The Greatest Movie Anthems of the 80’s

On June 20, 2014, Kevin Polowy of Yahoo! Movies posted The Greatest Movie Anthems of the 80’s.  Sly had two songs that made the cut…

1.    Survivor, “Eye of the Tiger” (Rocky III, 1983)

For the third Rocky film — a.k.a. “the one with Mr. T and Hulk Hogan” —Sylvester Stallone commissioned Survivor to write and record “Eye of the Tiger” after failing to get the rights to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” Training rooms haven’t been the same since.

 

9. Robert Tepper, “No Easy Way Out” (Rocky IV, 1985)

Sly strikes again. Like FootlooseRocky IV was another all-around formidable soundtrack, with tunes like Survivor’s “Burning Heart” and James Brown’s “Living in America.” But the song that instantly takes us back in time is Tepper’s gun-ho anthem, which set up Rock’s climactic bout with Ivan Drago.

 

Rocky and Rambo PodCasts

Earlier this week, I received the following e-mail:

Hi Mr. Zablo,
I’m Mat Bradley-Tschirgi, Producer of the Sequelcast, a podcast looking at movie franchises. I’d thought you and your StalloneZone readers would be interested in checking out the podcasts we did of the Rocky films this past month. We also covered the Rambo films a few years ago. The podcasts might contain brief moments of explicit language.
Here are the links:
ROCKY III (Guest Paul Goebel of Beat The Geeks): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast170.mp3
ROCKY IV (Guest Eric Lichtenfeld of The Ultimate Stallone Reader): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast171.mp3
ROCKY V (Guest Ryan Hoss of the Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast172.mp3
ROCKY BALBOA (Guest West Anthony of The Auteurcast): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast173.mp3
FIRST BLOOD (Guest David Morrell [author of the original First Blood novel]): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast31.mp3
RAMBO (Guest Eric Lichtenfeld [author of Action Speaks Louder]): http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcast34.mp3
Keep up the good work with StalloneZone. The Expendables 3 looks to have a mightier cast than the second. I’m just wondering where Barney’s goatee went in all the promo shots for the film.
Thanks,
Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
***
Thanks Mat for the kind words and the links to the Stallone-related podcasts! – Craig

Crowining Mr. Sports Movies

On April 9, 2014, Yahoo! Movies took a look at which actor had played the most sports roles in their piece Crowining Mr. Sports Movies by Brian Enk.

Had they counted each Rocky movie individually (as I think they should have) then Sly would have easily come in first.  At any rate, here’s what the said about him…

—Sylvester Stallone: If we were to tally sports movies as a whole, including sequels, the Italian Stallion would be our champ, with six entries as boxer Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies. Sly’s other sports movie credits include “Death Race 2000” (1975), in which he played deadly cross country racer Machine Gun Joe Viterbo; “Paradise Alley” (1978), in which he played Cosmo Corboni, one of three brothers trying to play the wrestling game in 1940s NYC; “Victory” (1981), in which he played a soccer goalie for the Allied forces as they face off against a German team at a WWII prison camp; “Over the Top” (1986), the greatest arm-wrestling movie ever made; “Driven” (2001), in which he plays former CART champion and car racing mentor Joe Tanto; and “Grudge Match” (2013), in which he plays former boxing champ Henry “Razor” Sharp.

The 50 All-Time Greatest Sports Movie Quotes

On March 5, 2014, Bleacher Report posted their choices for The 50 All-Time Greatest Sports Movie Quotes.

Sly made the list 6 times!  Coming in at…

#1  “Yo Adrian! I did it!” – Rocky Balboa from Rocky II

 

#14  “I must break you.” – Ivan Drago from Rocky IV

 

#24  “All I wanna do is go the distance.” –  Rocky Balboa from Rocky

 

#28  “Let’s start building some hurtin’ bombs.”  – Duke from Rocky Balboa

 

#34  “I don’t hate Balboa. I pity the fool.” – Clubber Lang from Rocky III

 

#44  “You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder.” – Mickey from Rocky

 

Every “Rocky” Movie Deconstructed

On December 11, 2013, FastCoDesign posted The Plot of Every Rocky Movie Deconstructed by Mark Wilson.

Once you’ve read Wilson’s piece you should click over to Rocky Morphology.  Rocky Morphology is a very cool interactive site that allows you to slide along a timeline and see stills from each of the Rocky movies and what category it was in at the time. – Craig

Sylvester Stallone: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked.

On February 1, 2013, WhatCulture! posted Sylvester Stallone: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked.

  • According to WhatCulture! 5 that were Awesome: Rambo [First Blood and sequels], John Spartan [Demolition Man], Gabe Walker [Cliffhanger], Freddy Heflin [Cop Land], and Rocky Balboa [Rocky and sequels].
  • Their Choices for Not-So-Awesome: Judge Dredd [same name], Ray Quick [The Specialist], Marion Cobretti [Cobra], Jack Carter [Get Carter], and Joe Bomoski [Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!].

To Awesome I would delete Spartan and Walker to make room for Jack Carter and Deke Dasilva [Nighthawks].  To Not-So-Awesome I would delete Carter and add Nick from Rhinestone. – Craig

Bring Rocky Home for the Holidays

Hey SZoners! The holidays are quickly approaching and I wanted to remind everyone that Rocky sculptures are still available through A. Thomas Schomberg studios.  These statues were created by Mr. Schomberg [who created the original Rocky sculpture seen in the Rocky movies] in collaboration with Sylvester Stallone and MGM studios. 

The Schombergs are running their Holiday Special once again!  They are slowly but surely selling out of the 20″ ROCKY Bronze Plated Sculptures and want to offer collectors a chance to purchase one of the selected few ROCKYs that will be personally signed by Tom.  They will run this offer now, through the Holidays into mid January.  The price will be $395 and shipping will be free within the USA.

I was fortunate to get to interview Mr. Schomberg for the StalloneZone a couple of years ago.  For those who may have missed it, here’s my interview with Mr. Schomberg. [part two of the interview is here] for the SZ.

Remember, if you purchases a statue, I’d love to post a picture of you with it on the StalloneZone! – Craig