Rocky - The Complete Saga Collection

Now I won't even get into any detail about the movies because I'm sure everyone knows about Rocky by now. So, I'll just comment on this boxset. Rocky 1 and 2 are in 16x9 wide screen with no extras. 3,4, and 5 are both wide and full screen and have no extras. Rocky Balboa is full screen loaded with extras. Containing the making of, deleted scenes, alternate ending, bloopers, and others. But for someone like me who can care less about extras. Plus I didn't own any of them anyway, I am happy. There is also a bit of grain in the films most noticably in the dark scenes but it didn't bother me much. Others may not feel the same. This was an excellent buy for me and I have no regrets. They also come in thin pack cases.

Now I'm not saying those who rated this low are wrong. They all have a legitimate beef. But for those who don't care about those things and only want the movies. I think it's a great idea to get the set.

Sylvester Stallone made movie-history with "Rocky": as actor, writer and director. Now the box "Rocky - The complete saga" is available...a box with six great movies. Each of these six movies deserves five stars. The box deserves five stars. And I give five stars.

Yes, there have been other Rocky-boxes. The last box with Rocky I-V was great and deserved five stars. Now "Rocky Balboa" was added, to complete the series. "Rocky Balboa" deserves five stars, as maybe the best movie of the series. Yes, the new box was made to make more money... but the movies in the box are great movies all the same....

Five stars for "Rocky the complete Saga". And thaqnk you to Sylvester Stallone for this great work, great entertainment!

Walter Joerg Langbein, Germany

I guess it was bound to happen with the release of Rocky Balboa at the end of '06, but that doesn't mean it's any less disappointing. I actually looked forward to a final, definitive DVD set of the films. But after buying the first two sets (the original "red box" set with the 25th Anniversary Rocky DVD, and the more recent "remastered" box set with the newer transfers), I don't think I want to jump on this again. Considering that the only extras are TRAILERS for TWO of the films (the first one and Rocky V), this is an enormous disappointment - especially considering that there was a very well done Rocky Special Edition released last year, along with a reasonably well done Rocky Balboa disc from earlier this year.

There has to be some stuff out there that they could put on discs for ALL of these films. The script for Rocky IV, for instance, was much different than what you got in the final film - even if stuff was not filmed, couldn't they give us the scripts for these films in text form as a DVD-ROM feature? There have to be at least a few deleted scenes out there for some of these films as well - someone already mentioned the original Rocky V cut, and some of the material there was pretty fascinating. Come on! Commentaries, trailers, ANYTHING. This bare-bones release is really kind of pathetic.

I guess maybe they're saving a loaded box set for an HD format (likely just Blu-Ray in this case unless an HD DVD studio has international distribution rights over the Rocky films). And then we get to pay for it again.

Avoid this one.

At least they could have put the two disc special editions in here, instead of the one disc. This reeks of laziness. They will probably put together another box set in a few years with more bonus features, so hold off on buying this.

The stars which are used to rate this product are for the technical specs of the product itself, not a rating on the merits of the films. I am a huge Rocky fan, so the films would get five stars, no matter how they were packaged. Ok, now that I've cleared that up:

From The Digital Bits news today: "In other release news, MGM has just set a Rocky: The Complete Saga DVD box set for release on 12/4 (SRP $59.98). The set will include Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V and yes... the recent Rocky Balboa. Unfortunately, according to the studio's press release, the only extras on the set are a pair of trailers (one for Rocky and one for Rocky V). Yo, Adrian! Where's the beef?" If that is true--and it probably is since The Digital Bits is the most reliable site for DVD news--why bother releasing this set?

Here's the DVD history of Rocky: MGM originally released individual standard DVDs of the Rocky movies many years ago as the DVD format became more popular. The DVDs were, to put it charitably, poorly produced. Subsequently, MGM released a Rocky I-V box set back in 2001 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Rocky. Although the packaging was nice, there wasn't much improvement to the DVDs themselves as far as audio and video transfers; the most significant detail of the set was the addition of interviews and other special features to the first Rocky disc. A few years later, the set was re-released with different packaging, with some improved audio and video transfers on some of the movies (Rocky V was notably left untouched). And last year, to coincide with the release of Rocky Balboa, the set was re-released again, this time with the cheap, thin DVD cases now being used in tv season DVD packages as the only difference from the previous release. Inexplicably, rather than being included in the re-re-released box set, the first Rocky movie was also separately re-released on DVD in a 2 disc 30th Anniversary special edition (Well, I guess greed would explain it...). So, if you bought any of the box sets, you still had to purchase the 30th Anniversary edition of Rocky to be a true completist.

With Rocky Balboa having been available on DVD for over six months, MGM has now chosen to release the complete set of films in a new box set. But what a missed opportunity this represents to include special features which have been omitted from previous releases. I do not know if there are cut scenes from Rocky IV in the MGM vaults, but I know for a fact that there is massive material for Rocky V, as a bootleg "uncut" version of the film has been circulating online for years. Also, why not finally upgrade the video transfer of Rocky V? Perhaps the most egregious omission will be special features for Rocky Balboa. Listening to Stallone's commentary on the DVD, he repeatedly refers to a "director's cut" which he would like to release at some point. This would have been the perfect time.