Stallone’s peak is placed at Rocky III and First Blood in 1982, not this film. — Bill Simmons
Removing glasses to reveal a more attractive woman is tentatively an apex; She’s All That is considered, while another response disputes suddenly finding Adrian hot.
Talia Shire receives affirmative apex answers; later projects reportedly did not succeed.
Shy girlfriends receive a tentative yes. — Chris Ryan
Bull Durham is preferred for abstaining from sex during sports, with disagreement over whether Rocky truly abstains.
John Avildsen’s peak may be The Karate Kid, when he had both that and Rocky despite the earlier Oscar.
Philadelphia alternatives include 1776, the 1983 Sixers and major football wins; Rocky remains a defining image rather than a settled unique apex. — Chris Ryan
Burt Young’s more tolerable Rocky III character is considered, while Back to School is named his best performance. — Bill Simmons
Spider Rico receives a definite yes. — Bill Simmons
Ice-skating dates face Happy Gilmore and The Cutting Edge alternatives.
Aged best: Steadicam, reportedly third movie using it, stair test with inventor's wife, accepting money rather than points regretted. ASR inventor names inconsistent; verify externally rather than guessing. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: music/soundtrack still used in sporting events. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: actual turtles reportedly kept by Stallone and alive as of last2021 reference; turtle pets criticized as smelly, long-lived, undesirable indoors.
Aged best: sports-film form transformed by Rocky, called Marlon Brando of sports movies; dissent someone else might eventually have discovered formula. — Van Lathan
Digression contrasts real-sport fascination with dynasties and fictional underdogs, aspiration versus inspiration, Moneyball/Cashman example; The Game and Last Dance show dynasty stories work in books/docs; fans hypocritically resent real surprise winners.
Aged best race in boxing: tribal allegiances remain acceptable in boxing. Early sports films' white heroes facing Black opponents discussed. Disagreement over conceived Ali premise versus audience's racial reading and sequel wish; Apollo himself deploys race. Stallone's boxing investment illustrated by claimed Roy Jones Jr replacement by Antonio Tarver in Rocky Balboa. — Van Lathan
Race discussion: Apollo explicitly monetizes audience racial biases; opinion movie itself clean on race versus Rocky III, with Dipper taking Rocky's locker noted.
Boxing-gym authenticity: locker taunt and gym stopping for conflict; Van recounts fitness sparring complaint and racial tribalism, followed by commentary stereotype jokes.
Aged best: miserable initial5a.m. eggs/run/failed steps with coughing and side pain, setting up later triumphant return. — Bill Simmons
Angry Mickey dialogue praised, including women weaken legs and eat lightning/crap thunder; Burgess Meredith Penguin/Twilight Zone memories. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: inventive meat freezer, gritty1970s Philadelphia/Kensington/Port Richmond and economic despair shared by other cities. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: television Rocky marathons, complaint Rocky II repeats original ending; out-of-nowhere athlete inevitably evokes Rocky. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: Talia Shire in three Best Picture winners in five years; Adrian distinguished from Connie. Godfather family-lying digression. — Bill Simmons
Aged best: Gazzo's driver comedy, Steadicam, and final revised ending. Director anecdote rejected crowd-carrying ending and downcast aisle-walk ending before musical ring reunion saved film. Adrian's subtle vulnerability grounds exaggerated characters; joke Paulie bad brother. — Bill Simmons
Nitpicks/unanswerable: Adonis’s financial-services job and work history are unclear, and weekend Tijuana boxing seems incompatible with managing clients’ money; Don Johnson is an appealing adviser-name joke.
Nitpick: Donnie’s Godfather impression crosses fictional worlds because Talia Shire appears in both franchises. — Chris Ryan
Nitpicks: Adonis has too little ring experience for this fight, despite a Ngannou comparison. Tijuana matchmaking is questioned; Van describes paid easy opponents as possible, but says he never did it. — Van Lathan
Nitpicks: Rocky’s rapid cancer recovery and international travel, Bianca’s abrupt backstage intimacy, Conlan’s physique and vulnerability, and Donnie’s swollen-eye makeup. — Bill Simmons
Changing Adonis’s maternal surname is challenged, then the objection is withdrawn when both Johnson and Creed are noted on the trunks. — Van Lathan
Conlan’s warm post-fight respect seems abrupt after their hostility, though reconciliation is called common in boxing; the length of his British gun sentence prompts jokes.
Young Pacino and young De Niro together; Merle; drapes shooting sequence; 'In my home' outburst; all things Fredo; Johnny Ola; Michael's IBM stock; Pentangeli's brother; Rocco Lampone; oranges; Gordon Willis photography; bathtub Roman-history scene; Talia Shire
Young Pacino and young De Niro in the same movie; De Niro spent four months studying Brando, learned Sicilian and speaks about eight words of English. — Bill Simmons
De Niro had been cast as Paulie in the original and read for Sonny.
Merle asking for a drink in Michael's office and Michael saying "I don't know this Merle" in the third person; the hosts speculate about what Merle does for a living.
The drapes-and-gunfire sequence, Michael diving for cover and finding Rocco alive, is great. — Chris Ryan
Pacino's "In my home!" outburst shows his volume changes in their pure form.
Michael's advice about trying to think like the people around you is great life advice. — Bill Simmons
All things Fredo: his outfits, hot drunk wife, hair and fishing; he gets wins left and right unlike Kay. — Bill Simmons
Dominic Cheney as Johnny Ola starts a Sopranos lineage of casting from these films. — Bill Simmons
The Geary dead-woman scene is praised for Duvall, though one view says the idea has aged worst; Duvall is argued as possibly the best actor of his generation. — Brian Koppelman
The scene shows the family is now doing the killing themselves, unlike the horse in Part I.
More entries include the daiquiri, Vito and Signor Roberto, and Michael's IBM stock. — Bill Simmons
Pentangeli's brother flying in from the old country and staring is the most Italian part of the movie.
Tom telling Michael he is staying, met with Michael being mean to him again, and the "anyone can be killed" line three years before JFK. — Bill Simmons
Rocco Lampone is underrated for two high-profile mob murders, including Roth. — Bill Simmons
The oranges are a literary echo; oranges reportedly represent memory and nostalgia to Sicilians.
Gordon Willis's photography, turn-of-the-century New York, the Ellis Island arrival and the recorder. — Chris Ryan
The top pick for one participant is the bathtub scene and its Roman history.
Another pick is the look of the film with Willis, plus De Niro and Pacino in their prime. — Bill Simmons
The 2012 Thunder comparison casts Kendrick Perkins as that team's Kay Corleone. — Bill Simmons
Talia Shire is added late: much better than in the first film, with an arc.
Geary's insult and Michael's reply that his offer is nothing, not even the fee for the gaming license, show Michael has gone to another level; the line is often quoted between the hosts.
Hyman Roth starts slowly, watching the real Notre Dame-USC game, before his Mo Greene speech about the man who invented Las Vegas.
Michael pulling his chair close to Roth is a lesson in how men of that era learned a code; pulling a chair uncomfortably close to get the truth is called very effective in real life. — Brian Koppelman
Strasberg, a legendary acting teacher in his first film performance, is perfectly cast as a Meyer Lansky stand-in; Coppola fills the film with figures from movie history, such as Gazzo and Roger Corman. — Sean Fennessey
Roth is Michael's aspirational Vito figure yet lives alone in a small Miami house watching college football and eating sandwiches; a peanut-butter-and-jelly versus tuna fish mix-up is corrected. — Chris Ryan
For Roth it is about power, not money; his "wise and considerate young man" really means Michael is a fool, and the scene plays differently on a second viewing. — Brian Koppelman
Shirtless Roth came from Coppola meeting Elia Kazan, who declined the role but was not wearing a shirt at their meeting.
The banana daiquiri scene shows Michael never saw Fredo as an equal; it is called the most important scene rather than the most rewatchable.
Part II scenes grow painful, so the Geary scene is the most rewatchable, with Michael still the Michael of the first film defending his family. — Brian Koppelman
Pentangeli drunk at the communion, blending Italian and English with "Cheech, aport," is a favorite rewatch that brings the old ways back into the room.
The Havana sequence has Michael realizing Fredo betrayed him at the sex club, intercut with the Roth assassination going sideways. — Bill Simmons
Roth's would-be assassin Bessetta wears one turtleneck outfit the whole film, even in Havana heat. — Chris Ryan
The book tells how Michael recruited Rocco Lampone and Al Neri, and the Havana assassin is assumed to be a Sicilian executioner, like Furio before Furio. — Brian Koppelman
"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart," with the kiss, is called the number one movie acknowledgment of betrayal; Coppola is the master of big noisy set pieces.
Vito killing Finucci during the festa is praised for the rooftops, the white suit to track him, the oranges, the light bulb and the towel over the gun.
Vito bringing home a single pear after losing his job and sharing it silently with his wife is a wordless moment that brings a viewer to tears every time. — Brian Koppelman
Themes of what comes from the earth, including oranges, the pear, olive oil and wine, are purposeful; Gordon Willis fought with Coppola over actors moving within the frame.
In the Tahoe confrontation, Fredo could perhaps have saved himself by going straight to his brother the night of the assassination, but not by then.
Michael banishing Fredo is almost worse than killing him; another view never felt bad for Fredo, since Johnny Ola's call proves the betrayal.
Killing his brother is called the second-worst thing Michael does, behind having the innocent woman killed. — Brian Koppelman
The abortion scene is defended as rewatchable and Pacino's greatest scene, rewatched almost daily; his face after "it was an abortion" is called the greatest five seconds in a movie.
Hagen must have known about the abortion because he would know the doctor Kay went to, which contributes to Michael's anger at him. — Brian Koppelman
A hottest take calls the abortion Kay's only good scene and Kay the worst character, dumber than Fredo; others defend Diane Keaton as a great dramatic actress and cite her other scenes.
The abortion was Talia Shire's idea, and Coppola thanked her by adding her plea that Michael forgive Fredo. — Bill Simmons
Talia Shire is praised as a smart actress and for looking great in Rocky 3.
The Kay argument continues with Trump-style jokes about how many people agree.
Vito killing Don Chitio with the 18-inch knife prompts questions about whether a knife could do that.
Connie asking Michael to forgive Fredo ends with the hug and the menacing look to Al Neri. — Bill Simmons
Tom and Frankie's prison scene with the Roman emperors story is called perhaps the best acting and writing in the two films, shot through the fence until Frankie is left alone.
The scene ties to Clemenza talking about history and to Coppola's Patton script about warriors steeped in heritage, the idea that the empire ends. — Brian Koppelman
The final three deaths are rewatchable: Roth's high-difficulty murder, Frankie in the bathtub, and Fredo killed on the lake during the Hail Mary. — Bill Simmons
The final flashback dinner is praised; the Sonny actor returned for the same pay, while Brando did not show up and the scene was rewritten, which is judged better. — Bill Simmons
The rug theft by Clemenza and Vito is another pick, as is the Don Roberto rent scene, with a nail in the door that the actor could not open. — Brian Koppelman
The spaghetti scene shows Vito taking over from Clemenza.
The Senate hearing, where Pentangeli recants after his brother appears and Hagen yells for an apology, is highly watchable.
A final pick is the Senator Geary scene, which can be watched thousands of times. — Sean Fennessey
Another final pick is the Havana sequence, specifically the Michael-Fredo cafe scene and the recreation of pre-revolution Havana. — Chris Ryan
Two more picks go to a Fredo and Michael scene; whether it is Cuba or Tahoe is left unclear. — Bill Simmons
