Every Rocky Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
6. Rocky III
The third Rocky movie is where the cracks in the series' formula began to show somewhat, but it also manages to find a fair middle-ground between the grit of the earlier entries and the outright silliness of Rocky IV.
Rocky III gives Balboa two awesome opponents for the price of one, with Hulk Hogan's Thunderlips and Mr. T's Clubber Lang, not to mention some strong drama opposite both Mickey (Burgess Meredith) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers).
And of course, who can talk about Rocky III without mentioning "Eye of the Tiger"?
The formula is incredibly transparent, of course, but it walks a fine tonal line, and the ending is probably the most memorable and weirdly affecting in the entire series. Somehow, Creed didn't ruin it by spoiling the outcome.