Can you take me higher?  To a place like Apollo Creed.
Can you take me higher?  To a place like Rocky III.

by Thom Yee

Creed images courtesy of Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The Rocky movies are beloved by many, many people, across a wide variety of generations, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Speaking to an essential part of our shared human experience of fear, self-doubt, and our hope to one day just have a chance at success, they’re also one of the few series of movies that manage to transcend film itself with two statues erected in the character’s honour that can be visited in real life in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps the character runs up during his early training also acting as an important tourist destination for the city. But, as with a lot of movie series, the first was the best and it told a strong enough and self-contained enough story that not only can you easily argue against the first Rocky needing a sequel, it’s pretty easy to argue that every one after the first takes place in an entirely different universe. Continue reading →