In Which Tommy Ranks the Rocky Movies

In Which Tommy Ranks the Rocky Movies

This is the order in which I appreciate the Rocky movies, from least favorite to absolute favorite:

Rocky V
Rocky IV
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky

Here's a task for you. Take out a pencil and paper, and write the word "Rocky" a lot of times. I dunno. Twelve times. Notice how funny it starts to look after you've written it several times. It's not as funny as bicycle. But almost.

Here's something about the movies. The first hour of Rocky II is probably the strongest and most interesting of any of the five movies, as we see this schlump who's been rocketed to stardom struggling to parlay it into some manner of continuing success outside of the one thing he is good at. I think there are a lot of folks who run from what they are best at, for whatever reason. For me, though, the movie loses steam when it has to go for the happy ending.

Think how much of a downer it would have been if Rocky II had ended not only losing to Apollo Creed, but losing badly. A neck-breaking knockout in the first round. I don't think America could have stood it.

Rocky IV would have been better, if not for the several different musical montages we have throughout. Several. I will say that it was one of the very minor surprises in my life to find out that Dolph Lundgren was not actually from another country, but that he was just quite adept at playing large foreign guys.

Yep.