Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Woodyanders 1940's. Hell's Kitchen. Shrewd, fast-talking, and ambitious con man Cosmo Carboni (well played by Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote, directed, and even sings the theme song!) encourages his good-natured, dim-witted, but strong-as-an-ox younger brother Victor (a solid and engaging performance by amiable big lug Lee Canalito) to participate in wrestling matches in order to win enough money to get out of their impoverished neighborhood. Stallone blends sentiment and seaminess into a tasty offbeat mix that manages to find just the right balance of grit, humor, warmth, and pathos. Better still, Stallone presents a vivid and flavorsome evocation of the period setting along with a beautifully lurid underworld milieu that's both captivating and appealing in equal measure. Armand Assante does strong work as Cosmo's cynical and crippled war veteran sibling Lenny. Frank McRae likewise shines with his touching turn as faded and battered washed-up brawler Big Glory. Moreover, there's a delightful array of colorful low-life secondary characters: Kevin Conway as slimy crime kingpin Stitch, Joe Spinell as flashy wrestling ring emcee Burp, and Terry Funk as fearsome brute Frankie the Thumper. This movie further benefits from the charming presence of three attractive ladies: Anne Archer as sassy'n'sultry redhead dance hall gal Annie, Aimee Eccles as the sweet Susan Chow, and Joyce Ingalls as classy dame Bunchie. Laszlo Kovacs' glittery cinematography provides a striking garish look. Bill Conti's spare harmonic score does the trick, too. A nicely quirky little winner.

bluesman-20 Stallone's Paradise Alley is not a perfect movie. But it is fun and entertaining to watch Stallone try and come into his own as a filmmaker. It's only natural after Writing Rocky that STallone would get interested in actually making a movie that would be his entirely from start to finish and is it good? Well Yes it is good the acting is very watchable and the Carboni brothers are easy enough to cheer on. BUT. Some things are not explained enough or some characters suddenly change their nature in the middle of the film and it's things like this that make you wonder if you missed a scene or two. Assante in his first film role has a incredible debut and let's face it HE Steals The show from Stallone at times. Stallones's Cosmo is a easy enough loser /con man to actually cheer for or to indenified with after all who hasn't actually tried to run a con at one point in their lives? Terry Funk delivers a sinister performance as Frankie the Thumper. And Kevin Conway delivers just as good of a performance here as he does as Vince Doyle in F.I.S.T. A incredibly good actor of great range. Stallone mixes it all into Paradise Alley love Chaos Action Comedy and enough pathos to remind us of the sad value of life that others exploit for their ends. Stallone also delivers a wonderful surprisingly Theme Song To his Film Too close to paradise. A good film hard to forget after you've seen it and worthy enough to be remembered.

defstason This was a film that I picked out on a trip to the video store(U-Can-Rent), when I was probably 7 or 8 years old. Me and my dad were bringing back a rental of Rocky IV and I was looking into the original films when I noticed a video in the mix of the series that had Stallone on the cover with the same hat he wore in Rocky IV. At the time, I thought it was another movie involving Rocky. No one else had ever heard of it. I eventually rented it and found myself tossing and turning as I watched it, waiting for a fight. I remember being bored because it didn't move like a Rocky movie and was set in a time that I knew nothing about. But I do remember eventually liking the characters and being a little sad that it was over. I often thought about that movie throughout the years and always wanted to watch it again. Sometime in 2000, a good friend of mine sent me some odd books he had dug up. One of them was "Paradise Alley" by Sylvester Stallone. As I read this book over the course of a few nights, I started to remember parts of the movie and, at the same time, remembering things about my house at the time that I had watched it. It was a great book, one I couldn't wait to get back to and see how it ended. I couldn't help but here Sly's voice as I read it, the whole thing is written from Sly's character's point of view. I give it a seven for the story and just for being a great movie about family, fighting and good, old-fashion memories.Armand Assante is cool,too.

slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to to one of his most under rated movies. After rewriting the script to 'F.I.S.T' Sly went the full hog, and wrote, acted, directed and sings (Yes sings!! AndI think the style of music suits his voice well) the opening title track. Plot In A Paragraph: The film tells the story of the three brothers Cosmo (Stallone) Lenny (Armand Assante) and Victor (Lee Canalito) in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the 1940s who become involved in professional wrestling.The tag line for this movie read "Three brothers... One had the brains, one had the muscle and one had the suit. Together they had a million dollar dream."Sly isn't "the muscle" you would expect him to play here, but the con-man brother "The brains" and I think he does a decent job as the fast talking Cosmo, Assante is very impressive in his first movie role, and Canalito (whilst not the most gifted actor) has a real charm to him, as the sweet natured, but tough as nails Victor, who dreams of leaving Hells Kitchen and living on a houseboat with his girlfriend. Kevin Conway and Frank McRae both of who starred with Stallone in 'F.I.S.T' appear here, as does Joe Spinell, who had a role opposite Stallone in 'Rocky'. Sly seems to be trying to add a bit of everything at his first attempt at directing, Action, drama, love, laughs and an underdog story. It's almost as if he was worried he may not get another chance to direct again, and wanted to try his hand at everything. He probably got his shot at directing this movie, for the same reasons a lot of actors get a shot at directing. They are hot property. But for some reason (like with his previous movie the brilliant F.I.S.T) audiences stayed away from this. I would recommend anyone to check it out!! As a side note: He actually wrote this before 'Rocky' and tried to sell it to producers for years, to no avail. Once 'Rocky' became a smash hit, producers were willing to look at the script, and Universal Pictures green-lighted the production.