Really old ex-boxers resume 30-year rivalry

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2014)

Grudge Match does three things: (i) contend that Us Old Farts can still rise to an occasion; (ii) show True Love finding a way after a 30-year break; and (iii) exercise the knowing wit of intertextuality. The first two are obvious in the plot so I'll just focus on the third.
This is less a film about its characters than a film about the stars' personae from their earlier work. The Kid (Robert De Niro) is an ex-champ who lost the title when he was out of condition and now runs a supper club where he does stand-up comedy. That's extended shorthand for De Niro's Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. Razor (Sylvester Stallone) is fully drawn out of his Rocky persona, the blue collar lug with heart who wins his fights by sustaining brutal punishment. As in their earlier roles, De Niro is the more violent and irresponsible, though the last round of their battle allows him redemption..
The more you know of the earlier films, the more chuckles of recognition you will enjoy here. Scene after scene plays wittily against the actors' persona, or continuing image. When Razor's trainer Lightning (Alan Arkin) tells him not to punch the hanging carcasses, he's stopping Razor/Stallone's replay of the meat-beating scene in Rocky. The lowered horizon shot of Razor jogging behind Arkin's wheelchair is a bathetic echo of the first film's poetic training. The later Rocky's recovery of his alienated son is here transferred to De Niro while the classier sex prize goes to Stallone. Fair swap.
For that matter, all of Alan Arkin's many jokes — by and against him — cohere with his recent cycle of Acerbic Geezer frolics. The film's satire of the sport's hucksterism, all the promotional gimmicks and media play, reflect ironically on the film's very being. Like the hapless promoter's schemes, this film is a deliberate commercialization of its stars' established images. But the top-notch script and Peter Segal's direction admit that and leave us to enjoy the fun. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.