Sylvester Stallone...

I'm not sure if it's an attempt to rehabilitate his career, promote the upcoming ROCKY BALBOA or simply an exercise in raw self-examination, but aintitcoolnews.com is running a series of Q & A's with Rocky/Rambo himself, and they have been both enlightening and very enjoyable. Even if you're not a Stallone fan, you have to admire his honesty and sense of humor. He even brings up his early porn movie, KITTY AND STUDS, and explains how he got the part. Nothing's off limits, and he skewers his own failings relentlessly.

It's too bad a little of the truly funny/wiseass attitude on view in this on-line "interview" didn't make it into his films. I was especially interesting to read about PARADISE ALLEY, a film he did soon after ROCKY. It was drubbed by the critics, but I remember laughing my head off at some of the (intentional) comedy in the movie. Especially a sequense where a wrestler is trying to get his parakeet to talk... comic genius. Honest.

And he made a couple of real gems. The original ROCKY is a darn fine movie, and FIRST BLOOD is really, really good. And CLIFFHANGER wasn't bad. Unfortunately, Stallone's following up ROCKY BALBOA with another RAMBO movie, which doesn't necessarily bode well, but so it goes...