Sign of the Apocalypse #22: Rocky VI

No, not Rocky IV, truly a piece of crap, but Rocky VI. Otherwise known as Rocky Balboa.

There is no Rocky VI, you say? Ah, but there soon will be. According to CNN, "Sylvester Stallone is signing on to reprise his role as boxer Rocky Balboa in the sixth installment of the long-running film series, which he wrote and will direct."

The original movie, released in 1976, was a surprise Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Director -- truly one of the most obvious Signs of the Apocalypse, since it beat out Network and All the President's Men, two of the greatest films of the 1970s (with Network one of the greatest films of all time), not to mention Taxi Driver (highly overrated, in my view, but considered great by some). But it was at least a pretty good movie, and it still holds up quite well. As for the other four? II, III, and IV were quite popular and V was a welcome (if pointless) return to the grittiness of I, but wasn't it time for the whole thing to come to a merciful end?

So why VI? It couldn't have anything to do with Stallone's moribund career, could it?

Not that I much care, but a SOTA it is.