EmpireOnLine.com recently posted their list of The Top 25 Best One Man Armies in the Movies. Of course, Rambo came in at #1. Who could argue with that? The rest of the list can [and should] be debated. Isn’t that the purpose of lists? Here are my suggestions for the top ten:

1. Rambo played by SYLVESTER STALLONE in FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II, RAMBO III, RAMBO
2. Lee played by BRUCE LEE in ENTER THE DRAGON
3. Bryan Mills played by LIAM NEESON in TAKEN
4. Geno Felino played by STEVEN SEAGAL in OUT FOR JUSTICE
5. Creasy played by DENZEL WASHINGTON in MAN ON FIRE
6. Walker played by LEE MARVIN in POINT BLANK
7. El Mariachi played by ANTONIO BANDERAS in DESPERADO, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
8. John Matrix played by ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER in COMMANDO
9. Blade played by WESLEY SNIPES in BLADE, BLADE II, BLADE TRINITY
10. John Preston played by CHRISTIAN BALE in EQUILIBRIUM

To see the full list, click here.

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Since the store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, I was given advance notice and made plans to be there. Talk about a cool experience. Frank was totally down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs.  Frank has a new reality tv show in the works.  Of course we’ll keep you updated as it moves closer to production.

Although Frank and I had exchanged e-mails over the years, it was my first time meeting him in person. Frank was very gracious and thanked me for my efforts with the StalloneZone. He explained that Sly doesn’t mess around on computers much and at first had reservations about someone using his name and creating a website about him. Frank explained to Sly that “Craig is one of the good guys” and the StalloneZone is a positive place for Stallone fans to gather. Frank also wanted to make sure that all SZoners knew how much he and Sly appreciated our support.

I also met a couple of other fans at Frank’s appearance. The first, Stephen Isaia, is a huge Frank Stallone / StalloneZone fan. Stephen flew down to Florida to attend a Frank Stallone concert and come to the store appearance. It was a pleasure meeting Stephen. I also met Mike Tourney who collects autographs and guitar pics. Mike had an original Valentine record album for Frank to sign. Valentine was Frank’s band back in the pre-Rocky days. Talk about rare!

I’ll post more on Frank’s visit next weekend along with a few more photos. The pictures today come to us from Stephen Isaia!

Since we broke the story of Sly’s e-mail to the StalloneZone about changing the direction of the next “Rambo” movie and the potential for Hunter to be made, several sites picked up the story and ran with it:

• AICN: Stallone Says Rambo is No Longer Rambo vs that Horrible Monster Guy
• Movie Web: “Rambo V: A Savage Hunt Changes Direction”
• ScreenRant: “Is ‘Rambo 5′ Heading Back to Mexico?”
• Empire Movies: “Rambo V Changes Again”
• SlashFilm: Sylvester Stallone Updates on Rambo 5, Saves Monster Plot for Unrelated Film
• Icon vs Icon: Sylvester Stallone Issues ‘Rambo V’ Update
• WorstPreviews: Sylvester Stallone Changes “Rambo 5″ Storyline
• Screencave: Rambo 5 Won’t Be Man vs Beast
• Coming Soon: Rambo V Changes Direction
• JoBlo.com: Rambo 5 Update
• Greek Tyrant: Change in Direction of Rambo 5
• IndieMoviesOnLine: John Rambo No Longer Has Monster Problem
• The Press Association: Stallone Ditches Sci-Fi Plans
• CinemaBlend: Stallone Flips the Script on Rambo 5
• Hollywood.com: Is John Rambo Heading to Juarez?
• Collider.com: Rambo V Goes Hunting in a New Direction…
• Digital Spy: Stallone’s “Rambo 5″ Loses Sci-Fi Twist
• CinemaSpy: So Just What Will Stallone’s ‘Rambo 5′ Be About?
• MTV Movies Blog: “Rambo” Folow-Up Changes Direction…

Did you know that Rocky Balboa was almost a member of the GI Joe team? He was and you can read why it didn’t happen at CBR.com: Comic Book Legends!

Otis Frampton is an extremely talented artist who loves drawing for his fans. Every Sunday [okay, ALMOST, every Sunday], Otis has a live UStream broadcast that he calls the 7×7 Sunday.  Lucky fans can get a headsketch of ANY character drawn live by Otis on a 7X7 inch bristol board for 7 bucks postage paid.   It’s the best deal going.

I’ve been lucky enough to get four pieces from Otis and the Jack Carter shown above is just one of them.  I’ll be showing the rest in the coming weeks.  In the mean time, check out Otis’ Gallery.  Most likely, after seeing more of his work, I’ll be competing against you in Otis’ next 7×7 Sunday.

Miguel Insignares is back with a new e-mail and art.  Miguel says:

Hey Craig-
Good to see you at the show. Here is another Sly piece NEVER seen before!  This one is from Rocky and the always quotable, “Cut Me Mick” scene.  Hope your readers dig these Stallonezone Exclusives–I got a brand-new  Rambo illustration that I’ll send your way in 2 weeks!

Thanks again and keep up the great work!

-Miguel

Miguel — thanks for sharing your Stallone art here at the SZ.  I also look forward to your The Rufnex: Island of the Dead comic [www.islandofthedead.com.

SZoner,  Gerardo Moreno created a trailer for an imaginary Stallone 7th “Rocky” movie and wanted to share it with us.  Although I believe that the “Rocky” series had a perfect ending with the last film, Gerardo’s trailer is worth a look!  You can see more of Gerardo’s art at his site.

On November 13, 2009, EW.com posted a piece called: “Roger Corman: Scoreses, Stallone, Sayles and other A-Listers talk about the B-Movie King”. Here’s Sly’s section:

Sylvester Stallone (before Rocky, the future Italian Stallion costarred in two 1975 Corman productions, Capone and Death Race 2000, pictured) “In ‘72, Lords of Flatbush came out and I thought that was going to be my entrée into movies. But nothing happened. Henry Winkler got the role of the Fonz on Happy Days. I told him I really needed a break and I could be his mentally challenged cousin on the show. So I swung out into obscurity living way way out in the Valley. It was bad. I had to sell my dog. I hadn’t written Rocky yet. So I would read these trade papers and there was a casting ad for Capone. And I got this tiny part. What happened on that set is I finally got an idea of what it was like to be on a serious movie set. Everything was such clock-like precision. When we did Death Race 2000 in 2 1/2 weeks, it shows you it could be done. It was the only unofficial college of the arts where you got to learn filmmaking for free by a master. I guess after Capone, I must have become a part of the Roger Corman family because when Death Race came up, I got the part automatically. The director of Capone said, ‘You did this classy film, you showed that a dramatic side of yourself, Death Race is gonna kill your career, it’s a step backward!’ And I thinking, ‘Excuse me, Capone was a rip-off of The Godather.’ If anything, Death Race was a lot more original than Capone! I was very happy to do it. Roger’s a very sophisticated man. He looked like a senator and yet his films were done in such an assembly-line way. I really enjoyed it because it was the first time I felt like I was really in the big time. If I hadn’t done those parts I probably wouldn’t be here today. That he was a launching pad who allowed a lot of unguided missiles to be launched into space. He provided a forum for a lot of us to grow. We were the seeds and he owned the farm. If you look at those early movies with Jack Nicholson, you can see it — that he was building his rhythm back then. You can see that he had it. He would allow out-of-the-box people like Scorsese and De Niro to flourish. He didn’t go with the status quo. He was a master at spotting talent.”

Hey SZoners - I just received an e-mail from Sly for all SZoners:

From Sly

Hi Craig,

This is from Sly to your followers:

To all the loyal SZoners out there,

I’m letting you know that Rambo has changed course and the story about hunting the man/beast will be done using another character in the lead. RAMBO himself will be heading over the border to a violent city where many young women have vanished .

There will be blood.

Best,
Sly Stallone

This is great news since it means that we should get two Stallone movies - a new “Rambo” [back to the concept everyone seemed to dig] and what sounds like “Hunter” based on the novel written specifically for Sly by James Byron Huggins.  It’s no secret that I and many SZoners have been hoping that Sly would adapt the novel for the big screen. - Craig

On November 9, 2009, Moviefone.com ran a piece entitled: “Philadelphia Overrun with Rocky Balboa Spottings”. An event to celebrate the release of “Rocky - The Undisputed Collection” featured Danny Bonaduce, a thousand fans dressed as Rocky on the museum steps, and more. Click here to read the entire post.