Rocky Balboa

Rocky (1976) is an American film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen. It tells the rags-to-riches American Dream story of Italian-American Rocky Balboa, a slightly dim-witted, but good-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in Philadelphia with a talent for boxing, who gets a shot at the world heavyweight title. Also starring in Rocky are Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian's brother, Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill, his trainer, and Carl Weathers as Rocky's opponent Apollo Creed.

The film, made for a low budget of only $1.1 million, and shot relatively fast in 28 days, was a sleeper hit; it made over US $117.2 million,won three Oscars and garnered mostly positive reviews which helped to launch Stallone's career. It spawned four sequels, Rocky II, III, IV, and V; a sixth installment (titled Rocky Balboa, again starring and directed by Stallone) is going to be released on December 20th, 2006.