The story is simple, and it’s told in a very traditional Hollywood fashion, but it’s entirely about people in which the audience can believe and recognise.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Feb 6, 2024

John G. Avildsen’s movie packs more feelings than punches.

| Feb 1, 2024

Rocky is a threadbare patchwork of old-movie bits, yet it's engaging, and the naive elements are emotionally effective.

| Jan 20, 2024

The ultimate tale of the underdog. Rocky beautifully encapsulates the essence of the blue-collar worker, drawing a striking parallel to Sylvester Stallone’s own journey before this monumental breakthrough.

| Jun 8, 2023

This film sparked a decades long saga and has iconic music and scenes that you need to see to understand some aspects of US culture (like the "Rocky Stairs"). Scrappy Rocky Balboa gets a chance to fight a world champ.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 8, 2023

Rocky is a timeless and endlessly inspiring tale of a man discovering his potential and the love of his life. Stallone gives birth to one of the most celebrated characters in history with a touching and endearing performance that mirrors his own life.

| Original Score: 4.75/5 | Feb 16, 2023

Rocky is not only the best sports film ever made but one of the best feel-good movies ever made.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 14, 2022

Movies like Rocky happen once in a blue moon.

| Nov 30, 2021

Rocky eschews the cliche knockoutm triumphantly winning on points.

| Aug 4, 2021

Sylvester Stallone struck a deep, lasting chord with this fountainhead of clichés...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 8, 2021

It isn't the first encouraging movie to feature an underdog that is entirely likeable and sorely outmatched, but it is one of the absolute finest.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 31, 2020

The movie is about so much more than just the final fight ... It is about a man's life; it is about that man trying to find his share of happiness, however small that may be.

| Aug 6, 2020

Rocky, Stallone's alter ego, is sufficiently engaging to make one forget, momentarily at least, the script's milk-fed lack of originality.

| Feb 6, 2020

Talia Shire finally gets a chance to show what she can do and she does it very well indeed.

| Oct 26, 2019

The real deal, offering a raw, gritty feel that none of the slicker sequels even attempted to replicate.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 14, 2019

Rocky is a picture for everybody, the kind of movie that made us go to the movies, two, three, even four times a week in the dear, old days.

| Jul 10, 2019

The script is dazzling, with wonderful one liners and moments of real charm.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 20, 2019

By the time Rocky runs up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in one of the single most indelible moments in all of cinema, we feel like we've been with him every step of the way.

| Feb 4, 2019

The power of Rocky lies in its audacity in breaking free of currently fashionable despair and paranoia in order to shout from the rooftops: "The American Dream works!"

| Feb 28, 2018

Like the movies of Frank Capra, Rocky is a glowing tribute to the human spirit - a chin-up reminder that the decent, little guys of the world often accomplish the impossible if only because they try so hard.

| Feb 24, 2016