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

| Jan 20, 2024

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

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

In addition to a heart-warming script, Stallone has created on the screen a character of enormous appeal and charm -- half-articulate but funny, gruff but good-hearted.

| Nov 24, 2015

Sylvester Stallone [is] as likable as a basset hound.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 6, 2013

The story is achingly familiar, and though Stallone has a certain power, he is certainly not the subtlest actor to crawl out from under Marlon's overcoat.

| Jul 26, 2011

Sly's best pic winner sets underdog-hero standard.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2010

There are occasional flashes that the film may be patronizing the lower end of the blue-collar mentality, as much if not more than the characters who keep putting Rocky down on the screen. However, Avildsen is noted for creating such ambiguities.

| Feb 20, 2009

This is really Sly's movie as he slugs his way through a heartfelt performance and delivers some cracking punches, both literally and emotionally.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 20, 2008

I wanted to like it more than I did, but it'll do.

| Dec 13, 2006

Rocky is an old-fashioned fairytale brilliantly revamped to chime in with the depressed mood of the '70s.

| Jun 24, 2006

The screenplay of Rocky is purest Hollywood make-believe of the 1930's, but there would be nothing wrong with that, had the film been executed with any verve.

| May 9, 2005

A description of it would sound like a cliche from beginning to end. But Rocky isn't about a story, it's about a hero. And it's inhabited with supreme confidence by a star.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

The memorable combination of the torturous gym workouts, the runs through the streets of Philadelphia and the carcass-beating in the abattoir all combine beautifully as Balboa trains 'to eat lightning and crap thunder'.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 17, 2001