My Top 10: Sylvester Stallone Films

It's been over 40 years since the iconic breakthrough of Sylvester Stallone in the Oscar Best Picture Winner, Rocky. Since the, the man know as 'Sly' or 'The Italian Stallion' has been labelled as one of the most popular action actors of the late 20th century.

He has been in action blockbuster of the 80's, 90's and early 2000's, as well as several franchises. But While he may not regularly churn out award-winning films, Stallone has always had a strong fan-base that always turned for his films.

Age may be getting the best of him and we might not see many films involving him. But we can still remember when Stallone was the face of action films for well over a decade.
My list does contain some of his big action hits. Along with his occasional award worthy features.

One particular honorable mention that just misses out on my top 10 of his, is Cliffhanger. I was not expecting to not only like this, but have fun with it. This adventure thriller sees a mountain climber get caught up in a failed terrorist heists that is taking place on a plane as it's flying across the Rocky Mountains. These are definitely the type of Stallone action films I expect to see.

Out of his 59 films, I have seen only 35 of them. I will all of the ones I have seen, and give a short review of each of my top 10:

35) Spy Kids 3: Game Over
34) Zookeeper
33) Rocky V
32) Rambo III
31) Cobra
30) Over The Top
29) Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
28) Demolition Man
27) Judge Dredd
26) Rocky IV
25) The Expendables 3
24) Tango & Cash
23) Assassins
22) The Expendables 2
21) Rocky Balboa
20) Bullet To The Head
19) Daylight
18) Escape Plan
17) Escape To Victory
16) The Expendables
15) The Specialist
14) Rocky III
13) Rambo: First Blood Part II
12) Lock Up

10) Get Carter - While it is clearly inferior to the Michael Caine original, it's still plays out as a fun mystery action flick.

A mob enforcer returns home to investigate his brothers' mysterious death.

It may insult some Get Carter purists. But I still felt I was entertained by this crime drama.

9) Rambo - While I think the second and third Rambo installments were getting a bit silly and over-the-top, this long awaited 2008 sequel gave us a gritty send-off.

John Rambo is back, and this time he is helping out some mercenaries rescue a group of Christian aid workers in war-torn Burma.

The action and story is solid and it gives you faith that you can still re-boot dead franchises.

8) First Blood - An action drama that was kind of off-beat for the early 80's.

It sees a former green beret ran out of town by a tyrannical sheriff, forcing him to survive by using his combat skills.

I personally can't quite put into that cult status that it has been given by many others. But it is still a solid feature that shows Stallone's range.

7) Oscar - A really nice surprise. This gangster screwball comedy has consistent comedy throughout and is a really fun time.

It has a lot of old school comedy tropes that are executed really well.
It sees Stallone play a gangster leader keep a promise to his dying father of leaving crime and going straight.

It has quite an impressive cast and everyone contributes beautifully.

6) Cop Land - The Sheriff of a New Jersey town slowly realises that the mob runs his town.

This is cool crime drama that has a slow brooding pace that makes for quite tense viewing.

This is also a surprisingly poignant entry for Stallone, and the rest of the stellar cast and directing by James Mangold further enhance that.

5) Creed II - Sly is back for another chapter in the life of Rocky Balboa and he is back training Adonis Creed. His opponent this time, is the son of Rocky's former enemy Ivan Drago.

A pretty good sequel, with a solidly executed underdog story with another top performance by Stallone as Boxing's biggest movie star.

4) Rocky II - One of the most anticipated sequels of the 1970's.

After the events of the first Rocky film, Balboa is struggling with family life after his bout with Apollo Creed.

But with this opponents consistently goaded him for a re-match, Rocky has no other choice.

It is a worthy sequel that maintains the spirit of the first Rocky.

3) Antz - The first big competitor since the birth of Pixar, and also the first animated feature from Dreamworks.

A rogue ant tries to break away from his colony whilst trying to win the heart of the queen in-waiting. Stallone voices a muscular worker ant who is best friends with the central character.

A surprisingly mature family animation that I don't think gets the credit it deserves.

2) Creed - Director Ryan Coogler and his team gave this once tired franchise the perfect re-boot with this high-quality dramatic addition.

It sees the son of Apollo Creed be trained by his dad's former opponent, Rocky Balboa himself.

There are so many strong aspects that gave current audiences the same feeling people had in 1976.

This certainly felt like my Rocky.

1) Rocky - The film that broke Stallone through into the Hollywood scene, and will forever be his definitive role.

It sees a small-time boxer get the rare chance of fighting the heavyweight champion of the world.

Whenever a new Boxing film is made, this will always be the benchmark and it was worthy of its three Oscars that included Best Picture.