An embarrassment for both De Niro and Stallone with only a moderately humorous tone running through the film saving it somewhat

Rating: 4/10 (27 June 2014)

This is probably one of the easiest films to sell to the public. We have raging Robert De Niro as Billy the Kid McDonnen and the Italian Stallion Stallone as Henry Razor Sharp. The film begins in the early 80's and shows a couple of matches between the 2 protagonists. However, when both men are in their prime, Henry Razor Sharp calls time on their final match and retires. 30 years down the line, both men are talked into having that big 'grudge' match again with the guidance of self proclaimed boxing promoter Dante Slate Jnr (Kevin Hart). Both men then begin training for the big match.
The first thing that ran through my head after the first 5-10 minutes was "surely this is a joke". I really found it hard to take this film seriously for the following reasons;
OK; let's start with De Niro, is it just me or was he basically a watered down Jake La Motta (the same character he displayed in Raging Bull). Admittedly, he was nowhere near as violent or self destructive, but he is arrogant and goes through the same motions as La Motta (albeit in reverse). I had the same problem with De Niro in this film as I did with his character in Raging Bull - he was a horribly unlikeable person. The difference with that film is that it was intended as a careful character study (even though I wasn't a big fan of Raging Bull I could fully appreciate the effect it was trying to achieve - it was technically brilliant where the only problem with it was an unlikeable central character). Then we come to Stallone, he basically is Rocky Balboa all over again - likable, humble and generally down to earth - this might be OK for the undemanding viewer, but I just thought that it was really lazy to cast De Niro and Stallone as characters that they've played before. If it was intended as a parody then that would be fine, but I feel that this was meant to be a serious boxing drama (even with the humorous theme that is running through the film).
There were other problems with the film such as the casting of Kevin Hart. WTF? Was his only purpose in this film to do his best impression of Chris Tucker? If that's the case, then he succeeds as a 'poor man's version' - although haters of Tucker will probably appreciate his performances more following Hart's weak rendition. Basinger's stars in a supporting role as a 'love interest' that causes added animosity between De Niro and Stallone (I won't say anymore for fear of revealing spoilers). Suffice it to say, her character was uninteresting and had very little impact on the film.
Grudge Match was a disappointing film which basically felt like a pastiche of better films that we've seen from both De Niro and Stallone (namely Raging Bull and all the Rocky films except Rocky V). It was humorous, but it lacked a solid emotional core. The final boxing match was also plagiarised from better boxing films and again felt boring and anti- climatic. I honestly couldn't recommend this film and would suggest watching Raging Bull or any of the early Rocky films instead. At least that way, you'll be seeing both actors at the top of their game and won't have to witness both De Niro and Stallone embarrassing themselves in this mess.