Rocky: Ultimate Knockout Collection - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Rocky Balboa is a sports movie staple at this point. From the Best Picture-winning first tilm through five sequels, a re-edit of the fourth film, and three spin-off films, Stallone’s Italian Stallion pugilist hero has inspired movie-goers for generations. Objectively speaking, the franchise is a bit all over the place as each sequel became more indicative of the era that spawned it, but they've all got something to them to make them worthwhile, even if they never recaptured the magic of the first film.

Rocky

A near-perfect character drama, this is the film that birthed Stallone’s career. As writer and star, Stallone smashed onto the scene with a magnetic screen presence giving true humanity to the underdog Rocky Balboa. Seeing him potentially win the title from Carl Weather’s Apollo Creed wasn’t nearly as important as seeing this honest relatable character win the love of his life played by Talia Shire and finally prove to the world that he wasn’t just another washed-up bum from Philadelphia. 5/5

Rocky II

After claiming there won’t be a rematch… there was a rematch. Rocky II while proving to be a nice follow-up just can’t quite recapture the magic of the first film. Stallone serves as the star, writer, and director for this first sequel, and you can feel it struggle with the genuine character drama while making the audience wait an eternity for the inspiring training montage and another climactic fight with Weather’s Apollo Creed. 3/5

Rocky III

Rocky Balboa enters the era of American excess with 1982’s Rocky III. While lighter on the human-relatable dramatics, this is Stallone in peak physical form taking on the fast-talking power-puncher Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Complete with the Oscar-nominated tune “Eye of the Tiger” this is a redemption story with Rocky proving to himself he’s still the champion with help from his former nemesis Apollo Creed. It’s brash, but it’s a lot of fun, with a good heart. 3.5/5

Rocky IV

Rocky III walked the franchise into the era of 80s excess and Rocky IV lives it in style-over-substance geopolitical pandering - and it’s incredible! Edited like an MTV music video, the film features multiple music montages minus Bill Conti’s iconic “Gonna Fly Now” trading in for “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty. Rocky avenges the death of his friend by taking on the biggest fighter the Russians could throw at us - Ivan Drago (the actually crazy brilliant chemist and martial artist Dolph Lundgren). It’s loud, it’s over-the-top, but it’s also a hugely entertaining flick. 4/5 

Rocky vs Drago: The Ultimate Director’s Cut

35+ years later, Stallone got the notion of re-editing the most financially successful Rocky film into something less 80s-excess and more dramatically satisfying. For the most part, it works. The fights are re-edited for maximum impact while a lot of the goofy humor and Paulie’s robot are excised entirely. It’s an interesting alternate take that some may prefer over the original version but isn’t strong enough to completely replace. 4/5  

Rocky V 

Well-intentioned, this fourth sequel aimed to be a grounded return for the franchise to its working-class roots. It didn't go well. From behind-the-scenes dramatics about the course of the screenplay to the final box office take, the film is one misstep after another delivering a hacky, insincere would-be melodrama. Conceptually it's all there, but from Stallone's screenplay and performance to Avildsen's direction to the hip-hop-infused final street fight, it's just a poorly executed venture. I try to give it some love and reappraise it, but it never gets better in my estimation. The best that can be said about Rocky V is it sets up Rocky Balboa and that's about it. 2/5  

Rocky Balboa 

Never doubt the champ. Like the character he created, Stallone has had some notable career ups and downs. But just when you think the guy has been knocked out for good, he gets back up again for another round. 2006's Rocky Balboa was a testament to the man's talents in front of and behind the camera. A meaningful and heartfelt entry, despite a weak-sauce villain, the film is more than dramatically satisfying delivering one last big punch for the Italian Stallion to go out on. If the Creed films never existed, this was truly the best sendoff the character could hope for. And the new Director's Cut running at almost 14-minutes longer is even better. 5/5

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
It’s all heart when the Italian Stallion goes the distance on 4K Ultra HD in the Rocky: Ultimate Knockout Collection. A six-film seven-disc plus digital collection, all films are finally bound together in one single multipack case with separate trays without being stacked. This set brings together Region Free BD-66 discs for Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, with BD-100 discs for Rocky IV, Rocky V, and Rocky Balboa. An additional BD-50 disc delivers bonus content for Rocky I - IV. The multi-disc case is housed in a paper slipcover. The included digital code is not Movies Anywhere friendly and as has been circulating around the interwebs a bit, there’s apparently a glitch where these aren’t redeeming the 4K option on Fandango Now (FKA Vudu) so keep an eye on that before redeeming. 

Rocky 

The first and best of the series - but oldest - understandably has the most mixed results on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. The 1.85:1 2160p Dolby Vision transfer is undeniably a step up over the past Blu-ray releases offering genuinely impressive details with a rich film-like appearance given the film’s low-budget-scrappy gritty nature. By and large facial features, the 70s clothing, the grimy Philadelphia locations like the opening boxing arena to Mick’s gym to Apollo’s lavish office digs, you can fully appreciate every crevice, character line, or grease stain on Paulie’s clothes. Dolby Vision HDR works some lovely visual magic for this film greatly stabilizing and enhancing black levels, giving whites that crisp lovely quality, while primaries are giving ample attention. The red and yellow of Rocky’s robe to Apollo’s over-the-top Uncle Sam outfit during the entry for the big fight is lovely stuff. 

My one hiccup for this transfer is that it does look as if a little bit of smoothing was employed to balance some of the rougher heavier grain photography. The film famously was under-budgeted and would shoot illegally without permits to get shots done as quickly as possible. Those scenes look a lot cleaner and you can see the shift in film grain structure. However - it’s not a complete disaster. It’s employed judiciously, and it doesn’t appear completely scrubbed out since there’s still plenty of clear film grain and fine details, but you can feel the effort to make a small handful of scenes look more uniform to the rest of the film. Not a deal breaker but something to mention all the same. Overall this is certainly miles better than the streaming 4K presentation that’s been around the block for a while since this disc doesn’t have to contend with bitrate issues and internet connection nonsense. 4/5 

Rocky II

A big hit sequel gets a bigger budget and you can feel how much more professional-looking this film is with a gorgeous 1.85:1 2160p Dolby Vision transfer. While still very 70s appearing, the film as a whole is a lot cleaner, brighter, and more lavish so you can see more of those fine details in clothing, locations, and in facial features. Film grain is fine and apparent throughout without looking too noisy or intrusive. I also didn’t notice any of the slight smoothing I spotted for the first film so it looks more naturally uniform.

Dolby Vision HDR offers up similar enhancements to black levels, whites, and primaries as the first film. I felt like this image had a lot more depth to it than before with stronger shadow gradience for those dramatic bits as Rocky tries to read to the comatose Adrian. Reds, yellows, and Blues once again pop beautifully without looking oversaturated and skin tones are nice and healthy without looking to peached or oranged-up. Again the final fight between Rocky and Apollo is the real dazzler moment but Rocky’s training montage is another highlight moment for the film moving from Mick's gym to chasing chickens to Rocky outrunning a hoard of zombie children. All in all an impressive transfer and a notable improvement over past releases. 4/5

Rocky III

Welcome to the 80s! Bigger budget, more flash and pizzaz, and the Dolby Vision transfer looks terrific. Facial features, Thunder Lips’ mustache, Clubber’s mohawk, Rocky’s high hair pseudo mullet, the whole show offers up strong striking details with a healthy naturally cinematic grain structure. Didn’t spot any smoothing or at least anything so serious to be distracting. For all of the glitz, I was really taken by the spectral highlights and sheen. This is also when the franchise started getting kinda “oily” for every workout or fight even before a punch was thrown. 

As with the past films Dolby Vision works some wonders here pulling deep inky blacks and great shadows into the film. When Apollo takes Rocky to his old boxing gym, there’s much better detail and shadow separation compared to the past DVD and Blu-ray discs. Up to this point in the franchise, this is also the most colorful film with bright bold primaries throughout. The blue sky when Rocky and Apollow are running on the beach, Rocky’s yellow-on-black outfits, Apollo’s red workout gear, it’s lovely stuff. Throughout there’s a terrific sense of depth and dimension to absorb. 4.5/5

Rocky IV 

The fourth and most joyfully ridiculous entry in the franchise explodes onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a gorgeous 1.85:1 2160p Dolby Vision transfer… well… it’s almost all 1.85:1. Inexplicably there’s a scene at about the 10:17 mark where Rocky is chatting up Rocky Jr while washing the Lambo where the aspect ratio randomly shifts from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1 and back to 1.85:1. It lasts all of a few seconds - but it’s noticeable and very odd and the lone issue for this disc. Otherwise - the transfer looks great. Details are impressive letting you fully appreciate fine facial features, the costumes, and the production design work to turn Jackson Hole, Wyoming into Siberia. 

The Dolby Vision HDR is an asset to this film in particular with all of the flashy colors, highly-stylized cinematography, and dramatic lighting effects. Those training montages and music video interludes never looked better with deep inky blacks, bright bold colors, and crisp bright whites. Depth is impressive especially for when the action moves to “Siberia” for Rocky’s training sequence to Hearts on Fire. 4.5/5

Rocky vs Drago: The Ultimate Director’s Cut

Now even though it’s on the same disc as the theatrical Rocky IV, it’s a completely different-looking film. Top to bottom this 2160p Dolby Vision transfer is its own beast. For starters, Stallone reframed the film for 2.35:1 - why I’m not sure when none of the other films in the series appear that way, but there you are. This version of the film may only run about three minutes longer but it uses almost 45 minutes of alternate and deleted footage. Overall details are often striking giving you a full appreciation of fine textures and facial features, but some of the alternate footage looks to have been touched up a bit to make the film more uniform. The clearest examples of this are seen in the press conference footage introducing Drago and later when Adrian confronts Rocky about his decision to fight.

Likewise, the color timing for this edition is notably cooler with more of a slate gray appearance without going into dreaded teal/orange territory. The Dolby Vision HDR grade works with these alterations nicely, so the new version of Apollo talking to Rocky about fighting Drago is bright and beautiful with natural outdoor lighting and colors with Rocky’s baby blue shirt. Black levels are deep and inky offering up healthy shadows and terrific image depth. Primaries are bright and bold - considering how Apollo enters the exhibition match those reds, yellows, and blues are brilliant and bold but skin tones are natural and healthy throughout. Definitely a different appearance but a good-looking one on 4K - and like the alternate cut itself fans of Rocky IV are likely to have some varying feelings about one version over the other. 4/5 

Rocky V 

Like the previous franchise 4K discs, Rocky V punches out a beautiful 2160p 1.85:1 Dolby Vision HDR transfer. I gotta hand it to MGM and Warner Bros. for this disc, the film is hardly the fan favorite of the original six films, but they gave it one hell of a terrific restoration. From Rocky suffering in the shower to their move back to the old neighborhood to the notorious street brawl, the film looks terrific. Details and fine lines are crisp and clear without issue. Facial features, clothing textures, the Philadelphia shooting locations, all earn their time in the ring with a healthy cinematic film grain. No signs of smoothing or unsightly sharpening. The Dolby Vision grade, like past films, looks terrific highlighting the drab surroundings while letting key primaries shine. Skin tones a healthy and human without looking too pinked or peached out. Black levels are on point without crush issues with nice bright whites. Image depth was also quite impressive. 4/5

Rocky Balboa 

Both cuts of Rocky Balboa go to the body in 1.85:1 2160p Dolby Vision. These cuts aren’t authored via seamless branching, but in fact, are two separate files. This film was already going to be a touch-and-go prospect given it was shot on 35mm and digital video - that was already obvious in 1080p, and it’s even more so now. With that, you can tell a lot of effort was made to make the best of the situation.

Speaking specifically of the Director’s Cut, the new footage largely comes through okay. Some bits looked a little rougher around the edges, but nothing too distractingly serious - they looked worse when they were just extra features. Overall details are more crisply defined and cleaner looking than the old 1080p disc. Even the digital video footage looks a little nicer than before so I consider that a win. Maybe not a complete knockout compared to the five previous all-35mm films, but an appreciable enough upgrade.

The best enhancement is the Dolby Vision HDR grade and how well it works with Stallone’s more stylized photography for this outing. Those blown-out whites are still there but now there’s a little more dimensionality to the image giving scenes like the first time we see Milo Ventimiglia’s Rocky Jr. some more depth. The cold blue tones also see some more subtle lighting gradience as well again lending to more image depth. The black and white with color accents for the final fight pop beautifully. 

My main issue with how this one was handled compared to the other films on 4K, each cut could have thrived a little more if they’d been pressed on separate BD-66 discs. Overall bitrates are strong but notably lower for those DV sequences. When it's obviously film and there's film grain, we can see some pretty high peaks in the bitrate. But when it's obviously video, it dips pretty low. I’d be curious if separating the discs and giving each cut more bitrate room wouldn’t have helped some visuals land in 2160p better than they do here. That said, this could be the best they could do with it - which isn’t terrible in the least. 3.5/5

Rocky 

Well, if you’re here for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, you’re in luck because it sounds pretty solid. It wasn’t a track that was absolutely necessary to have in 5.1 but I’ve always liked it. It’s certainly not the best use of 5.1 since it keeps pretty front/center for long stretches and occasionally some dialog hits come in a little hot and loud, but overall it got the job done and for the iconic training montage “Gonna Fly Now” still sounds terrific and the big fight is a nice stretch in the mix. If you have a DTS Neural X function on your setup, it definitely helps deliver some more impact for the track.

The good news for this set is the corrected 4K discs are included and we can enjoy the original mono in DTS-HD MA 2.0. I'm honestly torn between the two options as both are great listening experiences. There's an intimacy for this film that just feels a little more natural with the 2.0 mono track that doesn't quite feel as warm or welcoming in 5.1. That said, when the big fight finally comes, that 5.1 packs plenty of punch. To that I'd say it's dealer's choice. You can't go wrong with either track now. 4/5

Rocky II

Following its predecessor, the pitch issues for DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 tracks have been fixed! The film no longer sounds like all of the air has been sucked out of the room. Like the best of the franchise, this film is very dialog-heavy and we really don't get into the heavy action until the big rematch fight between Rocky and Apollo. So for that sake, the corrected 2.0 mono is damned good, but at the same time I do really like the spread and spacing of the 5.1. This film had a bigger budget so there was a lot more on-location shooting throughout all the big Philadelphia locations. The wintery setting, scenes at the pier when Rocky tries to sell Paulie his car, those moments do sound pretty damn great in 5.1. But like the first film, the 2.0 gives a lot of sonic intimacy to the film and that's certainly worth celebrating. Once again, dealer's choice. 

Rocky III

This is a good news/bad news scenario for fans. The good news - the DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 tracks sound terrific. There are no pitch issues, the 5.1 is lively as ever with plenty of impact for those comically loud punches between Rocky and Clubber, the dialog is clean and clear, music is impressive giving Eye of the Tiger and Gonna Fly Now all the required care and attention. For the English tracks, this is right on the money. So if that’s how you were going to enjoy the film anyway 4/5

Rocky IV

Finally - a disc that doesn’t have an audio issue! Everything is spot on and right on the money for this disc and for both cuts of the film. The 5.1 and 2.0 options for the Theatrical Cut are terrific offering full-throated music cues, impactful sound effects, and clean clear dialog throughout. When Hearts on Fire kicks in, it's almost impossible not to leap out of your seat and try to work in some crunches. The few genuinely quiet conversational sequences are in great shape, but the mix really comes to life for the fights and generally sounds pretty fantastic throughout giving you a nicely immersive surround experience. 4/5

Rocky vs Drago: The Ultimate Director’s Cut

Re-editing the movie wasn't enough for Stallone, he also had to go in there and rework the audio for the fourth film for a more impactful DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. Supposedly this was given an Atmos mix for the one-night-only theatrical outing. Now I didn't get that experience because my local theater shoved us all into the smallest screening room in the complex. But playing the Theatrical Cut and this new Director's Cut side by side, this new mix has a lot more LFE. Bass notes in music and the slams from the punches have a lot more impact. Most of the mix is still relatively front/center with sides only acting up for busy scenes, but as a whole, this 5.1 has a bit more heft to it. 4.5/5 

Rocky V 

On the audio front, we have the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix returning for another round along with the original theatrical DTS-HD MA 2.0. Unlike the first set of four films, it sounds like a little more QC time was allocated for this release as this 2.0 track doesn’t sound like a mix-down of the 5.1. However, I have to say of the two options, the 5.1 is the more enjoyable experience. Dialog is clean and clear for both, but the sound effects spread when Rocky is training fighters at Mick’s or the big fight with Tommy Gun, the LFE of the score and the late ‘80s/early ‘90s hip-hop gives us a weightier more immersive experience. 4/5

Rocky Balboa

This round of Rocky Balboa punches in with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track over the PCM 5.1 mix of old. To my ears, there was little of any appreciable difference. Doing some disc flippies for the theatrical cut, I felt like I was spending more time trying to convince myself there was a difference than actually hearing anything that stood out. Both cuts sound fantastic. Dialog is clear throughout without issue. The Bill Conti score is just as soulful as ever. The training montage just as rousing as ever and the big final fight packs plenty of auditory punch. I flipped my receiver into DTS Neural:X and felt that for those big crowded scenes at bars, restaurants, and at the fight, the element spacing opened up nicely and gave those heavy punches extra heft. 4.5/5

Well, the Ultimate Knockout Collection is here, and again it still doesn't offer up every archival extra feature ever assembled and we still don't get remastered Blu-ray discs for the films. But what we do get is pretty good. Again the same Rocky I-IV bonus features disc returns and it's got a fairly decent assortment of extras, but nothing that could be argued as even close to "complete." Again the Keep Punching making-of doc for Rocky vs Drago is the shorter 58-minute version and not the 93-minute version that's on Stallone’s YouTube channel. With that in mind, the new Rocky Balboa 4K disc does include the original commentary for the theatrical cut, a couple of remaining deleted scenes and some archival featurettes. So we are technically getting more out of this Ultimate Knockout Collection but we're not getting everything - so hold onto those older discs if you're an extra features junkie that needs to have everything for your collection to be complete. 

Rocky 4K UHD Disc

• Audio Commentary featuring Sylvester Stallone.
• Audio Commentary featuring John G. Avildsen, Irvin Winkler, Robert Chartoff, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Burt Young, and Garrett Brown.
• Audio Commentary featuring Lou Duva and Bert Suga 

Rocky Balboa 4K UHD Disc 

• Audio Commentary featuring Sylvester Stallone
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Ending (HD 3:38)
• Paulie’s Girlfriend Moves His Things (HD 1:17)
• Skills vs Will: The Making of Rocky Balboa (HD 17:47)
• Virtual Champion Creating the Computer Fight (HD 5:08)
• Fight Makeup (HD 1:33)

Bonus Features Discs

• The Making of Rocky vs Drago: Keep Punching (HD 58:29)
• 8mm Home Movies of Rocky (SD 12:32)
• 3 Rounds with Lou Duva (SD 4:34)
• Steadicam: Then and Now (SD 17:26)
• Make-Yo! The Art and Form with Michael Westmore (SD 15:11)
• Staccato: A Composer’s Notebook (SD 11:30)
• The Ring of Truth (SD 9:37)
• Tribute to Burges Meredith (SD 7:53)
• Stallone Meets Rocky (SD 3:00)
• Trailers

Simply put, Rocky Ultimate Knockout Collection is the 4K collection of all six films we should have gotten in the first place. I understand the last two films weren't ready to tie-in as promotional fodder when Creed III hit theaters, but the pervious four-film Rocky: The Knockout Collection was a notable missed opportunity. It was fine if those were the only films you wanted. Lord knows there are plenty of arguments against owning Rocky V, but it left out the best sequel Rocky Balboa. This set corrects all of that - in more ways than one. The previous collection was also besieged with numerous audio issues for the first three films and a brief aspect ratio mismatch on Rocky IV - all of the audio has been corrected and that inexplicable aspect ratio switcheroo is now uniform as it should be. Plus we're now getting Rocky V and both cuts of Rocky Balboa in 4K. My only gripe now is all of the excellent archival extras that were left out still aren't available. So best to hold on to that old Undisputed Collection Blu-ray set if you want everything. 

As things stand for this set, we're getting excellent transfers for each film with great audio (that again, has been corrected!), and some great bonus features. I do wish the Director's Cuts of Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa were given their own discs so they could maximize bitrates, but that's a relatively small quibble when everything else about this set is exactly what fans deserved from the opening bell. Highly Recommended