Every Rocky Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

8. Rocky V

The critical punching bag (sorry) of the franchise for damn fine reason, Rocky V brought the original run of movies to a stunningly inept, depressing conclusion.

Is there anything more emblematic of the film's utter failure than Stallone convincing the original's director, John G. Avildsen, to return? After winning the Best Director Oscar for the first Rocky, this dreck landed Avildsen a Worst Director Razzie nomination.

Rocky V scored an additional six Razzie nods - including Worst Picture and both Worst Actor and Worst Screenplay for Sylvester Stallone - for despite breaking somewhat with the franchise's formula, it ultimately proved just how sturdy and reliable that template truly is.

There's nothing dramatically interesting about Rocky's financial or medical woes here, and while transitioning him into a mentor role was a natural progression for the character, his relationship with Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison) ultimately culminated in an embarrassing, unintentionally hilarious street fight.

Stallone's still trying here, bless him, but Rocky V was such a dull dirge that it eventually inspired Stallone to, against his instincts, resurrect the series over 15 years later. If you're marathoning the movies, it's completely skippable and totally inessential.