Happy Prime Day everyone! The annual discount day on e-tail giant Amazon always makes for some fun shopping or just browsing if you like. As a fan of physical media, this is a great opportunity to score some fantastic deals on DVDs at discounted prices. But while I was scoping out the best Prime Day Deals on DVDs, I couldn't help but notice one for the classic Rocky movie franchise.
It's a 4K UHD box set (with digital downloads available) that is being discounted 36% from $59.99 to $38.14. Honestly, that's a pretty solid deal, as first-run Blu-rays and 4K UHD DVDs can run $30 or more for just one movie. However on closer inspection there is something missing from this Rocky DVD set: Rocky V.
Officially titled Rocky: The Knockout Collection, the DVD box set only has the first four movies in Sylvester Stallone's iconic boxing franchise: the Best Picture-winning 1976 Rocky, 1979's Rocky II, 1982's Rocky III and 1985's Rocky IV. Rocky V, which came out in 1990, is completely absent from the box set, which for any Rocky fan is really just hilarious.
The box set has done what many fans of the Rocky franchise wish they could and forget about Rocky V. The fifth installment is universally seen as the worst entry in the franchise. It focuses on Rocky after his fight with Ivan Drago, suffering from tremors that force him to retire from boxing. Missing the ring, Rocky takes a young up-and-coming boxer under his wing, Tommy Gunn. However, the relationship sours and the two end up having a street brawl. Despite John G. Avildsen returning to direct Rocky V after helming the original and all of the usual cast back (Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young), the movie has a 33% "Rotten" score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes; it's even lower among general audiences, at 31%.
For the completists out there this may be an improper exclusion, but for myself and others, it honestly makes the DVD set more appealing. Of course, if we really wanted to be completists, we'd need Rocky Balboa and at least Creed and Creed II to complete the Rocky story (Creed III is the first time Stallone did not appear in a movie set in that universe).
In addition to the theatrical versions of the first four movies, Rocky: The Knockout Collection also has Rocky vs Drago: The Ultimate Director's Cut and The Making of Rocky vs Drago: Keep Punching.
If this has put you in the mood to watch the Rocky movies but you've said goodbye to physical media, all of the original Rocky movies are available to stream on Prime Video for subscribers (or rent for non subscribers), including Rocky V.
