GRUDGE MATCH

Grudge Match is a 2013 movie starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro. In the film, Stallone and De Niro star as two aging boxing rivals named Razor and Kid, respectfully, who agree to one last boxing match that they agreed to fight years earlier but didn't when Razor abruptly "retired" from boxing (which isn't totally explained in the film, by the way). Apart from their boxing rivalry, there's other bad blood between Razor and Kid as Kid slept with Razor's girlfriend and wound up getting her pregnant. Kid's grown son meets with his father after his mother finally told him the truth about him after her husband who had raised him passed away and he agrees to train him for the fight much to his mother's chagrin since she hates Kid's guts. Razor at first refuses to fight his old boxing rival when the offer is first presented to him by a younger boxing promoter named Slate (played by comedian Kevin Hart) whose boxing promoter father had screwed him over financially. He reluctantly agrees because he needs the money in order to properly take care of his ailing boxing trainer (played by Alan Arkin). Along the way, Razor reunites with his ex-girlfriend to find exactly why she ended up sleeping with and getting pregnant by his boxing rival Kid. (Razor's girlfriend is played by Kim Basinger. It's actually nice to see her in a film since she's starred sporadically in movies in recent years. Personally, I feel Miss Basinger is a rather underrated actress who I feel would have had a bigger movie career had she NOT gotten hooked up with that bullying, child-abusing, homophobic D-Bag Alec Baldwin, but I digress.) The climatic boxing match between Razor and Kid might be a bit predictable--although there is a twist to the fight on Razor's part (which I, of course, won't reveal here!)--but it's still entertaining to watch. Of course, Stallone and De Niro have both starred in two of the most famous and most beloved boxing movies of all-time, namely Rocky and Raging Bull; again, respectfully. And, though Grudge Match will most likely not be as famous or as beloved as those films, it's still a pretty entertaining little film nonetheless and is a flick that I feel hasn't gotten its just deserts, at least in my view. And, while it's entertaining to watch Stallone and De Niro's interactions in the film (they starred together previously in Cop Land), I think the most enjoyable part of the films are the highly comical interactions between Alan Arkin and Kevin Hart, though they are few and far between, at least in my view. There's also a highly comical post-credits scene which actually reunites boxing legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield as Slate tries to convince them to do a "reunion" boxing match. (Tyson, if you'll recall, infamously bit off Holyfield's ear during their one & only boxing match together.) And, again, you'll just have to watch to movie to see how THAT goes!