Movie #84: Rocky

Movie #: 84
Movie Title: Rocky
Year Released: 1976

Director: John G. Avildsen
Notable Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith

Short Description: Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight the heavy-weight champion, Apollo Creed, in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #57
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: #34
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #95
FlickChart.com: #84



Date Watched: 7/12/2016

Grade: 3 out of 5 (Good)

Rationale: Rocky tells an adequate story and Sylvester Stallone is fine at what he does. My strong complaint with Rocky is that there’s not enough action later in the movie. The entire thing builds towards a showdown between underdog Rocky Balboa and world champion Apollo Creed, yet the actual fight scene lasted for what seemed to be a mere few minutes. Even the build-up to the fight lacked a bit of punch (see what I did there?). I don’t mean to belittle the amount of time spent on Rocky and Adrian’s budding relationship cause that’s clearly the foundation of the movie, but maybe an equal balance of loving and fighting would’ve been more satisfying.