Film Review: Grudge Match

Grudge Match. Rated M (sporting violence and coarse language). 113 minutes. Directed by Peter Segal. Screenplay by Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman.

Verdict: Great idea on paper.

In theory at least, the cinematic possibilities of casting Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro in a film about boxers coming out of retirement to settle an old score, are obvious and irresistible. Stallone’s Rocky Balboa (first introduced to us in 1976’s Rocky), remains one of cinema’s most celebrated and instantly recognisable characters. De Niro’s performance as Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Raging Bull (1980), is regarded as one of the finest ever committed to film.

So is it fair to compare this ordinary outing to the vastly superior films from which it takes its attention-seeking premise? While Grudge Match never comes close to being a worthy companion to either those characters or the films in which they appeared to be forever burned into our memory, there is a curiosity bordering on the bizzare in watching Stallone as Henry 'Razor' Sharp and De Niro as Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen muddle their way through Kelleher and Rothman’s cliché-stricken script that never even begins to rise to the occasion.

Segal’s overly-reverential direction abandons his stars to flounder in the sense of their own, now-fading magnificence, while the scenes that come close to working (De Niro pleading with Stallone to go through with the fight outside his house one night simmers beautifully) are too few and far between.

The supporting cast, including the exceptional Jon Bernthal (Snitch, The Walking Dead) as McDonnen’s son BJ and the veteran Alan Arkin (Argo, Little Miss Sunshine) as Sharp’s trainer Louis who has seen better days, contribute fine work – arguably all the more effective because they appear saddled with less baggage from the glorious past. It is also a past that Grudge Match seeks to capitalise on, and one that ultimately brings De Niro, Stallone and the film itself down to earth with a deafening and somewhat embarrassing thud.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.