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Sylvester Stallone - Rocky Balboa

January 5, 2026·1 hr 9 min·6 clips

Stallone turned down Superman, Arthur, Witness, Pretty Woman, and Face Off—was he right each time?

The premise changes fast. Brad Kozo and Jeff Johnson start by saying A Film By is stepping away from six seasons of underrated director picks. This season is about blockbusters. They set it around films from 2001 and 2006, tied to 25th and 20th anniversaries, and the table setting turns into a quick nostalgia lap: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Fellowship of the Ring, Black Hawk, the first Oceans movie, Training Day, Daniel Craig's James Bond, and Casino Royale. Then Rocky Balboa gets the chair. The hosts dig into the legacy sequel problem, especially how a revival can bring back the original star while relaxing its grip on older continuity. One host draws the line at ten years. After that, a sequel starts to feel like another kind of movie altogether. Creed sits in the background of the whole conversation, since they read Rocky Balboa as the movie that clears the path for that later franchise. The family material gives the episode its bite. Sage Stallone does not come back as Robert, though the hosts remember him as Rocky's son in earlier entries. Stallone's worry, as they explain it, was that viewers might read the movie's father son tension as a comment on his real relationship with Sage. Milo Vindamiglia steps in, and the hosts have fun with how believable the resemblance is, almost to the point of wondering how much he is shaping himself around Stallone. The vibe stays loose: trivia, memory checks, small corrections, and quick agreement. It feels like a rewatch chat, not a lecture. The ending looks ahead to a script focused series on Chinatown, with the same A Film By attitude turned a little more analytical.

As heard by us

A loose, conversational Rocky Balboa episode that links legacy sequel logic to Creed.

Brad Kozo and Jeff Johnson open the season with Rocky Balboa and use it to set up a look at the bigger movie run of 2001 and 2006. The episode works best when it moves past nostalgia and into the logic of legacy sequels, especially when it reaches the case for why this film…

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Why you'd press play

You want Rocky lore with the Creed connection already in view.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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