestler showdown between, then rising star, Hulk Hogan as "Thunderlips" and Rocky. That was fun.
Scale: 6
I could never figure out how so many people liked this atrocious sequel. It's so cheesy, overly sappy, and unrealistic.
This time, Rocky is against Ivan Drago, a huge power-punching menace. Drago has something like a 2000 pound punch. Already you know, this is utter lunacy.
There are a lot of Russian sterotypes in the film. Cold, quiet and collective people who love seeing the Americans get their butts kicked. Real cold war type stuff, but all that is resolved toward the end. At least the movie had a vision.
But getting back to the Rocky-Ivan fight, come on. Talk about stretching reality to the limit. If Drago could punch like that, he'd have ripped Rocky's head off. Was Rocky a cyborg all along or what's the deal?
The movie is entertaining if your just looking for mindless, dumb action. There is a cool training sequence. The James Brown number was outstanding. Despite its contrived fight scenes and ending, it is visually stunning. And the musical score is cool.
It isn't a total piece of crap, but it's by far the least impressive Rocky film of the series.
Scale: 5
Probably the best Rocky sequel since II. Tommy Morrison plays Tommy Gunn, an up & coming heavyweight that Rocky takes under his wing. Rocky retires for good, but decides to train this protege full time at the expense of quality family time with wife and son, who is played by Stallone's son, Sage.
Eventually, a greedy promoter manipulates Gunn into leaving Rocky and trying to force a match with Rocky.
Rocky goes back to the Rocky of I and II, meaning that the leather jacket and cigarette smoking is back, which makes for an interesting change. Why does he go back? Well, you'll have to see for yourself. Burgess Meredith reprises Mickey during some effective flashback sequences. Morrison is pretty decent in the role. He's given some cheesy dialogue, but he does well for what he has.
The climax is great and somewhat different than any previous Rocky film. Good fun and way better than Rocky IV.
Scale: 7
