Rocky

Miracles happen sometimes. The boxer Rocky lasted all rounds undefeated in his fight with the heavyweight champion of the world, and this B-movie, from which nobody expected anything, went for the highest standard and received two major Oscars. And a third miracle on top of that: the until then unknown Sly Stallone received two Oscar nominations, including the script, full of great dialogue, which he wrote in three days. Sly lived the American dream and rose to stardom. (2003-05-11)

I fell in love with this movie as a child, and it still remains a powerful spectacle for me, hitting exactly the right notes. Sylvester Stallone delivers an incredibly genuine performance and is believable in his role like never before. Thanks to that, one can easily empathize with him and slowly climb to the top with him, which he eventually reaches, albeit perhaps in a different way than originally expected. Today it may seem a bit cliché, but that's because many films have drawn inspiration from Rocky’s beautiful endurance and the effort to achieve the impossible. Sly wrote a great screenplay that nobody else could have played better. It's almost a shame he turned the story into a series, but I still can't wait to watch the rest of them after the first film. (2014-03-16)

I've always liked Rocky, and every time I see it again, I'm amazed. It will probably never cease to amaze me how natural the whole film feels, how it does without a single cliché and how likeable its main character is. And best of all, it owes it all to Sylvester Stallone, actor, writer and fight choreographer. I'm not usually interested in boxing unless there's an interesting story behind the violence. But Rocky (like Raging Bull or Somebody Up There Likes Me) has just such a story. (2015-12-29)

This film about the American dream is all the more natural, convincing and powerful the less it tries to be spectacular and cater to the audience at all costs. It is the humble inception of a legend, not yet aware of its future historical importance. Rocky is the purest film definition of Sylvester Stallone, both as an actor and as a person. (2009-11-17)

The duel of an outsider with a favorite remains an eternal topic in the sports genre, and when the main protagonist himself writes the script about a person who stood up to everyone who didn't believe in him, the only thing left for perfection is some equivalent from the real world. Maybe the one when the Academy really ate it up back then and awarded both Sylvester Stallone and Rocky a few shiny statues. The fact that a series was eventually born out of such a unique tale is actually a pity, but that's a different story. (2006-03-17)