Before there was “The Fighter” and “Million Dollar Baby,” there was the epic boxing story that paved the way for them all...ROCKY! The original movie was released in theaters in 1976 and has now been released on blu-ray with a cool collectible book. The movie follows the life of amateur boxer Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). He is a deadbeat boxer, turned loan shark, given the opportunity of a lifetime by the current heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). For media attention and his scheduled opponent being injured, Apollo challenges Rocky to a match for the title in Rocky’s hometown of Philadelphia. This sparks Rocky’s motivation and path back to a disciplined and positive life.

This movie was released before I was born, but I remember watching this movie, and its sequels, with my brothers as a kid. Everything I loved about the movie has been improved, for the most part, thanks to blu-ray technology. The sound for the whole movie was awesome and so much more crisp than when we used to watch it on our tube television in the living room. I got goose bumps listening to this movie’s memorable soundtrack in surround sound, especially during his jogging scene at the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.

However, the picture quality and lack of extras was a bit disappointing. Everything looked a lot smoother than in previous versions of the film, but it still had some grainy parts and was not fully in HD. I tried to look past this and hoped the extras would make up for it, but I was wrong. It did come with a collectible book, which doubles as the case for the blu-ray, with pictures of memorable scenes from the movie, actor biographies, and other interesting facts about the movie and its creation. Besides the book, and some lame trailers on the blu-ray, it did not come with any other extra footage or director commentary. I would have liked to have seen some deleted scenes or bloopers or anything from a movie that I hold in such high regard.

I thought the collectible book was cool and still think this is one of the best movies I have ever seen in my life, but I would have liked to have seen more extras to know more about the movie. I am happy they updated it as much as they could and it did bring back a lot of memories. Regardless of its minor flaws, it is still a great story and fun to watch. I am giving this movie an “A-“ because it’s still, and forever will be, a knockout story in my books.