"Grudge Match" Review

"Grudge Match" definitely has its dumb, cliché moments, but with a talented cast and interesting relationship dynamics, it is surprisingly enjoyable.

Henry "Razor" Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy "The Kid" McDonnen (Robert De Niro) are former boxing rivals. Previously there had been a few matches between them that ended with no clear winner. A grudge match was planned, but Sharp dropped out for some reason.

The movie starts about thirty years later. Sharp is now a poor, blue collar worker. Kid is now a successful businessman who owns a restaurant and dealership. Kid is a womanizer who looks at his past with fondness, while Sharp is more introverted and does not seem to want to talk about his boxing career.

They both somehow had the same manager whose son, Kevin Slate Jr. (Kevin Hart, "This is the End"), is now wanting to make some money off of them.

There is a boxing video game coming out, and Slate is able to convince Sharp to be in it. The game designers need him to go to the studio so they can program his computerized character according to his moves. What he does not know is Kid is also there to be in the game. When they see each other, they get in a fight, which gets recorded and becomes a viral video.

Slate sees this as an opportunity to promote a grudge match between the two veteran boxers. They are both pretty old, so there is a lot of doubt that having them box is a good idea.

Coming into the movie, I had very low expectations. When I saw the advertisement, I thought it looked a lot like "Rocky Balboa," which also stars Sylvester Stallone. There are quite a few similarities. An old veteran boxer played by the same actor does not want to be in any more fights, but because of new technology, people are curious to see how he would hold up now.

There are also quite a few differences, however. This movie does not deal with one, but two veteran boxers who were bitter rivals back in the day. One seems okay with doing another match, but the other has a lot of reservations. In a way it is more how a sequel to "Rush" would be rather than a rehashing of something that has already been done.

That is what is good about this movie. It is not as cliché as I thought it would be. The relationship between the rivals is interesting in that it goes deeper than what the world knows.

Another interesting dynamic that is introduced is between Kid and his son B.J., played by "The Walking Dead's" Jon Bernthal. B.J. finds out that the father he knew is not his biological father, but that it is actually Kid. He goes to talk to him, and a relationship develops as he becomes Kid's trainer. I am not going to go into too much detail about this, but I will say there is also a connection between this and Sharp's relationship with Kid as well.

This is one of the rare movies in which the more funny parts are not in the trailer. If you have seen the trailer, you may have noticed that the jokes are hit and miss. There are some parts that legitimately made me laugh. Other scenes tried a little too hard. Some of the time it seemed like it tried to force the audience to laugh by being crude. It worked on me some of the time, but at other times it did not.

The performances were all good. Robert De Niro plays a complete womanizer, and he did a good job at it. I really believe him as an old horn dog.

Sylvester Stallone also does a good job in his role. It is not different from what he usually does. He played a boxer in at least six different movies, and a reluctant hero in both "Rocky Balboa" and "Rambo" (2008). It is familiar territory for him, which is why he did so well.

Alan Arkin also did a great job as Sharp's trainer. He is a quirky old man who has a hearing problem. Arkin is no stranger to comedic roles, and he does a good job in this film.

I also enjoyed seeing Jon Bernthal in this. He is better known as the unstable Shane Walsh in "The Walking Dead." I grew to hate his character in that show, and this is partly due to the actor doing such a good job. In this movie, he is a very good person. He is a responsible father who loves his son and wants to get to know his own dad. It is a breath of fresh air seeing him as a likable character, and I hope to see him cast in more films.

There were a couple problems I had with this film. One of them is that the script is redundant at times. The dialogue is not horrible, but there are some moments in which it seems the characters take too long to say something in an attempt to be funny. At other times, there is forced exposition that should have been handled a little more subtly.

A bigger problem I had is there is a section that goes into annoyingly cliché territory. I made an audible groan as one of the characters made a decision that is very stupid and horrible.

Without giving anything away, what happens is the same kind of thing as in romantic comedies when one person finds out something bad about his or her significant other and breaks the relationship off. It always leads to the two ruminating how good they had it, and they ultimately get back together in the end.

Fortunately, in this film, a couple does not break up, but there are relationship issues. It is very predictable that everything will go well in the end despite the fact that one character did something very stupid. Despite knowing what was going to happen, this coming back together was not very believable. What the character did was deplorable and a out of place. It made me as an audience member have no respect for that person, and this movie would have been so much better off without that section.

I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars. It does have its dumb cliché moments, but it is still a good movie that I did not regret seeing. The characters are interesting with believable motivations. The relationship dynamics are entertaining, and there are some parts that made me laugh. It is worth at least renting when it comes to Redbox. If you want to see it in theatres, I do not think you would be disappointed seeing it at matinee price.

For more details on what I base my ratings off of, visit http://criticalchristopher.blogspot.com/2014/01/defining-rating-criteria.html

Content: Rated PG-13. There is moderate language throughout including one "f" word that I do not personally remember hearing (I know about it because of IMDB's parents guide). There is quite a bit of crude humor and sexual content that might not be appropriate for children. There are boxing fights with hard hits and some blood, but there is nothing too gory.

Topic for Comment: What is your favorite fighting movie and why?