7. COP LAND (1997)-This tense, noirish drama provided welcome proof that there's more to Stallone than violence, shooting and shouting.
His disarmingly naturalistic, understated performance as a half-deaf rural town sheriff trying to bring down the corrupt cops that run the place is a slow-burner, but the fact that he lets others take the limelight early in the movie shows this isn't an actor whose ego rules everything he does.
He put on weight for this role, and while he got the acclaim he deserved
8. TANGO & CASH (1989)- While this buddy cop flick undoubtedly aped the newly-minted Lethal Weapon formula, the dialogue is riddled with wisecracks, and the combination of Stallone in specs trading barbs with Kurt Russell's dishevelled loose cannon, and battling Jack Palance's positively demonic bad guy, is still bags of fun 24 years on.
The winking knowingness of the whole enterprise is typified when Kurt Russell asks Sly's character, “Who do you think you are, Tango? Rambo?!” Sly replies, “Rambo's a pussy!”
9. THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012)-Its cast might resemble a fantasy list drawn up on a schoolboy's desk for "the bestest action film there could, like, ever be, ever" but this sequel to the already pretty tasty 2010 uber-action movie adds Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme to the mix.
10. F.I.S.T (1978)-Before he became synonymous with popcorn violence, Stallone impressed in this period tale of a working-class hero fighting the good fight, first with his bare hands as an amateur boxer in the 1930s, and later as a Hoffa-esque Labor union leader finding his principles compromised and the mob muscling in.
Not exactly a feel-good flick – it's dark-side-of-the-American-Dream stuff – but more evidence for the defence of Sly as someone who can act, when the mood takes him.
