This week’s POW comes from Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes! – Craig Zablo
Jazzman’s Teasers for “ROCKY VI”
Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes sent in the teaser posters that he created for “Rocky VI.”
He says that he’s excited about the prospect of a new “Rocky” movie.
After seeing Jazz’s teasers, I’m even more excited! – Craig Zablo
POW – “Get Carter”
This week’s POW comes from Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes! – Craig Zablo
“Rocky” Scores Again
From Sports Illustrated Volume 99, NO. 4, August 04, 2003
Illustration by: Richie Fahey
The top 50 Sports movies of all time were covered in the Sports Illustrated issue listed above. Here are the top ten, the comments for “Rocky” and the illustration that accompanied the article.
1: Bull Durham
2: Rocky
“In America‘s bicentennial year Rocky Balboa became the first of the post-Vietnam War heroes, a frenzied expression of old-fashioned individualism. A slow-on-the-uptake palooka who gets a chance to survive a fight with the heavyweight champ (Apollo Creed, played with panache by Weathers), Balboa has a Philadelphia story with heart and purity and just enough cruelty for resonance. Stallone informed his loser with a colossal goofiness that was impossible not to watch. He was so convincingly sincere that audiences actually jumped up and screamed for him to win.
3: Raging Bull
4: Hoop Dreams
5: Slap Shot
6: Hoosiers
7: Olympia
8: Breaking Away
9: Chariots of Fire
10: When We Were Kings
Thanks to Big John Beatty!- Craig Zablo
POW – Sly and Oprah
This week’s POW comes from Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes! – Craig Zablo
Frank Stallone – “In Love In Vain”
You owe it to yourself to give this a listen. It’s really, really good stuff.
– Craig Zablo
Suit Settled
“Lil’ Marie” Suit Settled
Michael Klein, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, posted in his July 30, 2006 column that Jodi Letiza has agreed to a settlement in her breach-of-contract suit against Sly, MGM, Columbia/Sony and Revolution Studios.Letizia, who played a tough young girl called “Lil’ Marie” made her first appearance in the original Rocky and cameos in some of the sequels. Letizia claimed that she had been told she had a part in “Rocky Balboa” only to find out that another actress, Geraldine Hughes, ended up with the role.In Klein‘s article he reports that now that the suit has been settled “Letizia has moved on.”
For the full report, click HERE. – Craig
“Rocky” and the “Boxing Renaissance of the Eighties”
On July 26, 2006, Michael Katz posted an article at thesweetscience.com titled “Yo, Adrian, Let’s Hail the Spirit of ’76” which explores the factors that led to a boxing “Renaissance of the Eighties.” The great fighters that came out of the 1976 Olympics played a major role, but Katz also credits “Rocky.” Here’s what he had to say:
There was another major factor in producing the Eighties’ ring revival. “The ‘Rocky’ movie,” said [Boxing Promoter Bob] Arum.Sylvester Stallone’s film, based on so many real boxing nuggets – Rocky Balboa, like Joe Frazier, hitting the sides of beef; the instruction to the corner to “cut me,” when he couldn’t see out of a swollen eye – captured the public imagination. It was more real than the reality series, “The Contender,” which Stallone would attempt many years later.“In the movie,” said Arum, “he had more control – he was the writer and the director.”The Spirit of ’76 remains with us. There’s another “Rocky” movie due this year, but more apropos, if one forgets about the heavyweights, the talent level is extraordinarily high in the real thing.
Thirty years later and “Rocky” is still getting props. And rightly so. For the full report, click HERE. – Craig
“Rocky” Still a Great Example
Michael Booth of The Denver Post in his July 27, 2006 column explores the fact that “not all box-office hits had great expectations.” Booth lists eight movies that defied all expectations and “Rocky” makes the cut. Here’s what he says:
“Rocky” cost less than $1 million, was the brainchild of then-nobody Sylvester Stallone and sported an underdog plot considered naive for a troubled year like 1976. It made $117 million and won the best-picture Oscar.Thirty years later and “Rocky” is still getting props. And rightly so.
For the full report, click HERE. – Craig
“Nighthawks” 1st Buddy-Cop Movie
Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star takes a look at the genre of Buddy-Cop movies and has this to say about “Nighthawks”:
The movie often credited as being the first buddy-cop film was the solemn “Nighthawks” (1981), which teamed Billy Dee Williams and Sylvester Stallone as two New York City cops who are transferred to an elite anti-terrorism unit.
For the full report, click HERE. – Craig