Grudge Match

Grudge Match

Grudge Match is a sports comedy film starring Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Kim Basinger and is directed by Peter Segal.

The main premise of this film revolves around two aging boxers who were big in their day, they were and still are complete rivals. However, when the boxer, Henry “Razor” Sharp decides to retire, his opponent Billy “The Kid” McDonnen is left frustrated as he wanted a rematch. So we then fast forward 30 years later, both Henry and Billy no longer box due to their age, but an opportunity arises which finally gives Billy the chance to have his final match with Henry.

Now I’ll stress again, this is supposed to be a boxing movie. We have two actors who were both in extremely successful boxing films, that being Rocky and Raging Bull.

However, in Grudge Match, the only proper boxing we see is in the last 15 minutes of this film. The rest of the movie shows these two characters and their intense rivalry for each other. Along the way they meet different people and a former girlfriend of Henry’s which seriously serves no purpose. It takes away the little comedy there is in this film and it feels like a distraction to fill in some time on a very thin script.

 The acting itself is quite laughable at times, specifically from Stallone. Even Jon Bernthal, who plays Shane in the Walking Dead, felt really flat and far from convincing.

The bottom line is, if you want to watch a sports comedy, I might suggest Dodge Ball. It might be silly and not take itself seriously, but it is meant to be silly and not try achieve something it knows is quite difficult in a film of this genre.

If you want to watch a decent boxing movie, the rather stick to Rocky or Raging Bull.

As for The Grudge Match, it gets a low blow 4 out of 10

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