Rocky: The Ultimate Knockout Collection - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rocky: The Ultimate Knockout Collection



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM ALL 6 FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW


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Movie
Some series transcend the time period that they were written in, allowing for multiple sequels to span out over the course of years, and somehow still remain indelible to this day (at least most of them. Films like the Rambo movies, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the Rocky movies have done just that. As a huge huge boxing fan as a young boy (Stallone got me introduced to boxing, which led to kick boxing, which led to MMA over the years) Rocky was one of my favorite movies. And also a movie that my conservative parents would let me watch with a family friendly PG rating. It would take till my college days and beyond to get into the sequels, and while not every one of them is a slam dunk, they’re pretty much all entertaining (with 5 being the one that’s iffy). Not to mention an aging Stallone breathing new life into the series with Rocky Balboa, and the offshoot Creed movies gaining popularity. Back last year when the Knockout Collection was released, it was only 4 of the 6 films and left us wondering if there was going to be a COMPLETE boxset. A little over a year later, it looks like Warner has figured out that we wanted it complete and issued the new "Ultimate Knockout Collection" with everything from the first collection plus the 5th and 6th film.

Rocky :
Rocky is by far my favorite of the series in terms of depth and complexity. Much like Rambo: First Blood, it is drastically different and more subdued than later more “gonzo” sequels. First Blood wasn’t a gigantic blood bath action movie like the sequels, but rather an introspective and weary look at a PTSD ridden veteran coming home from the Vietnam war. The same goes for Rocky. Instead of being a massive spectacle of epic proportions in the ring, it takes place mostly outside of the boxing ring. Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a low level boxer that only has his ability to absorb damage and come out on top sometimes going for him. However Rocky wants a chance to go to the top, despite his trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) and everyone around him thinking that he’d fail. Instead of a glorious end boxing match where Rocky turns into some sort of god, we get to watch a more mature and polished version of what he was on screen. A mediocre boxer who has pushed his talents to the max, but is not about to be held back and whose tenacity is unmatched.

There’s been a lot of aspects of the “from a true story’ tale that has turned out to be untrue (most of the story if sources are to be believed), but the film is a near masterpiece of an underdog story. The before mentioned Stallone has barely taken off in the film with this being his super star moment, Meredith Burgess (RIP) is fantastic as his cantankerous trainer, and Talia Shire is amazing as the homely girlfriend Adrian who meekly drives her beau towards being the best that he can be. Simply put, Rocky was lightning in a bottle and the became the driving force for Stallone’s upward rise to super stardom.

Rocky II:
Rocky II does what all sequels of the 70s and 90s did (well, even modern sequels still follow this pattern to a certain extent). The powers that be decided to basically have Rocky Balboa go through the same order of events, just amping things up to the next level in terms of showmanship and spectacle. As you can guess, a rematch with Adonis Creed is in order, and Rocky has to get back into tip top shape for the “battle of his life” (a second time).

The movie tends to feel like a lot of deja vu, with Bill Conti’s music once more, a rematch with Creed, and of course some lady issues. The only thing is, the movie is a bit TOO similar to the first film, and while it’s not a bad movie, just doesn’t strike home run either. Rocky II is still quite a bit of fun though, with good boxing, an even more jacked Carl Weathers, and Stallone having seriously amped up his own psyche in the 3 years between films.

Rocky III:
Rocky III was sort of the series falling down at the beginning. It went from being a boxing “film” to an epic blockbuster, amping up the volume from 10.5 to full on 13 out of 10 for this entry. New threats are introduced to the audience, including Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips (yeah, it’s never a good thing when Hulk Hogan enters a movie) and Clubber (Mr. T.) as the celebrity villains for the film. It’s your typical Rocky film, where Rocky has to bulk up even bigger than before, get better than he was (simple heroes journey), and of course come out victorious over TWO villains.

The 3rd film in the franchise is big, bold, but it’s pure early 80s cheese, and likely one of the most forgettable Rocky films ever made. It’s not as egregiously bad as the 5th film, but it’s so over the top and showy that it almost doesn’t feel like a Rocky film at this point. Stallone does his character well, but the showboating of WWF stars (and Mr. T.) don’t exactly ground the film very well. It’s an insane movie that is still solidly charming, and probably the goofiest film in the entire franchise.

Rocky IV:
While I stated that Rocky was the BEST of the series, I’d say that Rocky IV was the most FUN of the series. Widely hailed as the best of the franchise I’d say that it’s a close tie with the original film, much like Aliens was to Alien. This is of course the film that shot Dolph Lundgren out of playing bit side villain roles, and elevated him to almost Stallone level during the 80s and early 90s. This entry has Rocky Balboa defending the United States honor against the reigning champion of Soviet Russia, Ivan Drago (Lundgren).

Plot wise, the flick is about as paper thing as you can get. It was right during the height of the cold war, and patriotism was all the rage back then. Bringing in a baby faced Dolph Lundgren as a hulked up beast who kills Adonis Creed, it’s a match made in heaven. The dulled boxer who only won through heart alone (usually not skill) is up against a brute of a Russian who doesn’t know how to quite. What entails is pure cinema magic, with Dolph and Sylvester facing off in what would become one of the most iconic 80s movies ever.

Rocky IV: The Ultimate Director's Cut:
For the first time ever, we get a new re cut of the 4th film, with Sylvester Stallone going all in to try to make it truer to what he considers his original vision. Released under the title Rocky vs. Drago, it’s a strange (if not interesting) attempt at making the movie “more” than what it originally was. The 4th film was always known to be the most paper thin on the plot department of the original films (it was patriotic jingoism mixed with boxing) and Stallone always wanted a more substantial “meat and potatoes” to the character development. He also wanted to tie it into Rocky III (not sure that’s a good idea) and basically tone down the blockbuster aspects of it. The added footage and changed up cutting is solid, making more of a back story for Drago, as well as tuning down several characters (Brigitte Nielsen) and allowing the pace to move a bit slower. At the end of the day it’s a solid attempt to make something more nuanced than a summer blockbuster, but it’s not going to give you something better and more entertaining than the theatrical cut….just a bit more different.

Rocky V:
It took a while, but we finally got the series completed with Rocky V and Rocky Balboa in this set. Rocky V has long been the black sheep of the franchise, being hailed as the worst of the batch, and the final nail in the coffin of the long running series (before it’s resurrection in 2006). It was the lowest grossing of the entire franchise, and most die hard fans watch it only out of respect for the rest, or as completionists. Is it as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Well...yeah, it kinda is. I’ve seen the series on repeat over the course of 30 years (having grown up on the films on HBO or disc rentals) and still can barely choke it down. The film is silly, deviates from the standard Rocky formula, and has one of the worst villains in the series.

Rocky Balboa (Stallone) starts out finding out that he’s been robbed by his former business associate. This finances are in ruins, his house if mortgaged to the hilt, and his desperate wife Adrian (Talia Shire) is simply ready for her husband to retire, which he had planned on doing. Now Rocky has to get back in the ring and do another fight or so in order to make up some of the money lost. Sadly he has to move out of the nice house that he and his family had moved into, and go back into the “hood” of where he came from in order to make ends meet.

Blindsided by a Don King wannabee character named George Washington Duke (Michael Williams), Rocky is cajoled into one more major fight with the heavyweight champion at the time. But due to medical complications and having to move into the hood once more, Rocky declines, instead deciding to become the mentor to up and coming fighter Tommy Gunn (boxer Tommy Morrison, who later would go on to beat George Foreman a few years later in real life) in hopes of passing down his legacy. However, Tommy does more than simply take lessons from Balboa, instead getting sucked into George Duke’s lavish lifestyle of fame, women and power, eventually tearing the relationship between mentor and student apart, and leaving the two bitter rivals.

Rocky V doesn’t sound that bad on paper, but in reality it was sort of a train wreck. The best way of putting it is that Rocky V is sort of a product of its time, with a more “modern” sound track that hasn’t aged well (the iconic theme of the original still is known the world over), Tommy Gunn was sort of a dumby, and Stallone was sort of over acting here more than he usually did. Back in 1990 Stallone was getting HUGE (both physically and box office wise), so it was a major shock when Rocky V bombed as badly as it did, and Stallone himself has been rather vocal about how he hated what the 5th film did to his legacy, and how badly it turned out. So yeah, Rocky V is definitely the black sheep of the series, and rightfully so.

Rocky Balboa:
It’s a rare thing when a film franchise can come out of retirement and make a SUPERB follow up to a legendary series. It’s been tried a million times, and 99 times out of 100 the resulting product just doesn’t pass muster. However, as weird as it is, Sylvester Stallone had done it TWICE during the 2000-2010 era. Both with Rocky Balboa and then with 2008’s Rambo, which resurrected both long dead franchises, and actually make films that were the 2nd best of the entire series. I mean, it’s not unheard of to make a sequel a decade or so later and have it turn out to be “good”, but very few times do we see an original franchise sequel pop up 20+ years later and actually be one of the best in the series. But Stallone pulled it off, TWICE.

Rocky Balboa is one of the most celebrated and iconic characters in cinematic history. It was the character that put Sylvester Stallone on the map and shot him up to super stardom, and it spawned a 5 film franchise that made HUGE bucks for MGM back in the day. Everyone and their mother knows the Rocky theme song, with people still quoting Ivan Drago’s “If he dies, he dies” line even to this day (or I just live in a time bubble. Who knows). It created a legacy so strong that Stallone was able to create a spin-off trilogy with Creed, to this day is one of the 70s-80s biggest franchises.

But no matter how great the legacy, 1990’ s Rocky V took that nail, carefully held it over the top of the coffin, and viciously hammered said nail straight into the corpse of the franchise, nailing forever (or so we thought) the lid shut. Audiences had waned on the popularity of the series, and it was just an all around “oh yeah, they’re out of steam aren’t they?” moment for Stallone and Rocky. But old dogs don’t always wanna die, and 16 years later Sylvester Stallone approached Sony and pitched the idea of one final Rocky film to the execs….and weirdly… they agreed.

I’m going to fully admit that when I went into Rocky Balboa back when the Blu-ray came out, I had next to zero expectations. I had missed the film during its theatrical run because I didn’t want to see Stallone embarrass himself, and I was just not into the trailer. However, upon watching the Blu-ray for the first time in 2007 (it was one of my initial purchases into the format) I was absolutely blown away. This was not some old man trying to hold onto the past, nor was it a joke either. Rocky Balboa plays out as one of the most heartfelt entries into the saga, acting as 1/3rd father/son drama, 1/3rd personal drama about Rocky needing to get that one last fight off his chest, and 1/3rd boxing extravaganza that has been the lifeblood of the Rocky series for over 35 years.

The film starts with Rocky (Stallone) having been retired for quite a few years. He’s returned to making solid money again, owns a restaurant in Philly where everyone knows his name, and his son Rob (Milo Ventimiglia) has grown up and moved out. However, even though he has achieved so much, there’s something deep within Rocky that says “hey man, you still have a little bit of fire left in the old oven” and pushes him to see if there’s anything left in the tank. At this time in his life his fans would love to see him fight, but Rocky himself has an uphill battle as his own son is livid with him (and of course thinking that Rocky is just doing this for a vanity moment), and the boxing commission don’t want to grant him a boxing license due to his age. But this isn’t Rocky’s first battle, and pushing against every odd in his way, fights, claws, and scraps his way to an exhibition fight between himself and the new heavyweight champion of the world, Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver)

As I said above, Rocky Balboa is better than it has any right to be. 16 years after the movie that sank the franchise, Sylvester Stallone someone manages to pull off a sequel that is tied for second best in the series, right under the original. It’s heartfelt, emotion filled, and gives a true sendoff to a beloved character without making him a joke. Stallone put his heart, soul and every bit of fire into making this film the best he could, and the results really show on screen. That big speech between himself and his son on the street still ranks as one of the best monologues of Stallone’s career, and the fact that everyone involved made sure that this didn’t tarnish Rocky’s legacy is just amazing. It’s not that hard to ascertain that I love Rocky Balboa, but it’s true. This is by far the second best film in the franchise, easily rivaling Rocky IV as being RIGHT under the first film.




Rating:

Rated PG (Rocky) and PG-13 (II-IV)




4K Vidoe: Video:

Rocky:
According to every source I could find, Rocky sports the same master as the 2014 remastered Blu-ray, and it still holds up quite nicely. Just with a nice new 4K look that sports better grain details, stronger colors with the HDR, and a better bitrate to breathe too. It’s a very natural and accurate looking picture, with that sort of faded 1970s gray tones, complimented by the sharp blue and red primary shades when Rocky gets in the ring with Creed. There’s no revisionist takes to the image, with no digital manipulation or any other changes. Even the HDR application is very faithful to the image, with just stronger saturation levels and more accurate shading between the various hues.

Rocky II:
Just like the original film, Rocky II stays true to its heritage with a mostly muted color grading. Being a bit newer and with a bigger budget affords the image to look cleaner and shine brighter in 4K. The colors of the ring and the “jungle” cage yellow and black striping all stand out as deep and vibrant. Facial tones looks a tad ruddy at times, but overall the main image is till rather grayed and dulled to the eyes. Fine textural details in the clothing and the ring side audience make it so much better than the aging Blu-ray from a decade ago. Blacks are a bit wonky with some crushing still going on, but overall this is a very fine transfer.

Rocky III/IV/Rocky vs. Drago:
Rocky III and Rocky IV (along with the Ultimate director’s cut) tend to look REALLY similar due to being shot the latest and so close to each other. The HDR 10 color grading add some incredible pop to the shadows and the bright colors of the ring suits really shine. The films are also a tad dimmer than their Blu-ray counterparts, dialing back some of the hot highlights of the previous releases, giving it a more neutral and natural look to the film. There’s still a nice grain layer over the entire picture, giving them a very VERY 90s filmic texture as well.

Rocky V:
Wow, I wasn’t expecting this, but Rocky V actually looks the best out of the entire series, and by a solid amount. Maybe it was because it was the newest of the series at the time, but it looks cleaner, less busy grain, and a more distinct color palette than the rest. More than anything, it looks VERY faithful to the 1990’s source material. It has that gritty and grungy look that was typical of the time, and while they definitely made the film look like the previous ones in terms of color grading, there’s still a slight “cement and ruddy blend” that is so indicative of the 1990s. Grain levels are well within reason, giving us a wonderfully textured image that blows the doors off the aging Blu-ray, and except for the final street fight between Tommy and Rocky, there are no major grain spikes (that night time fight with all of the shifting angles has a good amount of grain popping up). All in all, this is a great looking upgrade to the old Blu-ray and by far the best looking of the series.

Rocky Balboa:
The biggest surprise of all, though, was watching the newest and most modern film in the franchise that scored 5/5 across the board when it came out in 2007 on Blu-ray, turn out to be the weakest looking one in 2160p. Maybe it’s due to the compression of putting both the theatrical and the extended cut on the same disc with two separate encodes (nearly 4 hours on one disc is never good, triple layer BD-100 or not)? Or maybe it’s something in the mastering process. Either way, whichever way you slice it, Rocky Balboa looks fairly “meh” in 4K UHD. After the opening montage finishes the film takes a distinct turn for the worst visually speaking. Large portions of the grain that we had on Sony’s 2007 Blu-ray have been DNR’d out, leaving us with a sort of glossy and slick looking image that is so much different than how I remembered (and becomes very noticeable when A/B ing with the old disc). Grain does come and go on occasion, but it is distinctly noticeable when it pops up, in comparison to the rest of the film. Colors are gritty and grungy looking, with a teal over tone and faded look that was done on purpose by Stallone to try and blend the look of this film with the original.

Upon pulling up the bitrate monitor for the film I was shocked to see that it mostly hovered in the 30-40 mbps range instead of the normal 60-90 mbps range of most 4K UHD discs. This means that while they’re using the more efficient HEVC algorithm, we’re still only getting Blu-ray bitrates for a 4K UHD film, so stack that on top of the DNR problem and Rocky Balboa is sadly sort of a frustrating watch. It’s not that it’s so bad that you want to throw it in the trash, but considering how good Rocky V looked, you wonder why Warner didn’t put the theatrical and director’s cut on separate discs to maximize bitrates, much like what they did with Rocky IV and Rocky IV: The Ultimate Director’s Cut.







Audio:

If you all remember the review of the Knockout Collection Rocky I-III had a few audio issues that were annoying, and luckily have all been fixed in this release (with the original discs that had the problems available for an exchange program from Warner to rectify the discs). Rocky had the Mono track being a simple fold down from the 5.1 mix, the second film had an audio pitch slowdown (of roughly 4-5% by my sources) and the third film had a minor high pitch whine on the foreign language tracks. This was the least problematic one of the bunch as MOST people were going to watch the English track anyways, but it’s nice to see them all fixed for this new box set.

As you can guess, I’m conglomerating the first five films into one of review section simply due to the fact that they sound REALLY similar to each other. The first film is probably the mildest, as the film had a shoestring budget and it’s original mix was a Mono track at that. However, the surrounds do get quite a bit of use through the fight sequences, and dialog is crystal clear. There’s some minor issues here and there with dialog sounding a bit harsh (most notably in the first two) and the bass track throughout all 5 films not being SUPER punchy. But all in all these old 80s and early 90s films sound rather good for their time, and the budget they were subject to. With all of the audio errors fixed, and the base tracks shining through a lot better, I'm raising my 3.5/5 rating from the Knockout Collection up to a 4/5 rating.

Rocky Balboa:
Rocky Balboa may not get a different star score than the previous films, but it sounds different enough from Its predecessors due to the time lapse that I felt giving Balboa it’s own write up was necessary. Judging by comparison the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track found on the 4K UHD disc sounds nearly identical to the 5.1 LPCM track on the 2007 Blu-ray. Which means it’s still a bit front heavy and weak on the surrounds most of the way, but comes back with a raging fury during the Rocky v. Dixon battle at the end of the movie. It’s a solid track for sure, with good balance, nice dynamic range, but a weird tendency to live in the front of the room up until the massive battle (or some minor flickers during with the score during training montages). Bass hits about as hard as Rocky does during the final confrontation, and overall this is a solid sounding track.







Extras:

Rocky
• Audio Commentary with director John Avidsen and producers Irvin Winkler and Robert Chartoff
• Audio Commentary with Lou Dua and Bert Sugar
• Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone

Rocky Balboa
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Sylvester Stallone
• Deleted Scenes
• Skill vs. Will: the Making of Rocky Balboa
• Reality in the Ringe: Filming Rocky's Final Fight
• Virtual Champion: Creating the Computer Fighter
• Fight Makeup

Rocky 1-4 Bonus Disc
• 8MM Home Movies of Rocky
• 3 Rounds with Lou Duva
• Steadicam: Then and Now with Garrett Brown
• Make-Up! The Art and Form with Michael Westmore
• Staccato: A Composer's Notebook with Bill Conti
• The Ring of Truth
• A Tribute to Burgess Meredith
• Stallone Meets Rocky
• The Making of "Rocky vs. Drago": Keep Punching
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

Like many of you, I was one of those frustrated by 2023’s The Knockout Collection, which only housed 4 of the 6 films in the franchise, plus has some minor audio issues in the first 3 movies as well (which were replaced by Warner through a replacement program). I’m not sure the reasoning behind making a partial set then completing it the next year, but it was similar to what Paramount did with the Star Trek TOS movies, where they put out the first 4 in a big boxset, then released the ultimate boxset a year or so later. Either way, this series is complete, with fixed audio and new encodes for the 5th and 6th film. My only real complaint is that the extras are still the same extras, just with a few for the Rocky Balboa disc, so it still feels a bit anemic in that regards. But at the end of the road, this is the final and complete form for Rocky to date, with solid video, good audio and even a GREAT looking encode for the worst film in the franchise. Definitely a solid set.

Technical Specifications:

Starring: Burgess Meredith, Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, Mr. T., Hulk Hogan, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen
Directed by: Various
Written by: Various
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC, 1.85:1 AVC, 1.85:1 AVC, 2.35:1, 1,85:1, 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, French, Spanish DD 5.1, French, Italian, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, Japanese DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch (only English SDH, French, Spanish on Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG/PG-13
Runtime: 845 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July, 16th, 2024

Recommendation: Solid Set

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