Better than I expected

Rating: 7/10 (21 April 2014)

I had heard mostly negative things about this movie, so I went into it with fairly low expectations and ended up enjoying the movie. I had a similar experience with another 2013 film of De Niro's, "The Family".
The movie's concept pretty much sells itself, it's Rocky vs. Raging Bull, the stars of the biggest boxing movies ever come together in a comedy about two rival boxers having one more fight thirty years past their prime. Stallone and De Niro are both pretty funny, and Kevin Hart and Alan Arkin are good in their supporting roles. Kim Basinger is just kind of there, her character has her place in the story but isn't particularly funny or memorable.
This isn't the kind of movie that keeps you on your toes or anything like that, it's a bit generic and the appeal of it is the novelty of seeing Stallone and De Niro together in a boxing movie, but it's still amusing and I'm not really sure what you can point to in it that makes it awful. De Niro has been criticized a fair amount over the past decade, with people saying that he's tarnishing his career with the movies he's been making recently. While I do think some of his movies have been quite awful (Little Fockers, for example), I highly doubt he'll ever tarnish his career. I've never met anyone who thinks of New Years Eve before Taxi Driver when thinking of De Niro, so I say let him do what he wants with his movies.
I recommend this movie. It isn't mandatory viewing, but it is enjoyable and better than its reputation suggests.