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The Best...Rocky movie

Sylvester Stallone fighting an opponent in Rocky
  • Posted at 5:13am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by LucyBarrick-RT

Outside of low-rent horror flicks, Star Wars and Police Academy, it's not often a movie makes it to five sequels - and even less often that the last one is any good.

But lovable puncher Rocky's back, and the sixth film in the series, Rocky Balboa, topped the UK box office in its first week of release (January 2007), making writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone a very happy man.

In the film, a washed-up, 50-something Rocky makes a fighting comeback, to prove (in his own, slightly slurred words) that he's "still got something left in the basement". Why 60-year-old Stallone chose to return to the character after 16 years is another matter. When Rocky won the best picture Oscar in 1976, you'd think he'd have had the world at his feet. But he became typecast (or typecast himself), making seemingly endless Rocky and Rambo sequels.

After the gung-ho Reagan 80s, Stallone was adrift. He made more action movies, but the formula was stale. He tried "serious" acting in Cop Land, giving probably his best performance (outside of the Rocky films, naturally). He even attempted comedy - but I'm sure the words Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot freeze his blood even now.

But Rocky's the one thing that we don't get tired of Stallone doing. Why? Well, he's an everyman for every man - and woman. Not only is Rocky's love affair with Adrian at the heart of the previous movies, he's also the kind of guy you could take home to your mother - courteous, shy, protective and very good at hitting sides of meat. You could almost - almost - say he was in touch with his feminine side.

Equally, Rocky can always be relied upon to do the right thing. If you do the wrong thing, however, he'll be happy to render you unconscious. And what's more heroic than a valiant underdog, especially when he's soundtracked by his own incredibly uplifting theme music?

Rocky's been up and he's been down, and so has the franchise - but there are always going to be winners and losers. So here, in reverse order, are my rankings for the six Rocky movies.

6. Rocky IVIt may feature the late "Godfather of Soul" James Brown. It may even have Sico the robot butler. But this is basically a jingoistic extended music video, and an excuse for Stallone to inflict then-wife Brigitte Nielsen on an unsuspecting public. 5. Rocky V This was much derided, largely because people didn't like the downbeat tone - and the back-to-basics theme is much better realised in Rocky Balboa. Here, Rocky doesn't even enter a ring, but he does have a street brawl with his protégé.

4. Rocky III The training montage overkill began here, but Mr T as Clubber Lang is a charismatic rival. And you've got to admit, Eye of the Tiger rocks pretty hard.

3. Rocky Balboa Proving there's life in the old dog yet, this gets closest to the spirit of the original, placing as much emphasis on family, friendship and loyalty as giving the other guy a damn good hiding.

2. Rocky II It's got the best training montages. It's got hundreds of kids following Rocky through the streets. And it's got the best triumphant-running-up-the-steps- of-the-Philadelphia-Museum-of-Art scene. And you've got to love the happy ending that we were denied at the end of Rocky.

1. Rocky The original and still the best. A bona fide champion.

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