#2 Rocky (1976)
You thought it was going to be #1, didn’t you? Well, it’s not; that said, Rocky is an amazing underdog movie both in front of and behind the camera. It was written by a nobody named Sylvester Stallone who insisted that he play the title character against the studio’s wishes. They finally relented, and the world was treated to the story of goofy simpleton and middling club fighter Rocky Balboa who stumbles into an unlikely chance to fight the heavyweight champ-peen of the world, Action Jackson. Er, we mean Apollo Creed. Rocky doesn’t win, but he goes the distance (15 rounds) with Creed after participating in the best training montage ever put on film (the second and third best would come in Rocky III and Rocky IV.) The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1976, beating out Taxi Driver and All The President’s Men.

#1 Slap Shot (1977)
Miracle is a hockey movie about the greatest sports triumph in American history. But it’s also very PG. Slap Shot, on the other hand, is a hockey movie that has everything you could want in an underdog sports movie: A ragtag group of losers, an owner threatening their livelihood, lying, cheating, profanity, gratuitous nudity, gratuitous violence, and sociopathic brothers with Coke-bottle glasses. The basic plot: Player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, Reggie Dunlop — portrayed by Hollywood royalty Paul Newman — transforms his minor league hockey squad into winners after he lets the insane Hanson Brothers intimidate the competition by beating the crap out of them. And the climax of the movie is just a giant brawl. There’s no redemption, and there’s no conventionally happy ending. It’s just old-time, underdog hockey!

TAGS: Bill Murray, Charlie Sheen, movies, sports, Sylvester Stallone, underdog