Every “Rocky” Movie, Ranked

On February 27, 2015, USAToday posted Every “Rocky” Movie, Ranked  by Chris Chase.  For details check out the piece, but here are Chris’ rankings and mine.  We differ quite a bit, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

Chris Chase
Craig Zablo
6. Rocky V 6. Rocky V
5. Rocky Balboa 5. Rocky II
4. Rocky II 4. Rocky IV
3. Rocky 3. Rocky III
2. Rocky III 2. Rocky Balboa
1. Rocky IV 1. Rocky

 

Rocky 1 -5 Makes the List

Rocky and Adrian by Aykut Aydoğdu.

On October 24, 2014, SciFighting posted the Top Ten Most Memorable Boxing Movies by Marcus Hogan.  Rocky [II, III, IV and V] came in at #1.  What?  Rocky Balboa didn’t make it?

Here’s what they had to say…

1.) Rocky (II, III, IV, V)

Rocky was the highest-grossing film in 1976, making $225 million worldwide on a $1 million budget. The film was shot in only 28 days, but won 3 Oscars including Best Picture. It is the rags to riches story of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) who is a loan shark by day and boxer by night. Although this film is not considered non-fiction, former heavyweight boxer Charles “Chuck” Wepner claims that this and all the proceeding Rocky films where based on his life.

“Rocky” “Rocky II” and “Rocky III” Limited Ed Mondo Prints

These are three limited edition posters that Mondo released at the Alamo Draft House in July in celebration of Sly’s birthday.  The posters were then offered to the general public in August.

The Rocky poster was created by Cesar Moreno. 24″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 150. $45

The Rocky II poster by Matt Taylor. 18″x24″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 150. $40.

The Rocky III poster by Matt Taylor. 20″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 150. $40.

For more details on the posters and to see slightly larger version click over to The Fire Wire.

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