ROCKY: “Rocky continues to hold up well after 30 years. The movie marks the creative high point of Sylvester Stallone’s career, and it offers a moving and inspirational look at a bum made good.”

ROCKY II: “It’s a fairly entertaining piece of fluff, but it lacks any form of depth or drama. All it represents is a happier version of the first movie.

ROCKY III: “Rocky III offered a good climactic fight scene and a nicely brutal performance from Mr. T, but otherwise it seemed mechanical and empty. No signs of the title character’s original charm and warmth existed by this point, and the result was a sequel that connected to the first film in name alone.”

ROCKY IV: “Rocky IV is the least substantial of the six movies, but that doesn’t mean it’s the worst of the bunch. Although it was excessively thin and flashy, it provided some moments of general entertainment, and it didn’t do anything to actively bother me.”

ROCKY V: “1990’s Rocky V is far from the worst of the first four sequels. In fact, I think it’s probably the best of that bunch, though that’s a pretty lackluster endorsement. This is a flawed film that has many problems, but at least it attempted to return to the spirit and tone of the original, and it becomes more interesting due to those factors.”

ROCKY BALBOA: “Rocky Balboa shows that life remains in the old Stallion. Touching, heartfelt and ultimately inspiring, it acts as the best of the series since the first flick.”

Under the category of “a blind man could see this one coming”, we find 2007’s “Rocky: The Complete Saga”. In late 2006, MGM put out “The Rocky Anthology” with the first five Rocky movies to promote the theatrical release of Rocky Balboa. A year later, “Complete Saga” takes those same five DVDs and adds Balboa.

For full information on the individual movies, please consult my separate reviews of 1976’s Rocky, 1979’s Rocky II, 1982’s Rocky III, 1985’s Rocky IV, 1990’s Rocky V and 2006’s Rocky Balboa via the links above. Please note that the picture, sound and supplements grades found at the top of this article represent an average for the six movies. For the record, the extras mark is a little skewed because only Balboa comes with significant materials. The others are bare bones, but Balboa has a nice roster of stuff.

For the record, everything in “Complete Saga” has been previously released. We get no remastered or otherwise altered DVDs. The first five movies are the same discs originally released in 2004; the 2006 “Anthology” was just a rehash of that older package, which essentially makes “Complete Saga” a rehash of a rehash other than Balboa. That disc is just a rehash, since it duplicates the flick’s initial DVD release from the spring of 2007.

So recommendations depend on a) what you already own, and b) how much you like the Rocky films. I suppose there must be some fans out there who didn’t purchase any of the 97 previous releases of the first five films, but I imagine those folks lack electricity or running water, so I don’t know if “The Complete Saga” will do much for them.

If you are a fan who doesn’t have a prior Rocky package and you possess the means to watch it, then “Complete Saga” is a nice purchase. It gives you all six movies at an average of $10 per flick retail, so it’s certainly a bargain. Of course, that assumes you enjoy all six films, which is a stretch. The quality of these movies jumps all over the place, so it’s hard to know how many people will actually dig the whole lot.

Anyone who owns the prior packages probably won’t have much interest in “Complete Saga”. If for some weird reason you have Balboa but not the others, find a release of “Anthology” and save a few bucks. Obviously if you own the “Anthology” or its equivalent and not Balboa, you’d simply want to grab that DVD on its own. “Complete Saga” is a decent purchase for the fan who doesn’t already possess any Rocky - and who doesn’t care about extras, since the best version of that film doesn’t show up in this package.