Rocky Balboa: which movie do you like the most?

[luciusfunk]

Rocky VII Adrian's Revenge

III and IV are my favorites.

III, IV, II, I, V, RB

[bacardimayne]

All > 4

[Jakey Styley]

4 is really not the best.

[Nosaj Thing]

I still have to watch these movies.

[Dazey]

4 is really not the best.

It really really really is though.

[Facekicker]

You probably had to be alive during the 80's to understand why the fourth one is great.

[bacardimayne]

You probably had to be alive during the 80's to understand why the fourth one is great.

Shouldn't great films be able to stand alone as great films?

[Facekicker]

You probably had to be alive during the 80's to understand why the fourth one is great.

Shouldn't great films be able to stand alone as great films?

Great or not this is still Rocky we are talking about, not Dr Zhivago

[Dazey]

It's a great film anyway. It's a fucking amazing film if you grew up in the 80's.

[bacardimayne]

It's a great film anyway. It's a fucking amazing film if you grew up in the 80's.

Right up there with the Lost Boys, The Goonies, the Raccoons and Temple of Doom?

[Dazey]

It's a great film anyway. It's a fucking amazing film if you grew up in the 80's.

Right up there with the Lost Boys, The Goonies, the Raccoons and Temple of Doom?

The Raccoons was a TV show to the best of my knowledge but otherwise, yes.

[Iron MikeyJ]

It's a great film anyway. It's a fucking amazing film if you grew up in the 80's.

I did grow up in the 80's, and for many years it was my favorite of the whole series. But after Rocky Balboa came out on dvd, I watched the whole series again, that's when my opinion started changing about it. As a kid, I was more interested in the action and intenseness that was Ivan Drago. But now as an adult, I see him more as a cheezy action villian than a legitimite boxing antagonist. Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang were FAR more realistic and believable opponents than Drago. Honestly they should have saved Hulk Hogan for the 4th film, put boxing gloves on him and made him speak Russian, because Drago wasn't much different.

See us 80's kids got caught up in the action of the series, and forgot what made the series great to begin with, which was great drama/story telling. These films became action movies, especially 3 and 4, but 1, 2, and Balboa are really the heart of the series. Which is what made the original great to begin with, heart. But like I said before, I loved 4 and still do. I just see it for what it is now, the 4th film in a franchise that was trying to one up what they did in part 3. Which I'm glad Stallone brought the franchise back to earth with Balboa, because 4 and 5 are just kinda out there...

Edited January 18, 2015 by Iron MikeyJ

[Facekicker]

Ok, if all the fights were to be legit - which actor would come out on top?

[Sixes]

the guy who played Spider Rico

[bacardimayne]

Ok, if all the fights were to be legit - which actor would come out on top?

Hogan, he was an actual multi-time world champion after all.

[Facekicker]

Ok, if all the fights were to be legit - which actor would come out on top?

Hogan, he was an actual multi-time world champion after all.

S n i g g e r

[DieselDaisy]

I docked 4 marks because of the propaganda.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I just watched the first one with my 10 year old daughter, she was in to it for sure. During the fight with Apollo she said "this is really intense", lol. She even said she wants to watch the next one, because I told her Rocky actually wins in that one. These movies do have a timeless factor to them. You really get invested in the life of Rocky as the films progress. I know its hard to watch them with someone who has never seen them, but if you ever get the chance I highly recommend that. A few years ago I introduced them to my Grandma, and she fell in love with them. And now with my daughter, it's like watching them for the first time all over again.

[DieselDaisy]

Stallone is a real boxing fan and most of the films deal with the problems boxers face,

- Struggling as a journeyman in the beginning (I)

- injuries (Rocky II); brain injuries (V).

- Juggling family life with a boxing career (all of them really)

- endless, perceived 'suicidal', comebacks (IV and VI)

- what you do when you do retire (II, IV, V, VI); boxers usually have had only one thing and they struggle to join the real world.

- Huge injections of wealth (III), followed by

- Bankruptcy (V); most boxers make poor financial judgement.

Stallone obviously followed the careers of people like Sugar Ray, Ali, Tyson, with all of their ups, downs, heroism, tragic consequences. Rocky Balboa is a sort of, representation, of every boxer in that sense.

[Coma16]

V isn't really that bad. His son did age quite a bit from IV to V tho...

[DieselDaisy]

V isn't really that bad. His son did age quite a bit from IV to V tho...

So he did. I always found that obvious chronological error amusing.

V is not too bad but it broke with the obvious Rocky trope that we were all accustomed to of, the training sequence followed by the epic fight at the end. I-IV (and even VI) are like pop videos; the 80s Reaganised soundtracks kick in and he trains up and then the full gladiatorial razzmatazz of heavyweight boxing appears at the end. V broke with this and left us feeling, short changed. It was a Rocky film, without Rocky where we want him to be most. It is curious because Creed, this new film, could potentially follow a similar premise. That is really what Rocky V should have been, a spin off film, made when Stallone was sure Rocky Balboa was never going to step in the ring again. But in itself, in terms of human drama, V is actually not such a bad film. It deals with pertinent themes in boxing such as brain damage, retirement, poverty, wealth - and about how wealth can change one's character. The presence of a sleazy Don King character is fitting.

Tommy Morrison died just a year or so ago. He had a decent record, picking up some scalps along the way such as Ruddock, Foreman, Carl Williams. He denied he had HIV to the end and had a short lived comeback, I believe, in the '00s.

Edited January 19, 2015 by DieselDaisy

[supercool]

I-IV (and even VI) are like pop videos;

IV is reagan propaganda and it does look like a pop video, that's why i don't like it too much.

but the first one isn't really a pop video, it's dark from a social point of view, and the script was even darker initially (cf. stallone's interview i posted on page 2).

[AxlisOld]

V isn't really that bad.

Um, yes. Yes it absolutely is.

[Amir]

V isn't really that bad.

Um, yes. Yes it absolutely is.

Yup. It was absolutely awful to watch, cannot remember a single scene I enjoyed. Hard to believe it's from the director of the original. Those awful dutch angles in the fight...

[DieselDaisy]

I-IV (and even VI) are like pop videos;

IV is reagan propaganda and it does look like a pop video, that's why i don't like it too much.

but the first one isn't really a pop video, it's dark from a social point of view, and the script was even darker initially (cf. stallone's interview i posted on page 2).

True but you still have the training sequence, the run up the stairs and the feel good factor theme tune - I think it's Bill Conti's. You also still have an epic fight between Balboa and opposition. The reason nobody likes V is all these essential aspects are not present, or simply lumped onto the thoroughly unlikable Tommy Morrison. You are left with a sort of, Non-Rocky film. Dramatically, V is not such a bad film, it is just not a 'Rocky' film, in the classical sense of the term.

Edited January 19, 2015 by DieselDaisy