Today is Sylvester Stallone’s 66th birthday. No matter what you think of Sly, love him or hate him, you can’t deny his work ethic. You can’t deny his legacy. He may have had plenty of ups and downs in his career, but I think he is past that now. In his earlier days in his career, his career was slumping terribly. In early 2000’s, Sly released the race car driving film, “Driven” which failed at the box office miserably. Then he made two direct-to-video movies “Avenging Angelo”, and “D-Tox (Eye See You)”. He came close to being like Dolph Lundgren/Van Damme, making direct-to-video movies.

Then in the year 2003, he had a brief comeback to Hollywood mainstream by starring in “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” as the film’s main villain. The film was a major hit, and that film was partly responsible for helping Sly get his career back on track. After that film, Sly released the direct-to-video film, “Shade” in which he played a character called, the Dean, which also had his best acting skills. Then he took a few year break from films, to do “The Contender” TV show which didn’t last long.

Later on, Sly planned a sixth installment to the Rocky franchise to close out the series. Of course, Sly’s planned, “Rocky 6” film sparked some controversy in the movie industry. I remember MGM, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff didn’t approve of Sly wanting to do another Rocky, so this led to a long legal battle over this film. Movie fans and even Sly’s fans were skeptical of Sly doing another Rocky ’cause they didn’t think he could do it at this kind of age. Well, guess what? Sly won. He got “Rocky Balboa” made like he dreamed of, and the movie was a success. The movie wasn’t a big hit but it was successful. Few years later, Sly made a fourth installment to “Rambo” which was also successful.

Now, here is Sly with the two “Expendables” films. “Expendables 2” soon to be hitting theaters. You’ve got to admit that what Sly did is pretty impressive. His film career was just about dead in his earlier days. Now he’s a mainstream star again. No matter what you think of “The Expendables”, I just think Sly teaming up with all of these action stars is a good idea. If Sly didn’t do that, I’m sure he would be in a career slump again.

Congratulations and a happy birthday goes out to Sly indeed. He had quite a career ride. I’ve admired this guy for many years. I’ve seen just about all of his films. I usually don’t care to meet celebrities in person but if I could meet Sly in person someday, that would make my dream come true. I hope I do get to meet Sly someday. My hero and inspiration.

Kev