The holidays are over, and while the bright lights of Christmas have faded, the memories remain. I know that I'm thinking back on all the fond memories of the season, as well as the weirder moments I'm still thinking about. For example, Sylvester Stallone recently shared holiday greetings on social media and decided to center his Christmas message around Rocky. Yes, Rocky.
I wouldn't list any of the Rocky movies in my best Christmas movies list, as I tend to associate the boxing franchise more with the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving. Sylvester Stallone has me thinking about it all differently, though, after he dropped a holiday message to all his followers on Instagram and shared an image from the Christmas scene in Rocky V:
I'll be honest: when I do my Rocky marathons, I tend to skip over Rocky V. With that in mind, I completely forgot about the Christmas scene in the movie and the whole scene with Paulie posing as a drunken Santa for the kids. So, while it seemed a bit weird at first for Sylvester Stallone to tie Rocky V to Christmas, I think I can give this first post a pass.
As a general rule, I'm still someone who leans toward the argument that a movie featuring a Christmas scene does not make it a Christmas movie. At the same time, who am I to gatekeep someone's social media content, especially when his only other option for a Christmas movie is Rambo: First Blood? Given the option between Rocky vs. Rambo, I'm always going to go with Rocky.
One Christmas post tied to Rocky V, no big deal, but then Sylvester Stallone really went and made yet another holiday greeting tied to his franchise. Check out this hilariously photo-shopped photo from the original Rocky, which features the title character just chilling out in Santa's sleigh with his dog Butkus:
Every man has his limits, and I had about reached mine upon seeing this. That is until I fired up my Max subscription and was reminded that, yes, the original Rocky also has a Christmas scene. How could I forget that Christmas was a big part of Rocky and Adrian's romance? It's almost like this movie is about something entirely different than the holidays.
The actor worked his real-life struggles with his son into the movie.
So here we are, with Christmas well in the rearview, and while I've always considered Rocky part of the best boxing movies, does the fact that the franchise references Christmas more than once put it in contention as an actual movie we should watch in December? I'm legitimately unsure what the answer is anymore, and I am at least considering adding the first movie to my Christmas movie lineup for 2024.
As for Rocky V, I agree with CinemaBlend's Rocky ranking on where it stands on the franchise, and I'll leave that one for my next marathon weekend of the franchise. Honestly, all this talk of Rocky is making me want to watch the movies all over again, so that marathon may happen sooner rather than later.
The Rocky movies are all available to stream on Max. All of them are worth a watch, especially after hearing the stories from Sylvester Stallone on how they helped him process childhood trauma and other tragedies in his life. Plus, it's the most consistently solid movie franchise of the past few decades, so it's never a bad idea to throw one on for a watch.
