The Rocky movies come in pairs: 1 & 2 are rooting for the poor underdog. 3 & 4 are rooting for the rich boxer through a revenge plot. 5 & 6 are rooting for a past his prime boxer with son issues. Creed 1 & 2 are a completion of where Part 5 started as well as playing out 1 and 4. I view Grudge Match as a slight tangent. My favorites are 1 and 3. One captures the gritty Rocky without all the Soap Opera antics of Part 2. Three is more entertaining than all of them and 4 just feels like a flag waving carbon copy with a robot thrown in. 5 and 6 are lesser but my least favorite may be Creed 2. It tries to hit the same revenge beats of 3 and 4 but less successful, and without that it is hard to root for a wealthy boxer.
Hmmmm, a lot to unpack there. I will focus on just 4 and 5. I don't think the gap between the two is as wide as many think. 4 is highly enjoyable in a glitzy kind of way, but the aura and mood of the original Rocky films is totally gone. For many of us, the love for it is likely the result of nostalgia. And you gotta love Rocky training in the snow of Russia and then showing up for the fight with the most awesome tan ever. LOL 5 is not great, but it is still mostly enjoyable. I thought it was more than a bit contrived how Rocky magically got smarter as he got richer and then went back to be an aloof dummy the second he was poor again, but there are some great scenes in 5.
Rocky I is a stone cold classic - too many well filmed scenes to even count, and that’s outside of any of the fighting scenes even. Maybe it’s partly growing up in Philadelphia and recognizing both the attitudes and the location scenes, but it’s a timeless flick that never ceases to give me goosebumps. Rocky VI is a perfect end to the franchise, just fantastic to this Philly boy. Everything in between is just fun times and great entertainment.
When Rocky’s trainer tells him he’s just too old for fancy footwork and instead needs to rely on pure power, that training montage after is greatly powerful. Getting goosebumps just typing this really.
I think in 5 he's not dumber because he's poor gain, but his brain damage is making him a bit slow. However, he's still smart enough to know that the Don King type character is trash and no good for Tommy. He was still rich when he let Paulie handle business. How smart is that?
Not very. The funny thing about George Washington Duke (Don King wannabe character) is that Rocky was ready to get on board when King interrupted them on the street, but then Adrian ran out and laid the smackdown. It took time for Rocky to really come around on how bad he was, and I think a big part of the reason was that Rocky viewed him as the guy who turned Tommy against him. Rocky was the champ for years, so BS promoters who talk a good game were no strangers to him.
I like Paulie too, but I wouldn't trust him with any financial decisions, at least not major ones. Rocky always had little sarcastic comments about him, so it didn't really fit the history, but overall, I dug V
No, I would not either...give it to the professionals, but some people like to keep it in the Family usually a mistake...
He also had a terrible, outdated view of women (which is putting it nicely). He was awful to Adrian in I and later suggested to Rocky in II that he ought to break her teeth if she gave him a hard time. I think he was written to be the stereotypical Italian guy who had no problem smacking around a woman, but even as a kid, before my world view had fully formed, I thought he seemed like a jerk.
The first Rocky has some of the best scenes in film history. I'm not talking about the big famous scenes like Rocky running up the stairs or Rocky yelling for Adrian after the match, but small moments like Mickey begging Rocky while Rocky locks himself up, or Adrian and Rocky sitting next to each other in the couch in his shabby apartment, or maybe the best scene of all, Rocky very early in the morning drinking raw eggs and going outside to jog (the visuals and the forboden music!!). Rocky is pure arthouse compared to today's mainstream movies.
It appears the best sports movie directors are John Avildsen and Michael Ritchie. Together they contain at least 4 of my favorites, and some also rans.
Totally agree! I always loved the scene where they watch the first press conference on TV, and then when he is leaving, Rocky admits to Adrian that it bothered him when they took a few digs at him. Stallone did just a great job at pulling off those subtle, emotional moments. It's like in II when Mickey demonstrates that Rocky's bad eye is still a problem, and Rocky asks if he can work at the gym because he has to be around it. Your heart just breaks for Rocky there.
