No 78 - Rocky

Billy’s review
Rating: 3.4

Despite my long-held childhood belief that Rocky was a boxing gem, the reality feels like a crushing blow to the head.

Sylvester Stallone’s role as the Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa may have tilted him into superstardom, but given the unfeasible plot, an insipid cast and probably the worst boxing scenes in cinematic history it’s difficult to see how.

The story is simple: A down and out local boxer fortuitously gets a shot at the world boxing title and almost wins it while stealing the heart of a shy local girl.

What’s not so easy is believing an uncultured brawler could quickly evolve as a heavyweight contender. Much of this distrust spawns from a lack of bridging between toothless Rocky and champing at the bit Rocky; what drives him is as unclear as much of Stallone’s garbled street talk.

Of course, the accompanying score is an adrenaline rush and Carl Weathers puts in a stellar showing as business savvy champ Apollo Creed. But scratch the surface for a deeper meaning and you’ll find Rocky is nothing but a Hollywood lightweight.

Su's Review
Rating: 2.0

Yo Adrian, It’s me, Rocky. To this Jason Schwartzman’s mum aka Adrian should of turned and ran away but instead she allowed him to southpaw her. Eww.

Rocky started out sloooow and ended far too quickly. I guess I shouldn’t expect a lot from a film that was written by the Italian Stallion himself. Between Rocky’s skivvy stalking of Adrian and his ever-worsening jokes, this character is just a dog instead of an underdog.

It took me a while to figure out that Apollo Creed was indeed hitting Rocky during the big fight in the ring and not just swatting at him. Apollo would swing and about five minutes later Rocky’s head would knock back. But the sound was the best. It keep cutting out the presenter and the fans and then all you would here was the fake punching sounds, which was just someone swishing into a microphone.

The ended left us very confused that we had to turn to Wikipedia to find out what really happened.

Bottom line. Whoever allowed this waste of emulsion to appear on this list deserves a fake swat from Apollo Creed.