Sylvester Stallone has been a familiar face in movies for decades and is still one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces. These days he has the clout and the cash to pitch and produce many of his own projects, and some of those are movies that can be found on this list.
Stallone has an impressive body of work, with a career that goes all the way back to the 1970s and includes writing and producing in addition to taking on leading roles. It's tough to choose only a limited selection, but here are some of Sylvester Stallone's best movies.
7 Demolition Man (1993)
At the time, this movie didn't get the attention it deserved, but it's some clever satire that has aged really well provided you can get past that it's very much a product of its time. Viewers have to understand something about the "PC culture" of the 1990s to understand most of what this story is trying to say, and it's also interesting to watch some of the biggest stars of the era have some fun with a creative if unrealistic premise.
The setting of Demolition Man is the city of San Angeles in 2032, and the plot involves every late 20th-century trope about the future that writers of the time could imagine. That means microchips, cryogenic freezing, and tickets for swearing. Some things are eerily prescient, such as the lack of touching because of virus transmission, and the alternatives that society has developed to substitute.
6 Cop Land (1997)
Sylvester Stallone is the kind of person who is known for action movies and his cut physique, but in Cop Land, he takes on another kind of role. He plays the protagonist Sheriff Freddy Heflin, who oversees the small town known as Garrison outside of New York City, otherwise known as "Cop Land" because so many cops from the NYPD live there.
Some jurisdictional friction occurs when the Sheriff starts to uncover that many of the cops from New York that are using Garrison as a residence have mob connections. Internal Affairs has been on their case but needs the help of local law enforcement.
5 The Lords Of Flatbush (1974)
The Lords of Flatbush doesn't get enough attention because it isn't really a "movie" in the conventional sense of the word. This is more like a documentary-slice of life-found footage kind of movie, with not much in the way of plot or character development but a lot of atmosphere and raw dialogue.
Regardless of how it fits the mold of a conventional film, it was Stallone's breakthrough role. The story is a simple one, about a few friends in Brooklyn who form a gang and the good and bad consequences of their choices.
4 Death Race 2000 (1975)
Death Race 2000 is one of those delicious, cheesy movies from a time when science fiction was a relatively new genre. David Carradine takes the starring role of the driver nicknamed Frankenstein, the reigning champion, and Stallone is his strongest challenger, the notorious gangster Machine Gun Joe Viterbo.
The movie is named for a transcontinental car race that dominates the entertainment media landscape in a dystopian future. This race is special because, in addition to the thrills and chills of the competition, a revolutionary with the subtle name Thomas Paine intends to sabotage it in order to destabilize the government.
3 Creed (2015)
Creed is the story of Rocky Balboa becoming a trainer and mentor to the son of his earliest rival, Apollo Creed. Creed didn't just appear as Rocky's nemesis in the first movie, but the two became friends in later films.
Creed was killed by Russian boxer Ivan Drago, which sets the events of Rocky IV in motion, but the Creed name didn't appear in the franchise again until this film. Michael B. Jordon, who played Creed's son Adonis Johnson, received critical acclaim for the role.
2 Rocky (1976)
The ultimate underdog movie and the one that kicked the sports genre into the mainstream, Rocky was a revolutionary film for a lot of reasons. It struggled with a low budget, and Stallone complicated that issue further by insisting that his script could only be used if he starred in the lead role. It was a big gamble, but the payoff was equally impressive.
The main character is aspiring boxer Rocky Balboa, and when the heavyweight champ Apollo Creed comes to town, Rocky is the one chosen for an exhibition fight. Everyone seems to know it's all for the public relations and intended to be an easy win for Creed, but Rocky decides he's going to take it seriously.
1 First Blood (1982)
It's also an underdog movie in a way, but this isn't exactly a sport. First Blood is just as visceral and chilling as the day it was released, and always ahead of its time as a statement in support of war veterans, especially those that had come back from Vietnam.
The story begins on a sad note, with wanderer John Rambo visiting a small mountain town looking for his old army buddy. Upon hearing of his death, a victim of cancer thanks to Agent Orange, John wanders into town with nowhere to go and gets on the wrong side of Officer Teasle. After John suffers a bout of PTSD while in police custody, things escalate quickly.