The first was the best

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2002)

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a second-rate boxer in Philadelphia, gets a match with the world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Also he falls in love with mousy Adrienne (Talia Shire) who blossoms with his love. He's trained by a tough-as-nails (but loving) trainer (Burgess Meredith).
This is the type of story that was being laughed off screens in the 1940s...but it works beautifully here. The characters are believable, flawed human beings; the script is just great (written by Stallone before he became full of himself) and (surprisingly) all the acting is good (Meredith and Shire take top honors). The theme music is rousing and the climatic fight is just fantastic. It's predictable as they come, but it's all so well-done you won't care. A HUGE hit in 1976. As much as I like this I still can't believe it won the Best Picture Oscar back in 1977. Still, don't miss it!
As for the sequels, Rocky 2 wasn't bad but 3, 4 and 5 were horrendous.