The Rocky series - Best to Worst

Do I even need to tell you why this is the best out of all of them? Is it the fantastic acting from all the cast? Is it Stallone's marvelous screenplay, which balances out the joy and misery of Rocky's life so perfectly to set up the eventual feel good ending? Is it the wonderful characters who you are so invested in and care so much about? Or is it the happiness this film fills you with when it ends, making you feel so happy and alive? Well, it is a mixture of all these things and more that combine to create one of the best films ever made, and one of my personal favourites. Go and see it now, and it you have seen it, watch it again. It is so worth it. Many may say that this film is sappy, but they're totally wrong. This film is a feel great masterpiece that is essential viewing for everybody whose had a tough time, and wants to feel joyous. This is a film that does that perfectly.

To me, this is the most fun of the films. While the opening is dreadfully silly, the film gives way to great set-pieces and character building, particularly in the relationship between Rocky and his former rival Apollo Creed. It was nice to see the two work together and support each other so well, and Carl Weathers delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as Apollo. It also helps that the series' best villain: Clubber Lang, and Mr. T is so enjoyable in the role, oozing so much charisma and badassness, juxtaposed for Rocky's much more laid back persona, but they are the perfect match for one another and their fight is so much fun to watch. This is true of the film as well: just plain good old fashioned fun.

Ah, the much hated Rocky 5. It has been called the worst of the series by many: the critics, the fans, and even Stallone himself despises it, claiming since that he wrote it because of greed and has personally given it a 0 out of 10. Coming from the guy was has written a lot of crap in his lifetime, this is saying a lot. To me, I would give this a 7.5 out of 10. While not great, it is at least quite good, and certainly better after the dreadful Rocky 4. It is to me at least, and attempt to recapture the feeling of the original, and is more grounded because of it. To me, it works as it makes it feel more real and engaging because it, compared to how silly some of the others got. It also helps that the acting and characters are great, particularly from the late Sage Stallone's performance as Rocky's son, who is a very engaging character. Sure it is cliche, but to me it works and while it doesn't recapture the original's spirit, it gives it a damn good go, and often succeeds more than it misses.

While a decent film, it comes up really short to the original. My biggest problem with the film is its story, as when it focuses on how Rocky and Adrian are trying to live their life with all of their fame and troubles, the film is truly compelling, examining how damaging a celebrity status can be to someone's life. Sadly the film doesn't follow through with this, as it is more concerned with the rematch between Apollo Creed and Rocky, which makes the film feel like it's retreading ground that didn't need to be revisited, as it feels like we're watching a pale imitation as to what came before. Because of this, the longer the film focuses on this story, the worse it becomes. It doesn't help that some of the acting is laughable, with Carl Weathers delivering a very hammy performance as Apollo. But it does have many positive attributes. As I've said before, the drama earlier in the film is handled superbly, the characters are still very interesting and likable and the film is still very watchable, but after the high bar the first one set, the sequel isn't very impressive, and is kinda forgettable because of it.

Undoubtedly the stupidest film of the whole series, Rocky 4 not only jumps the shark with the series but also does multiple cartwheels, spins and backflips over it as well. While the others films were at least set in reality, Rocky 4 isn't, and that is mainly due to one man: Ivan Drago, essentially the villain equivalent of James Bond's Jaws, whereby he takes a once realistic and mostly serious series of movies, and turns it into a load of nonsense. Want proof? He is powered by Soviet technology in order to become essentially the strongest boxer alive. Not enough? He rarely talks, and in the occasions that he does, it is usually either grunts, or monotone threats, and it shows what a crap actor Dolph Lungeron can be at points. Still not enough? After killing a professional boxer, he is somehow beaten by an amateur quite easily, and the whole Soviet crowd soon turns to the American's side. If that still isn't enough, I don't know what is. Because of all this utter stupidity, Rocky 4 is a very hard film to take even remotely seriously, and an even harder one to like, as it is not only stupid, but is a Leni Riefenstahl-esque propaganda piece whereby the Soviets are all evil and bad, and the Americans are the triumphant heroes. This culminates to create a propaganda piece so jingoistic, it makes Independence Day and all of Michael Bay's filmography look balanced by comparison. Seeing as how the Cold War ended just a few years after the film's release, the film's sell by date came quite quickly, and it's not like the rest of the film has enough merit to counterbalance these issues either. Still, there are some pleasures. The acting is still very good, the characters for the most part are still well drawn (even if Burt Young's Paulie is pointless at this point) and there are some humourous here and there. But by god, was this movie dumb! It threw in the towel of the series' credibility, and never truly recovered from this low point. Astonishingly stupid.

It may seem a controversial choice to place the most recent (and most likely last) Rocky film at the bottom of the pile, due to how strongly it was received on release (in the areas of critical, commercial and fan support) and how many would scorn me because of this. But, as George Orwell once said, if freedom of speech is to mean anything at all, it must be the freedom for people to say the things you don't want to hear, and in this case, I understand that many wouldn't like to hear about how bad Rocky 6 is. Sure, it isn't as silly as 4 (more on that later), but it still doesn't quite work. For starters, it has the most boring story out of the Rocky films, with Rocky coming out of retirement after a computer stimulation predicted that he could still beat the world champ. That is the plot, people: this is how dull and lazy this is, and it sets a low bar on which the film follows. It honestly feels like a TV movie, and even more so than something like High School Musical which came out at the same time. Whether it be from the story, the slow pace, cliche characters (Rocky's skeptic son, the one supporter who has all the faith in him), the clearly limited budget or the extremely anticlimactic fight at the end, it all feels so televisual and dull that it will make you fall asleep quicker than a knockout would. It doesn't help that Stallone keeps cramming in characters and plot points from the earlier movies (ie Spider Rico, a kid who he escorted home once), but without their original context, feel widely out of place and unnecessary. It also highlights how he blatantly ignores plot points from the previous films (in particular Rocky 5) and creates numerous plot holes in the process (how can he build up a restaurant despite being broke? Why is he allowed to fight again, despite how previously doctors threatened that his health could be at risk if he did? How did Adrian die?), and as this isn't a retcon sequel either where previous narratives are ignored altogether and saying that Stallone pretends that "Rocky 5 doesn't exist" isn't an excuse for this. That is the film in a nutshell: a film that tries to recapture the spirit and nostalgia many have for the previous films, but fails miserably at it, due to poor storytelling, bad continuity errors, cliche plot points and characters, feeling like a Lifetime movie and being flat out dull and boring. This would be bad enough, but as the final Rocky film which not only tries to recapture the spirit of the original, but celebrates the 30th anniversary of it as well, makes it feel like a huge slap in the face, and one of cinema's most biggest disappointments. It may not be "over til it's over" as the tagline proudly proclaimed, but quite frankly it should have stayed over.