My personal favorite movie of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2013)

In 1975, an unknown actor by the name of Sylvester Stallone, went to see the boxing match between Muhammad Ali vs Chuck Wepner fight. In this fight, everyone said that Chuck Wepner would last 2, maybe 3 rounds at most. What actually happened was chuck Wepner was knocked out in the last 20 seconds of the 15th and final round, even managing to knock Ali down in the 9th round. Stallone was so impressed and inspired by this, he decided to write a script about a lone underdog who gets a shot at the title. Armed with only $1,000,000 as the budget, Stallone started work on one of the most influential and famous films of all time: Rocky.
The film is about a guy named Rocky Balboa, a down on his luck part time boxer, part time loan shark enforcer. His life isn't really going anywhere and he lives in a grotty apartment in Philadelphia. He spends his time trying to impress Adrian, sister of his friend Paulie. His trainer, Mikey Goldmill has given up on him, due to him thinking that Rocky is a 'Tomato', and not a contender, like other boxers who go to his boxing Gym.
At the same time, the current champion Apollo Creed is set to fight Mac lee green, the top contender. Unfortunately, Mac Lee green breaks his hand while training, and all the other ranked contenders are unavailable to fight. Apollo then come up the idea of, instead of fighting a ranked contender, he will fight an unknown boxer for the chance of the heavyweight title. He then decides to fight Rocky, due to his boxer name of 'The Italian Stallion'. Rocky then takes this opportunity to go the distance, not for glory or respect, but for his own self-respect, to prove to himself that he has what it takes to go 15 rounds with the champion.
Every single thing about this film is flawless. I wouldn't change a single thing about this movie. Here's why: First of all, the acting is spotless. Everyone from Stallone as Rocky, to Carl weathers as Apollo Creed, to even Burgess Meredith as the grouchy Mikey Goldmill. All the actors deliver and then some. There isn't a single actor that is anything less than perfect.
Next, is the script. The script is unbelievably good. There are tons of memorable lines and no badly written lines at all. All the lines have some importance some where, without coming across as preachy, cliché or soppy at all.
Next, you have the pacing. It is without fault. It gives you plenty of story without feeling slow at all. There are also the famous montage, but even though that was in here, the pacing doesn't feel spoiled or ruined in anyway.
The best thing about this movie is how much heart it has. Rocky is just an average guy, who is given the chance of a life time. He doesn't feel like he can do it at all, which is what makes it brilliant. In all other films, the protagonist feels 100% like they can do it, which comes across as predictable. Rocky, however doesn't fall into that trap. Rocky himself is full of doubt, and that makes him realistic. An the fact he accepts the challenge for unselfish reasons makes Rocky Balboa one of the greatest movie characters of all time. The fact that he also doesn't give up during the fight makes him even better.
The fight is also very well done. I find that there is more heart in that 8 and a half minutes than in the entirety of most movies that are released now. The fact that Rocky gets up, even though his trainer tells him not to, just shows how much he won't give up.
I also have to talk about the score. Words cannot describe how good the score is. It's emotional and kicks in that the right time. The Rocky theme in it's self is legendary, and has been used as many times as Rocky has been punched in the entire six movies.
This movie basically kick started Stallone's career as an actor, writer and director, as he would go on to direct 4 of the six Rocky films.
10/10. A true classic.