The Top Ten Sylvester Stallone Movies

On July 5, 2014, The Celebrity Cafe, posted their choices for The Top Ten Sylvester Stallone Movies.   Click over for full details, but for the record their choices were…
  1. Rocky
  2. Assassins
  3. Demolition Man
  4. The Expendables
  5. Rocky IV
  6. Rocky V
  7. Rocky Balboa
  8. Grudge Match
  9. Oscar
  10. Expendables 2
It’s their list, but how could you not include at least one of the Rambo movies or Cop Land or Nighthawks… and Rocky didn’t make the cut??

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.

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

Mike Torrance Draws Rocky 4 Me

Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd makes a return visit with his patriotic Rocky 4 card drawn for July 4th.  I was one of the proud winners of Mike’s recent Free Sketchcard Day and requested Rocky.  What you see is the result of that request.

You can see more of Mike’s art at The Daily Sketch with The Krayola Kidd (and if you’ve never checked out Mike’s site, you ought to if only to see his Walking Dead cards!) and his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.


Top 10 Macho Movies of the 80’s

Krystal Clark over at Screen Cave posted her choices for The Top 10 Macho Movies that Ruled the 80’s.  Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly scored two movies in the top ten, but guess who came in at #1.  Yep, Sly for First Blood.  Here’s the list with the rationale for Sly’s films.

10.   Road House
09.   American Ninja
08.   Rocky IV: 
“I must break you.” It’s been 26 years since Rocky IV’s release and those words still send chills down our spine. The movie isn’t a masterpiece but what it lacks in sensible dialogue it makes up for in spirit. It was Rocky Balboa versus Ivan Drago. It was the U.S. versus The Soviet Union. It was blonds versus brunettes. You get the picture. 
07.  Missing in Action
06.  Predator
05.  Escape from New York
04.  Die Hard
03.  Blood Sport
02.  Commando
01.  First Blood:
John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is the ultimate ‘80s action hero. He’s a loner. He’s quiet. And he happens to be an expert in guerrilla warfare. After being tormented by a corrupt sheriff, Rambo taps into his survival training to fight back. As one man, he takes on 200 police officers and still manages to come out on top. How? Because he oozes machismo! If you send in 200 men against Rambo, don’t forget one thing – “a good supply of body bags.”