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Sunday, July 07, 2019

A Rocky Weekend

This weekend, I screened the Rocky films from Rocky to Rocky Balboa. My quick impressions:

Rocky: Just as good as I remember.
Rocky II: Better than I expected.
Rocky III: Better than I remember.
Rocky IV: As bad as I remember.
Rocky V: Not quite as disappointing as I expected.
Rocky Balboa: Far better than I expected.

Were I to rank these, I'd say Rocky, Rocky Balboa, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky V, Rocky IV (which is to Rocky movies as Rambo III is to Rambo movies; hilarious but embarrassing Cold War propaganda).

Having watched these pretty much back-to-back, I find it amazing how Stallone and his co-creators managed to milk a very specific formula to create four good-to-great films out of six. I look forward to Creed and Creed 2

3 comments:

Totty said...

The only one I haven't seen is Rocky V, and I've heard enough bad things (including this) to tell me there's no need.

Suprised you put Balboa above II, but I haven't seen II in forever; I do remember Balboa being surprisingly good.

Also heard good things about the Creeds, keep meaning to at least watch the first one.

Jeff Shyluk said...

Creed was fantastic, easily among the best of the series save for the first Rocky.

Earl J. Woods said...

I gave Rocky II and Rocky Balboa the same star rating on Letterboxd, so the two are very close in my mind. On a different day, I might have reversed the order.