Tekel Towers » Rocky

Sieb22 · 28/2/2016 4:55 pm

Thought I would do something in honour/hope of Sylvester Stallone's big night tonight at the Academy Awards.

As you might know he is up for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Rocky Balboa in the movie Creed.

Sly has personally never won an Oscar before, and the last time he was nominated was for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for Rocky way back in 1977!

However, that year, the movie did walk away with the Academy Awards for both Best Director for John G. Avildsen and Best Picture presented to the producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler.

That was the last time Sly ever got even a sniff of the Oscar's.

Stallone did win a fair amount of awards in his time after that though, unfortunately it was for the Golden Razzies, who celebrate the worst of Hollywood. Having been nominated 16 times and a winner on 8 occasions throughout his career, including the first ever 'lifetime achievement' award, his latest Razzie was won last night, a new Razzie award called the 'redeemer award', and Sly won it for being nominated for his turn in Creed.

A tremendous career, and I for one am hoping to see Sly/Rocky lift the Oscar tonight, always an underdog.

Sieb22 · 28/2/2016 5:40 pm

Cut me Mick

Released: 1976
Director: John G. Avildsen
Domestic Box Office: $117'235'247
Trivia: Rocky's dog Butkus was actually Sylvester Stallone's dog in real life.

Yo, Adrian! I DID IT!
Released: 1979
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Domestic Box Office $85'182'160
Trivia: In an early script draft during a scene which was dropped we learn that Rocky's real name is Robert.

I don't hate Balboa, I pity the fool!
Released: 1982
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Domestic Box Office: $125'049'129
Trivia: Morgan Freeman auditioned for the role of Clubber Lang's trainer.

I must break you

Released: 1985
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Domestic Box Office: $127'900'000
Trivia: Dolph Lundgren dated Grace Jones at the time of filming.

Go for it

Released: 1990
Director: John G. Avildsen
Domestic Box Office: $40'950'000
Trivia: In the original script Rocky dies in Adrian's arms in a back of an ambulance at the end of the film after being victorious in the street fight. It was changed during filming to the ending seen in the completed movie.

Let's start building some hurting bombs
Released: 2006
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Domestic Box Office: $70'269'171
Trivia: Stallone wanted to do the film as an apology for Rocky V.

Time takes everybody out; time's undefeated
Released: 2015
Director: Ryan Cooler
Domestic Box Office: $109'536'729 (as of 25th Feb 2016)
Trivia: At the time of this film's release, Sylvester Stallone was the same age as Burgess Meredith, who played Mickey, was at the time of the original Rocky film's release, 69 years old.

Sieb22 · 28/2/2016 6:33 pm

Mrs Sieb and myself, after watching Creed, have went and watched all the Rocky films back to back over the past few weeks including Creed again after Rocky Balboa.

Some of the movies lost a little bit of that sparkle due to nostalgia (Rocky IV), others managed to surprise me again (Rocky and Rocky Balboa), while others still stand out as being so much more fun than I remembered (Rocky III). Rocky V is still shite though.

So in this gentleman's humble opinion, I will give a very brief rundown of what I thought of the Rocky films now.

Rocky: Better than what I remembered, great script and great acting by all, especially Stallone and Talia Shire.

Rocky II: The Rocky I least remember, even now after just a few weeks from watching it. Paulie also looks really slim and in great shape in this!

Rocky III: Pure 80's Reagan era film, just like IV, larger than life and a hell of a lot of fun. Thunderlips, Eye of the Tiger, Apollo and Duke training Rocky, Mr T, best ending and Mickey dying and just clocking in at a trim 89 mins. Awesome.

Rocky IV: My favourite until I watched them all again, still great though, Ivan Drago is the best 'villain' in all the series IMO also the best soundtrack from all the films, best training montage and the Duke. Things that tainted it for me was Paulie's fucking robot wife! Apollo being a whiney bitch most of the time and the hokey speech at the end of the fight by Rocky.

Rocky V: Now moving into the early 90's and it reeked all over this film. Tried to hard to get back to the 'roots' of the first two films, failed on almost every level apart from the original score.

Rocky Balboa: A great surprise, like a nice warm hug from an old relative you haven't seen in years. A return to form of sorts for fans of the original films, achieves what Rocky V failed at. Might not be so great for hardcore fans of III and IV though.

Creed: Not Rocky focused as such, but such a great movie in its own right. Love the first fight which was filmed in one take on Stallone's first day on the set! Don't want to spoil it too much for people who haven't seen it yet, but I really enjoyed it. Great direction and script with great acting all round.

Ranking my favourite Rocky's:
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Creed
Rocky Balboa
Rocky
Rocky II
Rocky V.

lifesanocean · 28/2/2016 7:48 pm

No way in that order.

Rocky,
Rocky 2,
Creed,
Rocky Balboa,
Rocky 3,
Rocky 4,

Rocky 5.

Sieb22 · 28/2/2016 10:08 pm

lifesanocean wrote:
No way in that order.

Rocky,
Rocky 2,
Creed,
Rocky Balboa,
Rocky 3,
Rocky 4,

Rocky 5.

Yea, I like the big gap between Rocky 4 & 5!

6 out of the 7 movies are all amazing IMO, not many film franchises can say they have that high a hit rate, pardon the pun!

Sieb22 · 28/2/2016 10:29 pm

Also the series spans over 5 decades, and each decade shines through in the films.

Rocky 1 & 2 have the very grimy (in a good way) 70's feel to them.

Rocky 3 & 4 have the 80's Regean era, Rocky is now more of an 'action hero', and built like a shit brick house, popcorn flick of that time than a character study. Also check out some of the clobber in Rocky 3, cut off t-shirts galore!

Rocky 5, Soundtrack was cheesy in a 90's way as well, loads of raps! And also included a Don King type character.

Rocky 6, very 'naughties' or whatever you want to call that era in regards to the way it was shot and directed, films went through a phase of over filtering and lighting up the way they shot it using bright lights and loads of handheld shots. Can't say I'm that big a fan of it. And don't get me started on lens flare!

Creed finishes it all off with the swing towards the low budget films of the 2010's (teens?), and showing more character ensemble story driven plots over bombastic celebrity driven movies. When was the last time you went to the cinema to see a movie because of one person? It's all superhero, comedy or drama ensembles, or certainly that seems to be the fad of recent times.

Sieb22 · 29/2/2016 4:08 am

And the Oscar goes to.....

Not Sylvester Stallone. Typical Hollywood bullshit.

It's all a wankfest with the usual wankpheasants.

Tek · 29/2/2016 7:58 am

Rocky 2 is still my favourite i think.

The drama and tension during the fight is unreal,culminating in them both falling at the end.

It's a work of cinematic art that whole 8 minutes or whatever it is.

lifesanocean · 29/2/2016 3:32 pm

The Rocky 1 soundtrack is absolutely sublime. I downloaded it a few weeks ago.

The first is still my fave, but I love them all in different ways. The Philadelphia Morning scene and the bit with Rocky losing it at Mickey are absolute cinematic majesty.

As TEK said, the fight sequence in 2 is immense as well as is the training montage with the kids.

The fight sequence in 3 is absolutely superb as well particularly the final round.

4 is great for the training montage and of course the 'He's cut' bit.

5 best bit is probably the bit where Tommy lamps Paulie and Rocky, say's "You knocked him down, why don't you try knocking me down..." bit. Its probably as badass as he gets in the whole series.

I just love Rocky Balboa from start to finish. The bit where the people start goading him outside Andy's bar and he storms out of the van is great as well (and evokes the debt collecting Rocky of the first film as well) showing he still has the ability to put the fear of god into people.

Creed, the bit where Adonis opens the box to see the USA Flag trunks is superb (bizarely mirroring the bit where Rey opens the box in SW TFA) as is the fights at the start and finish. The bit where Adonis is asked after the fight if he has a message for Apollo...

Last edited by lifesanocean (01/3/2016 7:04 am)

Sieb22 · 29/2/2016 8:18 pm

Well put LAO, appreciate your synopsis.

I do think Rocky Balboa is very underrated, as great as Stallone is in Creed I actually think he does his best acting in this.

Looks like it's just me, you and Tek who appreciate Rocky by the looks of things.

lifesanocean · 29/2/2016 9:45 pm

Yeah, looks like it. Oh dear.

Tek · 04/8/2017 11:51 pm

Watch this LAO.

lifesanocean · 05/8/2017 7:41 pm

Cheers, good watch that.

Glasgow is tangerine · 08/8/2017 3:47 am

I appreciate Rocky. That's my childhood in one franchise.
My order is different
Rocky
Rocky 3
Rocky 2
Rocky Balboa
Rocky 4
Creed
Rocky 5

All films are awesome to me, other than Rocky five, but even that has its moments.
Rocky five directors cut is online too, which is meant to be a good bit better than the theatrical cut

Tek · 02/2/2024 11:38 pm

RIP Carl Weathers.

Recently watched this deleted scene and by God is it even more poignant now.

Last edited by Tek (02/2/2024 11:40 pm)

lifesanocean · 03/2/2024 5:59 pm

That scene was used for the Rocky vs Drago directors cut released a few years ago.

Tek · 04/2/2024 12:49 am

lifesanocean wrote:
That scene was used for the Rocky vs Drago directors cut released a few years ago.

Yeah LAO.

Only got round to watching a few of them.

I don't know why Sly never used that funeral speech, it's really powerful and a human moment in a film that gets criticised for being a bit of a montage.

David_Blunkett · 05/2/2024 7:30 pm

Can't separate Rocky and Rocky 2.. for top slot...

Rocky IV holds a special place in the heart. Drago style flat tops were all the rage at the time and it was the first and only one I seen at the pictures. Me and the mates all up out our seats cheering and chanting at the end, superb.

3 was a bit of nonsense until Rocky finally started training properly.

5 was shite.

Balboa was pretty decent.

Just wasn't interested in the Creed ones.

japanarab · 08/2/2024 1:38 am

Second is the best imo. The ending is tremendous.