Rocky Reviews
Top CriticSylvester Stallone [is] as likable as a basset hound.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The story is achingly familiar, and though Stallone has a certain power, he is certainly not the subtlest actor to crawl out from under Marlon's overcoat.
There are occasional flashes that the film may be patronizing the lower end of the blue-collar mentality, as much if not more than the characters who keep putting Rocky down on the screen. However, Avildsen is noted for creating such ambiguities.
I wanted to like it more than I did, but it'll do.
Rocky is an old-fashioned fairytale brilliantly revamped to chime in with the depressed mood of the '70s.
The screenplay of Rocky is purest Hollywood make-believe of the 1930's, but there would be nothing wrong with that, had the film been executed with any verve.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
A description of it would sound like a cliche from beginning to end. But Rocky isn't about a story, it's about a hero. And it's inhabited with supreme confidence by a star.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
The basic storyline has been done to death over the years; this is still one of the most effective and successful applications of the formula.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
