The original Rocky is a stone cold classic. They get worse from there. But I still enjoy every film in the series through Rocky Balboa, which I thought was an excellent end to the series, and IMO the 2nd best of all the Rocky films. Rocky V doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned though lol. It's the truly awful film of the series.
1, 3, Rocky Balboa and Creed 1 are solid. The first Rocky was an Oscar winning drama. After that Sly didn’t want to be an actor, but a movie star. So he remade it into a formulaic franchise. Good for the bank account, but we only got slivers of the spirit of the first Rocky in Rocky Balboa and the first Creed (the 2nd Creed was such a dissapointment). Stallone recently recut Part 4. Haven’t seen it.
Athletes tend to make poor film critics. Unlike Ebert, who actually worked as a screenwriter. Ali is the Paulie of film critics.
Ali was making a very intelligent, insightful comment on why the movies were successful. If you don't understand that... I don't know what to tell you.
Of course Ali tried to make a fictional movie that had nothing to with him seem like it had something to do with him. That's what people with inflated egos do. Somehow he overlooked that there were boxers before him, even one named Rocky.
I is classic. Fantastic underdog movie making about an underdog fighter. II is too much a give-the-people-what-they-want sequel, but it's not bad. Just too predictable. III seems a bit cartoonish now, since Mr T and Hulk Hogan went on to be larger than life cartoons. But it's a good story, and it didn't feel cartoonish when it came out--although it loses the feel of I and II. IV: OK, now the wheels start to come off. Silliness. The whole thing feels cartoonish. Not unwatchable, but not very good. V: A better film than IV, but not the right tone for Rocky. Doesn't feel like a Rocky film.
Rocky V seemed like a parody. Human characters were replaced by superficial caricatures. The biggest offender being Don King parody guy. Seemed like one big joke. The subplot featuring Sage Stallone was hokey. Definitely the worst film in the series
Maybe its because I worked at a movie theater when it came out but I've always had high regard for Rocky IV. Beneath the glitz and patriotism its a pretty multi-layered story. Much of the Rocky story comes full circle here. It's the most ambitious of the Rocky films.
I love the franchise and enjoyed every film, although Rocky V is probably the weakest. Creed and Rocky are both outstanding and Stallone more than deserved his Oscar nomination for both. Creed genuinely surprised me as I assumed, before watching it, that the franchise and the character were both well past it. Rocky III is worth it for the Hulk Hogan scenes alone.
That scene (that I clipped from the quote) has what might be my favorite line from the entire Rocky series, from Duke to Apollo: "I saw you beat that man, like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man...kept...coming after you."
"In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be *the actual* El Guapo!"