Category: Honors

Sly Gets Hollywood Lifetime Achievement Award

Craig / / 2010, Celebs, Honors, Sly Fan

Sylvester Stallone, center, hides behind his ‘Hollywood Career Achievement Award’ as he poses with actor Bruce Willis, left, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backstage at the 14th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., Monday, Oct. 25, 2010.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

6 Stallone Movies Crack Top 100

Craig / / 2010, Honors, Over the Top, Rocky, Rocky 2, Rocky 3, Rocky 4, Victory

On October 13, 2010, Matt King, a senior analyst at BleacherReport.com posted his choices for the 100 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time.  Not surprisingly, Sly had six movies that made the grade.  Here are Matt King’s choices and commentary.

#79   Over the Top

You can thank Sly Stallone for knowing why you turn your hat around when you arm wrestle somebody. That’s valuable information there.

Seriously, though—it’s a movie about arm wrestling. How awesome is that? It’s Stallone right around the time he discovered steroids, facing off against some guy with more neck rolls than a pug. As a man, you just have to love this. It’s man law.

#62 Victory

What’s this? It’s a sports movie and we’re playing the Germans during WWII? Yes, please.

You could make a water polo movie where a team faces off against the Germans during WWII and I would be all in. It’s too easy. The villain is built in. You don’t need to build them up or give them any depth. It’s cool. We hate them. Let’s move along.

I also have a soft spot for sports movies ending a ridiculous note. Sly Stallone catching a penalty kick pretty much fits that bill.

#46 Rocky IV

It’s hard to rank the Rocky movies. Usually when a sports movie comes out with a sequel, it sucks. But Rocky managed to make not one, but three sequels that are extremely watchable.

Somebody has to bring up the rear and, while I do have a special place in my heart for Ivan Drago and Rocky IV, it can’t compete with the others.

It does however give us some amazing lines (I must break you) and a training montage that set the gold standard for cheesy goodness. I’ll always be thankful to Rocky and the fourth installment for singlehandedly winning the Cold War.

#32 Rocky II [and if you take a look at their original post, notice where they got the Rocky II photo]

At the end of Rocky, Apollo tells him that there won’t be a rematch and Rocky says that he doesn’t want one.

Good ending, but that’s hard for us sports fans to accept. We need some kind of resolution.

It’s the same reason most Americans hate soccer for three out of every four years: we hate ties.

Thankfully, Rocky II gave us that rematch and managed to do so without seeming like a horrible cash grab and was a really solid movie.

#24 Rocky III

Rocky III is probably the most entertaining Rocky movie. It’s got over-the-top characters like Hulk Hogan and Clubber Lang, Mickey dying, and a great final fight.

Mr. T really did kick ass as Clubber. With the first two Rockys, you always liked Apollo at least a little bit. He was mouthy, but it came with charm. Clubber Lang was just big, scary, and mean.

#6 Rocky [and don’t ask me why the photo for Rocky is from Rocky Balboa]

The ultimate underdog story.

The first Rocky was the ultimate everyman. He’s just an unassuming, humble guy from Philly who ends up getting a shot at the champ through a series of events and making the most of it.

Eventually, Rocky turns into this super fighter in later movies, but in this one he’s just your average guy with a bigger than average heart. Nothing special.

Stallone will never be considered a great actor, but he’s terrific in the movie. He nails the “aw shucks” attitude.

And who could forget Mickey. That gruff voiced little troll is one of my favorite sports movie characters of all time.

*****

I was happy to see that Over the Top easily made the top 100.  I was surprised that Rocky Balboa didn’t appear on the list.  What’s up with that?  It should have been right there along side Rocky.

If you’d like to see Matt King’s entire list of 100 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time, you know what to do.

Sly to Receive: Hollywood Career Achievement Award

Craig / / 2010, Honors, Uncategorized

On October 4, 2010, it was announced that…

The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that Hollywood icon and Academy Award-nominated Sylvester Stallone will receive the “Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” Oscar-winning Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary will be recognized with the “Hollywood Innovator Award,” and director Tom Hooper will be honored with the “Hollywood Director Award” at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

“It is a privilege to honor and to celebrate Sylvester Stallone‘s extraordinary talent and remarkable career, as well as the great innovative work of Morgan Freeman and Lorie McCreary in the convergence of technology and filmmaking, and the outstanding directing talent of Tom Hooper in his new film “The King’s Speech,” said Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

The press release also has this to say about Sly:

ABOUT SYLVESTER STALLONE

Academy-nominated Sylvester Stallone has received worldwide recognition as an actor, writer and director ever since he played the title role in his own screenplay of “Rocky,” which won the Academy Award in 1977 for Best Picture, and brought Oscar® nominations to Stallone for acting and writing.

After the success of that seminal motion picture, “Rocky” grew into a franchise of five sequels. In 2006, Stallone concluded the series with “Rocky Balboa,” a critical and popular success that resolutely confirmed both Stallone and “Rocky” as iconic cultural symbols.

Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed and starred in “Rambo,” which continued the saga of Vietnam vet John Rambo 25 years after the debut of “Rambo: First Blood,” shot on location in Burma.

This summer, he released his most ambitious project to date — the action thriller “The Expendables” — which he wrote, directed and starred in, and which opened as Number One at the Box Office, making him the only actor to open Number One Films across Five Decades.

Sylvester Stallone‘s first role came in 1974 when he was cast as one of the leads in “The Lords of Flatbush.” He also received his first writing credit for additional dialogue on the film.

Stallone’s other credits as actor/writer/director are Rocky II and Paradise Alley. As actor and co-writer, Stallone filmed “F.I.S.T.,” “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” “Rhinestone and Rambo III.” He co-wrote, directed and produced “Staying Alive” and starred in “Nighthawks,” “Victory,” “Tango & Cash and Lock Up. Rocky V, starring and written by Stallone, opened in 1990.

He also starred in “Demolition Man,” “The Specialist,” “Assassins and Daylight.” He starred in the challenging and unique role of Freddy Hefli in “Cop Land,” had the starring role in “Get Carter,”  and wrote and starred in the number one box office race-car thriller “Driven.” He filmed “Avenging Angelo” and starred as “The Toymaker” in the hit film “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. “

To read the full PR Newswire post, click here.


The Expendables Rack Up Awards

Craig / / 2010, Expendables, Honors

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Lisa at IGN…

To celebrate the best of the summer box office, IGN recently released its 3rd annual “Summer Movie Awards” that honors the best heroes, villains, babes, weapons, creatures and more, to have hit the big screen since May.

As you can imagine, The Expendables won some awards…

Best Ensemble Cast – The Expendables

Best Explosion – Attack on the dock – The Expendables

Coolest Gunfight – Hale Caeser mows ‘em down – The Expendables

Congrats to Sly, the cast and crew of The Expendables.  To see the full list of awards and winners, you know the drill.

Sly Tops List of Ultimate Action Heroes of All Time

Craig / / 2010, Champs, Honors, Uncategorized

Recently OK Magazine posted a list of The Top Ten Ultimate Action Heroes of All Time.  Any guesses who came in first?  Yep, Sly Stallone.  Here’s the list…

1. Sylvester Stallone – 31%

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger – 24%

3. Bruce Willis – 15%

4. Bruce Lee – 9%

5. Jean Claude Van Damme – 7%

6. Steven Seagal – 4%

7. Angelina Jolie – 2%

8. Chuck Norris – 0.8%

9. Will Smith – 0.6%

10. Jason Statham – 0.2%

To see the full post, go here.

Of course the story was picked up by…

StalloneZone Exclusive: Sly Receives Award

Craig / / 2010, Expendables, Honors

Earlier this week I heard from my buddy Miguel Insignares and here’s what he sent…

Hello Craig–

Hope all is well.  I had a great time at Comic-Con and wanted to share some photos of the EXPENDABLES cast and EXCLUSIVE video of Sly receiving his award at the IGN VIP party! Everyone was great and special thanks to Terry Crews who was very excited to be a part of this ensemble and very
generous with his time–a class act.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks,
Miguel

Thanks to Miguel for sharing… and be sure to check out his site: The Rufnex: Island of the Dead! – Craig