Oh man I'm still pissed at Sly for that shitty JUDGE DREDD. Such an awesome comic book, such sad dreck. In ideal, Sly is great casting but man he takes off the helmet more in that movie than the hero has done in all the decades of comic strips.

Also, a good sign your movie sucks is when Rob Schneider is your "comic sidekick."



Sly's admitted more than once that either his ego or taking the biggest paycheck around was why he did so many losers.

Look at the ROCKY series, perfect example. The original had such a good script, Sly gave such a good performance (both got Oscar nods) and of course won the Best Picture Oscar. Probably one of the more beloved American movies from that decade.

Then that franchise goes on and on, the drama quality slips and they become dumber, more economical actioneers. But those pictures kept making money so hey who is to tell Sly he's wrong? Then ROCKY V, which Sly calls now a total piece of shit, which is funny since he scripted and starred.

Sorta the same thing with the RAMBO movies. FIRST BLOOD is a kickass action movie, and Sly's script rewrite turned a gripping not-so-happy drama novel with problematic issues for any cinema adaptation into basically a rousing cheer-for-the-underdog ROCKY meets DELIVERENCE thriller.

RAMBO 2 was stupid, poor production values for what was a super big budget action vehicle at the time (with Sly poorly rewriting a wonderful James Cameron* draft) yet it was pretty popular with President Reagan quoting the movie (he ever received Sly at the White House) and I guess Americans liked having a total ass-kicking machine to represent America's resurgence or whatever.

RAMBO 3 was even dumber, which I suppose audiences finally caught up with this fact. Sly somehow found a way to fuck up a simple good idea: Afghanistan being USSR's Vietnam (or ours now in 2010) and basically idealize the same Mujahadeen rebels who later would become the Taliban. Not good foresight buddy, real GREEN BERETS goofyness there.

It took his career to totally crash for Sly to get his shit together, and what looked like a pathetic cashing in on old turf, he actually delivered a solid movie in ROCKY BALBOA. Not rocket science drama or anything, but quiet, humble, much less egotistical than the other ROCKY sequels had been, fully satisfying as a franchise closer and as a movie in its own right. They moved the statue!!!

Pizzaboy, I don't think RAMBO 3 was beginning of the end for ole Sly. He had a few losers before that, the sort that even you a non-Hollywood/moviephile would see from a mile away that they were gonna fuck up on a major level. Omens really.

OVER THE TOP (1987) - A movie about arm-wrestling, which Sly got $12 million to do. Let me repeat that, a movie about arm wrestling.

RHINESTONE (1985) - Dolly Parton and Sly in a musical comedy, and Sly sings. $4 million to sing.

Some of his other projects aren't bad on paper for why he did them. DEMOLITION MAN was him and Wesley Snipes (two major action stars at the time) in a Joel Silver (DIE HARD, THE MATRIX) production, when Silver movies used to make money. How did those seashells work?

But for every CLIFFHANGER, a hit and a fun one at that, he did nonsense like STOP OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT or ASSASSINS.

Ultimately, its sad but I think Stallone really hurt himself creatively by pigeonholing himself as simply an action hero when in ROCKY he delivered some good acting along with COP LAND, and I know a few people who tell me he did also in F.I.S.T. and PARADISE ALLEY.

But hey, the money was too good right? Good knows he was the only one who apparently thought Brigitte Nielsen was anything beyond future Flavor Flav asstap.

*=Yes, that James Cameron. Back when he could write worth a shit, and not poorly rewrite DANCES WITH WOLVES with $270 something million and blue CGI.