Classic

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2006)

Rocky is not only by far the best of the series it is also in my opinion one of the greatest movies of all time. Sylvester Stallone is amazing in this. Add the fact he wrote the movie and you can see he deserves his superstar status. Ten years later he was doing stuff like Cobra but never mind! Rocky is as they say a true underdog story, a boxing story and above all a love story between Rocky and a shy pet shop worker called Adrian. Also a friendship between him and Adrians brother Paulie, a bitter man with a chip on his shoulder but a good guy underneath. Also Boxing trainer Mickey played by a superb Burgess Meridith and World Champion Appolo Creed played by the under-rated Carl Weathers. All the ingredients make this an amazingly uplifting movie. Praise to Bill Conti too for producing the now very familiar music, although there is very little of it at the beginning only when Rocky starts to train for the big fight. The film has so may memorable images, especially when Rocky runs up the steps in Philadelphia. Also loads of endlessly quotable lines, many of which are very funny. On a final note, one thing I have noticed about the Rocky movies, Rockys career seems to run very close to Stallones in as such if Rocky is on top of his career then so is Stallone in Hollywood. Rocky II is similar to this but III and IV are just pure entertainment and V tries to get back to the style of this one. Rocky Balboa (out at the end of 2006) will have to be some movie to come close to this one thats for sure.