Sylvester Stallone has been a Hollywood staple for five full decades at this point. Dating back to his first turn as the underdog boxer Rocky Balboa in 1972’s “Rocky,” the actor has been a mainstay of the screen. Like any actor who has managed to stay in the game this long, Stallone has had his ups and downs, but he’s still here and still relevant more than 50 years later. But what is the best movie that Stallone has ever been in? What is the defining moment of the actor’s varied filmography?
Not that Rotten Tomatoes is the be-all, end-all for such a discussion, but the review aggregator is a measuring stick often used in the modern era. Well, according to Rotten Tomatoes, 2015’s “Creed” stands tall above the rest of Stallone’s films with a 95% approval rating. That is not all that surprising when we break it down (more on that in a moment). What is surprising, however, is that Stallone’s second-best movie, per the site’s calculation, is 1998’s animated “Antz,” often remembered as the other animated bug movie from that year alongside Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life.”
The movie that started his biggest franchise, the original “Rocky,” sits at the number three spot with a 92% approval rating. Rounding out the top five are a pair of superhero films directed by James Gunn, with “The Suicide Squad” at number four and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” at number five. Stallone voiced King Shark in the former, while he played the Ravager Stakar in the latter.
Looking a bit deeper, only 21 of the actor’s movies have a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning they earned at least a 60% grade based on the average critical consensus. Sitting at number 21 on the list is “Demolition Man” at 63%, with 2013’s “Escape Plan” missing the cut at just 50%. It’s kind of remarkable given that Stallone has appeared in more than 70 movies over the years. It goes to show how hard it is to make something good.
Creed is the best of what Sylvester Stallone has to offer
As for “Creed,” some might believe it to be blasphemy that the 2015 reboot/legacy sequel stands tall above the likes of the original “Rocky,” or even the much-acclaimed “First Blood,” which was a more serious affair before the “Rambo” franchise devolved into an action-heavy spectacle. Many would also probably go to bat for director James Mangold’s “Cop Land,” which probably features Stallone’s most underrated performance.
That all having been said, director Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” is a stellar film in its own right and breathed new life into the “Rocky” franchise. Granted, 2006’s “Rocky Balboa” is owed a certain amount of credit for keeping the series alive after the disaster that was “Rocky V.” In any event, bringing in Michael B. Jordan as the son of Apollo Creed who is trained by an older, wiser Rocky made for genuinely compelling cinema. It is exceptionally rare that a seventh entry in a franchise that has been around for decades is right up there with the best that a franchise has to offer. That’s precisely what happened here though.
So far as Stallone is concerned, he got to flex new muscles and show a new side of himself on screen, despite playing a character he had played six times before. Stallone was vulnerable. He was charming. He brought the best of himself to this film, delivering arguably his best performance as Rocky to date. To that end, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his work in “Creed,” losing in a surprise upset to Mark Rylance for his work in “Bridge of Spies.”
The “Rocky” franchise may have grown beyond Stallone with last year’s “Creed III,” but that would never have been possible without the work he did in “Creed.” We can argue all day about the actor’s best movie, but it’s certainly hard to argue against the greatness of this movie and, more specifically, how great Stallone is in it.
