When we went through and built TV/Movie teams for football, baseball, and basketball; it was obviously short-changing some characters in the individual sports arena.
The best of them all? Rocky Balboa.
Words can't describe how much I love Rocky. We all grew up with Rocky, at least I know Snee and I did. I know Jerkins likes Rocco (cite Pauley) and the movies more than I do, so I'm guessing I'm second when it comes to the dozen or so readers we have here in terms of Rocky fans.
Well, this past week AMC aired a Rocky (one through five) marathon a few times, and Showtime's been playing Rocky Balboa, so I've got all six movies fresh in my mind. Here are my top ten favorite moments in the series:
10. Rocky drags his IV with him all the way over to Apollo's room in the hospital, just to ask if Apollo was really trying hard in their fight (Rocky II). LOL, classic move. Not surprising, though, since he -- only a few minutes later in the movie -- proposed to Adrian by saying, "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind marrying me too much." Is that even a question? It's more of a statement. Sweet proposal, Rock. Man, I love you.
9. Mason Dixon breaks his hand, Rocky takes advantage and knocks him down, setting up a hotly contested bout (Rocky Balboa).
8. Rocky kicks Tommy Gunn's ass in the streets, following a challenge from the young punk (Rocky V). I especially enjoyed the "get up you son of a bitch, 'cause Micky loves ya!"
7. The training montage in Moscow, after Adrian shows up (Rocky IV). It was awesome how Rock was training old school vs. Drago's machines and they did a back and forth. Especially loved the end of it, when Rocky was atop a mountain and yelling, "DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!" Watch some of this for yourself here.
6. Winning the heavyweight championship for the first time (Rocky II). Loved the fight, and the ending was a stroke of genius. If you can remember when you first saw it, I guarantee you'll remember being fired up like it was a real boxing match when Rock answered the call to win it.
5. Rocky's knocked down by Apollo (Rocky). Mick and others in his corner are begging him to stay down and accept the knockout loss because he's in such a bad way. He gets up, and makes a "come get some more" motion with both fists. Apollo looks down and to the side with a sigh, as if to say, "you gotta be fucking kidding me."
4. Rock's deplorable wife, Adrian, tells him he "can't win" against Ivan Drago after Drago killed Apollo Creed in a match (Rocky IV). Rock takes a car ride to vent. It's basically a music video ("There's No Easy Way Out") with highlights from the series up to that point. Check out the youtube ... it fucking rules and also includes several of the other moments from this top ten ...
3. Rocky talking trash and backing it up against Clubber Lang (Rocky III). When he gets pissed against Clubber (Mr. T), it's just an indescribable thing of beauty. "My grandmother can hit me harder than that, c'mon!" It was so out of character for Rock, but you could tell he was channeling his anger after the scuffle that aided Mick to his demise.
2. Adrian wakes up from her coma -- which sucked -- and tells Rocky to win over Apollo (Rocky II). Mick gets fired up and yells, "What are we waitin' for?" The ensuing montage is simply obscene. Hilarious side-note, Jerkins said he watched this sequence before the Colts game last Sunday and he was so amped he could have played in the game. See if it works for you:
1. Rocky knocking out Ivan Drago (Rocky IV). This was USA vs. USSR. On Christmas. In Moscow. Drago had killed Apollo Creed, and even -- as I said earlier -- Rocky's wife told him he couldn't win. This is one of the best movie moments of all-time for me. By the way, how great is it when Rock's on a hot streak and it shows Pauley rubbing Duke's bald dome? Here are some good scenes:
We might have more lists on this topic going forward. I'm seriously so fired up about Rocky right now. I'm open to suggestions. Oh, and we don't need to do a female hate list. Adrian is a stupid cunt.
Oh, I'll leave you with an awesome Rocky IV/Eye of the Tiger youtube ....
Oh, we'll do Hearts on Fire, too ....
I found these after I posted this ...
This youtuber's #6-10 Rocky moments:
And his top five:
Starting Five: Champs Show Their Mettle
50 minutes ago
4 Posts Talkin' Back:
I think my favorite part of that montage is Rocky's t-shirt that he's wearing while working out that says Win Rocky Win. The best part of the shirt is that it has Rocky written in quotation marks like "Rocky". LOL, what the fuck is that?!
I completely agree with your #1 pick.
BTW, since you mentioned those songs, the Rocky IV soundtrack is the best movie soundtrack ever.
What an awesome post.
My all-time favorite Rocky moment in my all-time favorite movie is at the 3:12 part of your fight video with Drago when Rocky is staring down Drago and stands up out of his corner before Drago gets to his feet. The way the music transitions tempos with Rocco being a badass pumps me up every time.
Other awesome moments that weren't mentioned:
-Rocky V after Mickey says "Get up you Son of bitch" and Rocky rises to his feet and says, "Yo, Tommy.....I didn't hear no bell....1 more round"
-Prior to his fight with Tommy Gunn when Pauley steps up to Gunn and gets knocked out and Rocky says, "Yo, you knocked him down, why don't you try knockin' me down" and tells him his ring is outside.
-Rocky III - at the very beginning of the decisive Round 3 (after getting just MACKED on in Round 2)while he and Clubber are circling each other and Clubber is jawing at him with "This is my round, so I'm gonna take ya'..." as he growls and goes for a big blow - Rocky blocks it and lands 3 or 4 rapid jabs on Lang's face to get it started
-Rocky III when Pauley doesn't like the "people" in Apollo's gym and Rocky says, "Did you ever think they may not like you much none either?" and Pauley responds "What did I ever do to them?"
-In Rocky Balboa when Little Marie asked Paulie if he had a reservation and Pauley says, "What do I look like, an indian?"
-Okay, pretty much every scene involving Pauley
-Rocky Balboa - Adrianne being dead
Rocky IV could have its own top 10--definitely my favorite of the series.
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