Does Anyone Else Really Dislike The Rocky Movies?!!

I loved the training sequences in part 4 and the James Brown appearance but killing off Apollo was really dumb and in the fight with Drago Rocky too an insane number of shots.

 

Apollos death set up the darker tone the franchise took after that. Apollo didn't really have a place in a story about Rocky retiring and dealing with trauma. Apollo was too campy and positive to fit into such a story.

Also Rocky transitions from the village idiot to the wise elder statesman after Rocky IV and with Apollo present this transition would not have worked.

 

I think I’ve only seen I and IV. The first was better of course but I liked them both - but I didn’t think either was heavy duty great and wouldn’t go out of my way to watch any of the other movies in the franchise.

 

IV is the most flawed a film could possibly be whilst still getting a thumbs up from me, save for maybe Roadhouse. There is so much about it I would change, but that fight is a better spectacle than any bout in the rest of the franchise.

 

The first part of Rocky I is quite good with Rocky's relationships with his trainer, girlfriend and others being featured. But the second part of the film is too cartoonish. The other Rocky films are far too cartoonish for my tastes.

- Chuck Johnston

 

The parts that befuddle me are the knockdowns in the bouts that Rocky has fought. He has been decked by Apollo Creed countless times, Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago. Aren't there rules regarding knockdowns? Nobody in the real world of boxing can absorb that kind of punishment and still function, it's cartoonish like a very talented poster alluded to in his post. Ruby Goldstein must have been resurrected to referee the Drago vs Creed match in Rocky IV. I think that if that franchise would have had a more realistic story to them, they would have been more popular to the average boxing fan.

 

Floyd Patterson was down at least 21 times in his career and like a dozen or more of those were in title bouts.

Heck, Floyd decked Tom McNeeley 11 times along the way to stopping him in just four rounds.

All this during the formative years of Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the Rocky movies.

Is it over the top? Of course. It’s Hollywood. But far from the most unrealistic thing ever portrayed on the big screen — I think the outlaw Josey Wales gunned down like 60 people in a single movie, haha. Most cops rarely if ever draw their guns and fewer still ever shoot people (much less fatally) yet any cop movie probably has the hero policeman dropping bad guys like flies.

I love the opening scene of the first movie: a fight club in Philly in a converted church where Balboa and Spider Rico are going at it for like $50 … not terribly unrealistic for the day. The scene where Mickey comes to beg Rocky to let him train him. The training scenes starting with Balboa slogging through roadwork in the 4 a.m. cold after downing a half-dozen eggs. The scene where Rocky is called to the promoter and thinks he’s going to be offered a chance to spar and asks to keep the promoter’s card … like tangible proof that he at least made it that far.

The whole theme of Balboa just wanting to go the distance to gain a measure of dignity in the first film is poetic and as sad as it is heroic in such a small way. It turned the Hollywood trope of the underdog always winning on its ear.

The movies get increasingly cartoonish after that but there’s some good stuff in all but the fifth (which was horrible) IMO. Rocky Balboa is a very sweet and overlooked film. The first Creed is good too, although I haven’t seen the sequels.

Not my favorite series of movies ever for sure, but not horrible. The first is the most iconic boxing movie ever and came along at just the right time to appeal to a budding generation of boxing fans (on the heels of the U.S. Olympic team in 1976 and the soon-to-emerge Four Kings … five if you count Wilfredo). I’d rate it as my favorite boxing film, although there are other good ones.

 

Maybe they should have done sequels for Clubber Lang, Tommy Gunn and Ivan Drago too. Good Post Saintpat.

 

Hey John, You didn't go doing roadwork being followed by a big crowd in your neighborhood? Ha Ha.

 

Any Boxing fan will notice the oddities for sure, but watch that fight with Drago & tell me you remain immune to the scenery, editing & music. I still sometimes work out to that fight playing through my headphones. It is a heavily flawed film but much better than III.

 

So true. Did you know that President Reagan requested that movie ( Rocky IV) be brought to the White House in 1985? This was so that he and First Lady Nancy Reagan could enjoy the movie in the privacy of the Oval Office.

 

Better than a box of illegal Cuban cigars! LOL. It’s a so-bad-it’s-good movie in a lot of respects, but I’ve never been bored by IV. I’d change things about it certainly, but it’s an entertaining 90-odd minutes.

 

Living In America by James Brown. Ha Ha.

 

Rocky II has the best soundtrack treatment IMO. For the first movie, there were budget limitations so while Bill Conti’s iconic ‘Gonna Fly Now’ is a great song it’s rather thin sounding.

The success of the first film brought a bigger budget for the sequel (including for the soundtrack since the first one scored big with record-buyers) and they were able to give it the full orchestral treatment. Listen to both and you’ll hear a big difference.

As for the reference by @Richard M Murrieta above, I can remember many a day when I ran home from school with a pack of kids coming after me, but they weren’t cheering. It was a race t o my front door, haha, and while I wasn’t the fastest I knew some shortcuts and could run them through some briar patches to slow them down.

 

Agreed about II’s soundtrack. II is my pick for best film in the franchise, though I have only seen the original five films.