Movie Review: Grudge Match

Grudge Match 

Callahan Filmworks, Gerber Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Warner Bros, USA, 2013. 

Boxing champs Henry 'Razor' Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen (Robert De Niro) are the fiercest rivals. After two matches in the 1980s the third and final grudge match was cancelled because Razor retired. Benevolent Razor went broke because of trusting to wrong people and returned to work in shipyard. Loudmouth Kid owns bar and car businesses. 

Razor and The Kid

Promoter Dante Slate, Jr. (Kevin Hart) tells that a video game company wants to model Razor and The Kid into their game. Razor does not want to but he agrees so that he can pay his coach's Louis 'Lightning' Conlon's (Alan Arkin) nursing home bills. 

Dante Slate, Jr

Louis 'Lightning' Conlon

Grudgement Day promotion

The two rivals meet at the studio. The fight of Razor and The Kid becomes a viral hit in social media. After 30 years the old boxers agree to have rematch on Grudgement Day! Both guys are old and in bad shape so extensive training is needed. Also both men have to participate promotion campaign making silly commercials. Razor's old love Sally (Kim Basinger) showss up to complicate the things further. Also The Kid meets his son BJ (Jon Bernthal). 

Sally

BJ

And so it is that Rocky Balboa and Jake LaMotta have gotten old. Still they decide to show the Selfie  Generation that they are still alive. At the same time both men have to deal with the problems of the past and fix their lives. In the final match both veteran boxers have their moments.

The movie stays quite light with comedic dialogue and carefree taunting but there is also some light drama. The actors seem to be having fun, although many jokes are hit-or-miss. The style is lightly nostalgic and bit like 1980s feel-good comedies. Some affectionate parody is based on Sly's and Robert's tough guy images and their boxing films. Stallone trains using Rocky-style methods pulling trucks and throwing tractor tyres, while De Niro trains in the gym and has to prove his worth to humiliate the scorning gym-owner Frankie Brite (LL Cool J).  There is a good cast of supporting characters with Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart and Kim Basinger. It is not a serious film but it is fun entertainment.

Rating: Good

Starring: Jim Lampley, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Rich Little, Ireland Baldwin, Anthony Bean, Mason Mackie, Kevin Hart, Barry Primus, Oscar Gale, Frederick Douglas Plunkett Jr., BJ Guyer, Jen Kober, Anthony Anderson, Carrie Lazar, Don Lake, Han Soto, Kurt Krause, Steve Levy, John Buccigross, Alan Arkin, Kenneth Kynt Bryan, Greg Sproles, Matthew Rimmer, Kirk W. Johnson, Yohance Myles, Larry Morgan, Jai Stefan, Frank Pesc, Kim Basinger, Todd Truley, Paul Ben-Victor, Robert Larriviere, Jon Bernthal, Joey Diaz, LL Cool J, Greg Plitt, Courtney Brennan, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Rowan Joseph, Macsen Lintz, Dane Rhodes, Mike Goldberg, Camden Gray, Kate Reinders, Griff Furst, Sam Hoger, Chael Sonnen, Judd Lormand, Camila Le Sage, Bonnie Hellman, Wyatt Harris, Larry Merchant, Roy Jones Jr., Robert Sale, James Joseph, Michael Buffer, Pat Russell, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield
Director: Peter Segal