ROCKY trilogy (vhs) *NEW* tapes 1,2 & 3 and similar items

Brand new factory sealed 3-tape set of the first three installments in the Rocky series. All are full screen, perefct for older model square televisions as the image will fill your square screen. Pop-n-go retro videos with no fussy menus to contend with. All have the optional closed captioning feature for the hard of hearing or if background noise in your home makes it difficult to hear. But it may not be needed as the uncompressed surround stereo audio on parts 2 3 is superior to its digital counterpart, Part 1 is regular Hi-Fi. ROCKY: In a curiously deserted Philadelphia: There aren't any cars parked on the slum streets where Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) lives or the slightest sign that anyone else lives there. His world is a small one. By day, he works as an enforcer for a small-time juice man, offering to break a man's thumbs over a matter of $70. In his spare time, he works out at Mickey's gym. He coulda been good, but he smokes and drinks and screws around. And yet, there's a secret life behind his facade. He is awkwardly in love with painfully shy girl (Talia Shire) who works in the corner pet shop. He has a couple of turtles at home, named Cuff and Link, and a goldfish named Moby Dick. After he wins forty bucks one night after taking a terrible battering in the ring, he comes home and tells the turtles: "If you guys could sing and dance, I wouldn't have to go through this crap." When the girl asks him why he boxes, he explains: "Because I can't sing and dance." The movie ventures into fantasy when the world heavyweight champion (Carl Weathers, doing his best Muhammad Ali) decides to schedule a New Year's Eve bout with a total unknown--to prove that America is still a land of opportunity. Rocky gets picked because of his nickname, the Italian Stallion; the champ likes the racial contrast. From here, the plucky little gymnasium manager (Burgess Meredith) puts Rocky through training, right down to the lonely morning ritual of rising at four, drinking six raw eggs, and going out to do roadwork. There's that exhilarating moment when Stallone, in training, runs up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum, leaps into the air, and shakes his fist at the city, that you know he's sending a message to the whole movie industry. It sounds not only cliched but corny--and yet it's not. That's what makes the movie so extraordinary, it doesn't try to surprise us with an original plot, with twists and complications; it wants to involve us on an elemental, sometimes savage level. It's about heroism and realizing your potential, about taking your best shot and sticking by your girl. And the scenes before the fight set us up for it so completely, so emotionally, that when it's over we've had it. Were drained. ROCKY 2: begins exactly where the first movie ended. After their mutual battering, both Rocky and Apollo Creed are hospitalized. Rocky's life changes dramatically, of course. He's badgered by agents who want him to endorse products and do TV commercials. One of the first things he does, of course, is marry his girlfriend Adrian. They buy a car and a house. And Rocky looks around for a job. The problem is that he can't fight again. Doctor's orders: He suffered damage to his eyes, and another fight could lead to blindness. After a couple of menial jobs, he goes back to the gym run by his trainer Mickey. These scenes--interlaced with Adrian's pregnancy and the birth of their son, Rocky Jr.--head up to a sustained stretch of soap opera. Adrian goes into a coma. Rocky goes into a depression. Apollo Creed, driven by the need to clear his reputation, taunts Rocky for another fight with newspaer ads. Then comes the night of the big fight. Instead of going for conventional devices to build the tension, Stallone cuts between drama and comedy, between the mounting excitement inside the fight arena and Rocky's leisurely progress through the city. Apollo Creed is sweating it out in his dressing room, but Rocky Balboa's stopping off at a parish hall for a quick blessing from the priest. Then comes the big fight scene. I wouldn't dream of telling you who wins. ROCKY 3: As Rocky Balboa fights his way into the hearts of millions, life couldn't be better. He scores ten consecutive wins, lands lucrative endorsement contracts and becomes famous the world over. But when Clubber Lang (Mr. T) K.O.s Rocky in a humiliating defeat, it becomes apparent that he has lost his edge. Considering hanging up his gloves, Rocky receives encouragement from an unlikely ally: his old nemesis Apollo Creed. With Creed's help, Rocky strives to regain the "eye of the tiger" (cue hit song) before confronting Lang in a grueling rematch for the world heavyweight championship.