From gaining dignity in defeat in the first movie to essentially averting nuclear war by toppling a Russian superman in the fourth, it’s certainly been an up and down journey for Rocky over the years.
Though a uniformly iconic series of films that generally land on the intensely emotional end of the spectrum or the so-bad-its-good guilty pleasure category, there can be no denying that some Rocky movies have been objectively better than others over the course of the franchise’s 40-year cycle.
In this article, we’ve attempted to rank the seven Rocky films currently in existence as fairly as possible in a bid to get readers in the mood to try out Playtech’s heavyweight Rocky slot machine. Essentially an amalgamation of the Italian Stallion’s best moments, you can read about the Rocky slot at Mobile Casino Man, but before you do that why not refresh your memories of the series by reading our rankings below…
7) ROCKY V
Coming in at, ahem, rock bottom, what else could it be other than the laughably ham-fisted attempt to bring the franchise “back to the streets” in Rocky V?
Though – on paper at least – a reasonable enough idea given the fairly ludicrous territory the series had strayed into during Rocky IV, even the appointment of original director John G Avildsen couldn’t prevent the film from again stumbling down the same blind alleys into increasingly camp territory.
With far too many plotlines vying for viewers’ attention and an ultimately unrewarding pay-off as Rocky beats his former student Tommy Gunn in a street fight, a film which should have allowed the iconic boxer to make way for a new breed of star ends with him reinstalled as a past-his-prime hero
6) ROCKY IV
Remember when Rocky beat Ivan Drago to crush communism and single-handedly end the Cold War before firing “God Bless America” t-shirts out of a cannon at a rapt audience of tsars and oligarchs?
While that’s a slightly exaggerated version of events in Rocky IV, in terms of flagrant jingoism it’s pretty much a blow-for-blow account of the film’s plot – which was essentially a series of montages and flashbacks loosely tied together by the lazy death of Apollo Creed to set up a grandstand finale.
With Rocky naturally prevailing against the USSR’s picture of boxing perfection, even the Soviet leaders in attendance stand up and applaud as our hero launches into a cliché-laden speech that basically translates as “if you can love me, you can love America” in the film’s cringe-inducing climax.
5) ROCKY III
There are two types of Rocky movie out there; ones that focus on the honest, level-headed, working-class fighter and ones that seek to portray him as an American hero who can conquer evil in the ring.
While Rocky IV demonstrated exactly what can happen if you go too far with the latter option, Rocky III is a film that is just about camp enough to be fun without veering into the realms of full on farce; with Sylvester Stallone’s charisma allowing viewers to experience a lighter side to the film franchise.
The developing friendship between Rocky and his former opponent Creed creates a genuinely watchable dynamic, while the presence of Clubber Lang as the cartoonish anti-hero makes it easy to root for the pair to succeed despite the film following a fairly simplistic “hero’s journey” story arc.
4) ROCKY BALBOA
While many viewers had trouble getting past the admittedly large stumbling blocks of a) Stallone being ancient and b) his return to the ring being dictated by the result of a computer simulation, once you get past Rocky Balboa’s flimsy pretext, it’s actually a far truer sequel to the original film.
Indeed, unlike other entries in the series, this is not a movie about Rocky “proving” anything so much as it is about him coming to terms with the loss of Adrian and finding meaning in his life on a personal level, allowing it to share a tone with the first film that’s believable and endearingly human.
Yes, Mason “The Line” Dixon is a terrible name for a villain, but he’s not a comic foe like Lang and Rocky beats him by virtue of staying in the fight – a value that represents the essence of the series.
3) CREED
While Rocky Balboa was actually better than its box office figures suggested, Creed was the title charged with picking the ailing franchise up off the canvas – and for the most part, it succeeded.
True, the modern retelling of the classic Rocky story is a formula film that appealed heavily to viewers’ nostalgia for the original, but once you get past the schmaltz and pounding predictability of the plot there’s actually quite a lot in there to like; not least the staggeringly well-filmed fight scenes.
Generally seen as a likeable instalment that restored a sense of humility to the ailing franchise while also injecting some much-needed emotion, Creed is pound-for-pound one of the better films to have been made in Rocky’s 40-year odyssey and provides an exciting look into what may be ahead.
2) ROCKY II
Having scored personal victory despite experiencing physical defeat in his bout with Creed, Rocky II sees our hero go to seed as he loses the respect of his friends and family as well as all his money.
In the second instalment of the franchise, Stallone takes over the reins as director and largely does a good job of creating another engaging underdog story, with Rocky this time doing more than just go the distance with Creed in what has to go down as one of the most memorable finales in film history.
Though decidedly less gritty than the original, the “rematch” narrative manages to provide a rollercoaster of emotion throughout, with the cathartic glee brought about by Rocky’s title-winning victory providing one of the more iconic moments of a franchise destined to struggle thereafter.
1) ROCKY
Although perhaps not as hard-hitting as some of the nominees that it beat to the Best Picture Oscar in 1977, Rocky deserves to be remembered for delivering some astonishing emotional punches.
The thing that people perhaps overlook about Stallone’s portrayal of Rocky Balboa is that the actual boxing in the film is little more than an afterthought, with the rags-to-riches story of a working-class fighter putting his all into one shot simply being a device that espouses the American Dream instead.
Though the film owes a lot to a heartfelt performance from Stallone, director Avildsen also does a tremendous job of letting the viewer walk the streets of Philadelphia with Rocky and experience the redemption of a man escaping such hopeless circumstances. For our money, still the reigning champ.
