Every Rocky Movie Ranked Worst To Best
The best and worst of the classic knockout franchise.
The great passion project of Sylvester Stallone's career, borne from a script he wrote in three days -- that would soon win him a Best Picture Oscar once put to the screen in 1976 -- the Rocky franchise has always been Hollywood's greatest exploration of both boxing and the iron-willed underdog.
For almost five decades, Stallone and a whole host of challengers and directors have created an intimate world populated by fighters, lovers and sons driven by a need to prove themselves and win. In Stallone's advancing years, the baton has been passed to Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed, Balboa's greatest protégé.
As compelling as it's always been though, thoroughly entertaining even at its worst, the Rocky franchise has varied in quality quite considerably, playing with tone, style and setting with differing levels of success. Many of its biggest swings have been wonderfully executed, but some have gone down with a thud.
With that in mind, in celebration of the long-awaited release of Creed III, here are all 9 Rocky movies ranked worst to best.
9. Rocky IV (1985)
To its credit, Rocky IV has one of the franchise's greatest final fights, fought between Stallone and Dolph Lundgren's immovable Ivan Drago with revolutionary special effects and unsettling authenticity. Unfortunately, though, the movie before it is far too flawed to overlook.
Dripping in American propaganda, Russian stereotypes and manipulative emotional twists (including the ballsy but questionable demise of Apollo Creed), Rocky IV is a mismanaged affair before you even focus on the characters, all of whom bar Creed feel frustratingly one-dimensional.
With minimal dialogue and a tiresome over-reliance of montages, Rocky IV digs more into Stallone's screen persona than it does Rocky himself, making him more superhuman and one-note than ever before.
Sure, this film would shape the franchise's era of Creed spin-offs, but that's about its only lasting virtue. Final fight aside, the fourth chapter in Rocky Balboa's story takes things a step too far, and it's hard to take seriously.