Category: Honors

“Rocky” Still the Standard!

Craig / / 2005, Honors, Rocky
Now that “Cinderella Man” is out and doing well, writers are creating their lists of the best boxing  movies ever. I’m happy to say that “Rocky” is always listed and usually at the top.

Joe Holleman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ranks “Rocky” at #2 and says, “Sylvester Stallone  reinvented the underdog film with this Best Picture Oscar winner.”

Louis B. Hobson of the Winnipeg Sun writes: Stallone deserves kudos for writing and starring in a simple, time-honoured story told with style, heart and passion. Stallone made Rocky Balboa a symbol of the extraordinary things ordinary people can achieve if they have a dream and the passion to pursue it.

Nearly 30 years later, “Rocky” is still the standard! – Craig

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Sly Set to Receive CineVegas and Brenden Theaters Star Award

Craig / / 2005, Celebs, Honors

Sly Stallone along with Laurence Fishburne,Christina Ricci, Helen Mirren, and Taylor Hackford will be honored at the eighth annual CineVegas Film Festival. The festival will be held from June 9th -17th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sly is set to receive the the CineVegas and Brenden Theaters Star award. I’ll post more information as the dates near in case any SZoners want to attend.

Mr. Fishburne and Ms. Ricci will receive the “Half-Life” awards for their carrer achievements. Ms. Mirren is up for the Marquee Award for Lifetime Achievementand Mr. Hackford will receive the Vanguard Director Award.

– Craig

Rocky: One of the All Time Best

Craig / / 2004, Honors, Rocky

Dennis O’Connell’s Entertainment Column for October 15, 2004 at AskMen.com lists the Top Ten All Time Best Movie Characters. And you just know that Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky made the list. Coming in at #9, here is what was said:9. Rocky

Rocky Balboa has delivered some cheesy speeches in his lifetime (anyone remember Rocky IV, where Balboa single-handedly melted the Cold War?). Regardless, no one saw Rocky for its intricate plots or Oscar worthy acting. They did, however, watch the Rocky series for the macho and epic battles between man and his enemy. Rocky made you want to be a boxer, executed flawlessly by all-around class act, Sylvester Stallone.
– Craig

Loaded Legends

Craig / / 2004, Honors

The September 2004 issue of the men’s magazine LOADED: ‘The Nude Issue,’ has a page dedicated to Sly Stallone. It’s called…

LOADED LEGENDS
Every month we celebrate mankind’s crème dela menthe, the fellas who’ve truly made a difference.
No. 2 SYLVESTER STALLONE

Some excerpts…

‘ What everyone does acknowledge, however, is Stallone’s masterfully realistic performance as the dim– witted slugger.’

‘Sly is a hero for the people no matter what kind of justice he’s administering.’

Peace,
Jazz
http://www.theartofjazzman.com

Thanks, Jazz! – Craig

Sly Gets Physical

Craig / / 2004, Honors

Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes checks in with info that Sly is on the cover and a feature story story in the September 2004 issue of Physical.

Jazz sent in the mag cover pic as well as these excerpts:

Stallone is proud of an honor he received from bodybuilding pioneer Joe Weider for his “Rambo II” physique. Hanging on the wall in Sly’s opulent mansion is a modest plaque from Weider that proclaims Stallone’s physique from that movie as the best cinematic body of the ‘ 80s. And, remember, Weider is the guy who brought Arnold over from Austria. “I was impressed that he would think of me so highly in the bodybuilding world,” says Stallone.
“My first few screenplays were horrible, ” he says. ” But at least I got through them. That’s the lesson. You fail your first five times, but the mere fact that you completed the journey, that’s the win. You know that you can sit at a desk, whether it’s two weeks or six months. You know you can do it. ”

Among the choice pieces hanging on the actor’s walls is one by the late British contemporary master Francis Bacon, with the personal inscription by the artist to Stallone –a remarkable tribute.

This is an era when dimpled, doe-eyed pipsqueaks from boy bands can become generation’s sex symbols. Is it any wonder why so many lament: ” Where have all the real men gone?” Then in walks Sylvester Stallone and order is restored.

Peace,
Jazz
http://www.theartofjazzman.com
Thanks, Jazz! – Craig

3 of Total Films’ 25 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time are Stallone’s!

Craig / / 2004, Honors, Rocky, Rocky IV, Victory

Ernest Jazzman Resendes sent in the following:

This month’s (issue 91) of TOTAL FILM lists The 25 Greatest Sports Movies (voted by filmgoers!) and guess who comes in at #1, #2 and #24?

You guessed it !!!

Here’s a taste of what they had to say…

#1 ROCKY (1976) : A film about a palooka, made by a palooka-but it’s your greatest sports movie of all time. The palooka being Sylvester Stallone, a bit-part guy who, like his character, made the most of his one shot.

“I was as marketable as tear gas, ” recalls Stallone. “Nobody wanted me, but I wasn’t about to let this thing go.” His tenacity paid off — three Oscars, $220-million worldwide and a string of sequels that made him one of Hollywood‘s most bankable stars.

#2 ESCAPE TO VICTORY (1981) : It’s a fairytale football for those who want to believe–in jumpers for goalposts, sudden- death penalty saves and Caine‘s man’s-man persona, epitomized by his advice to the soccer stars nervous about [ “Once I’d said to them:’ Come on, don’t worry about it, just say say the lines!’ ].

#24 ROCKY IV (1985) : It’s the only Rocky movie that doesn’t feature Bill Conti‘s score-it returns in Rocky V -yet, of the four sequels, you voted it the one challenger to the John G. Avildsen‘s big-hitting original.

Someone should send an issue over to MGM ! – Jazzman

Thanks to Jazz for passing along the news! – Craig Zablo

 

“Victory” Named Greatest Soccer Movie of All Time!

Craig / / 2004, Honors, Victory

Escape to Victory thrashes rivals [from Ananova.com, June 20, 2004]

Escape to Victory has been named the greatest football movie of all time.

The 1981 film starred Brazilian football legend Pele, England‘s 1966 World Cup captain Bobby Moore and actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

They played allied PoWs preparing for a match against a German team in Nazi-occupied Paris while French Resistance and British officers make plans for the team’s escape.

British comedy Bend it Like Beckham, starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley, came second in the poll.

The most recent soccer movie Football Factory, about football hooliganism, which was criticised for scenes of explicit violence, came 10th in the UCI Cinema poll with only 1%.

Fever Pitch, based on Nick Hornby‘s best selling semi-autobiography, came third, followed by When Saturday Comes, the 1996 movie starring Sean Bean and Emily Lloyd, about a hard-drinking brewery worker who has a trial at Sheffield United.

Other films in the top 10 include Cup Fever (1965), in sixth place, starring Manchester United manager Matt Busby.

Mean Machine (2001), which starred Vinnie Jones as a soccer star who leads a match against prison guards after being jailed for assault, came ninth.

UCI Cinemas spokeswoman Lianne Butterfield said: “As a nation we love football and films about our favourite passion have always been popular with cinemagoers.

“Escape to Victory and Bend it Like Beckham are great feel-good films that everyone can enjoy, even if they don’t understand the offside rule.”

– Craig

Sly Carries Olympic Torch!

Craig / / 2004, Honors

On Wednesday, June 16, 2004,  Sylvester Stallone carried the Olympic torch to the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Venice Beach in Los Angeles after it arrived in the U.S. from Mexico.

The Olympic Flame will travel to 34 cities in 27 countries en route to the 2004 Olympic Games.

Sly Proud to Carry the Torch!

Craig / / 2004, Honors

From Hellomagazine.com, June 17, 2004

A slew of American celebs including screen star Tom Cruise and action man Sylvester Stallone have been doing their bit towards helping the Olympic torch on its epic journey to the Athens 2004 Games.

The two Hollywood favourites were among those who carried the torch as it passed through California. The eternally fit Sly, who turns 58 on July 6, proudly bore the flame along Venice Beach in Los Angeles.

Tom, meanwhile, was sporting his trademark toothy grin when he carried it around the Dodger Stadium, also in LA. The flame will have travelled to 34 cities in 27 countries by the time it reaches Athens for the Olympics in August.

– Craig