I loved Arnold Schwarzenegger films in the ’80s. He was my guy for big dumb action films. I was less into Sylvester Stallone… First Blood was great but the later Rambo sequels were not the big, dumb action flicks for me. Rocky 1-3 were boxing flicks the older kids watched… Rocky IV was the first of that franchise I even saw. So my feelings on Stallone are a bit uneven. But I’ve learned to like the guy over the years so I figured this self-serving Netflix documentary would be interesting.

The lion’s share of the interviews are with Stallone himself. He’s open and seemingly honest about his career highs and lows and how he is respected (or not) in Hollywood. It covers his early career and how he had difficulty finding non-thug roles so the production of Rocky gets a lot of focus. I wish there had more discussion of later films though.

Except for his turbulent relationship with his father, they don’t cover his personal life much. Which is a bit surprising since he’s got a (Paramount+) reality show with his daughters. They do include a touching tribute to his son though.

They never once mention the adult film he made. But since the producers of that film exploited him after Rocky blew up, perhaps living well was the best revenge.

Any discussion of his would be incomplete without addressing the Arnold Schwarzenegger in the room. He provides some needed commentary about their career rivalry. They also nab an unexpected Quentin Tarantino which seems odd since their movies never really connect on a Venn diagram of Hollywood. But Tarantino always has something interesting to say about film history.

Talia Shire appears which was welcome but I wish they had the courage to let her vent about being written out of the Rocky franchise. And, alas, we get no Mr. T, Dolph Lundgren, or Carl Weathers.

I learned a decent amount and, if the film is self-serving, at least we got introspective interviews with Stallone himself. It’s very watchable and interesting, especially if you are a big Stallone fan.

Score: 84