It came a few decades too late

Rating: 4/10 (28 March 2014)

Sylvester Stallone is better remembered for playing Rocky Balboa, the underdog boxer from the Oscar-winning 'Rocky' and its subsequent franchise. Robert De Niro, among an outstanding career of many memorable characters, might be remembered firstly for his Oscar-winning performance as Jake LaMotta, a real-life boxer. Both characters and performances are noteworthy and quite consistent with real boxing.
'Grudge Match' pretty much screams the question of which was best, Rocky Balboa or Jake LaMotta, by means of pitting their actors one against the other in another boxing film.
The problem with this is the same that other recent Stallone films have had. It came too late. Like with Schwarzenegger in 'Escape Plan', or the other old action stars in the 'The Expendables' franchise, Stallone pits himself against another heavyweight old-timer far past the time where such pairing would truly have their impact (AKA the 80's and possibly early 90's).
It doesn't help that the whole story is just an enormous walking cliché; it feels like another entry on the 'Rocky' franchise. It is not just the confrontation that is outdated, but the entire plot; their rivalry, the underdog storyline Stallone often has on his films, a father/son redemption storyline, the emotional final fight and 'tense' 'who was the winner?' finale... It has been done so many times, it is tediously predictable.
The cast is quite good, though. Stallone does play a sluggish boxer well, which is pretty much why Rocky has kept going. Meanwhile, De Niro plays the same arrogant type he did with LaMotta; he is nowhere nearly as good as he was on that film, but he is still very good to watch. Alan Arkin is another really good one, playing the kind of cynical character he is often at best with; the actors playing De Niro's son and grandson are also quite good.
Kim Basinger is uneventful, another point in which the film seems to have come from the 80's (where I guess she was a big thing). I didn't like Kevin Hart at all either. Being labeled as a rising comedian star, I actually thought for a moment during his first scene that it was Chris Rock: unfunny, with an irritating voice and mannerisms and hopelessly bad acting. But then, considering many of modern comedians like Jack Black, Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell, he might get far.
Despite this all, I can't really be too hard on this flick. It is not meant to be serious, just a silly comedy with a interesting (at first glance) premise. It manages to be interesting at times, a lot thanks to its very good main cast, and the actual boxing scenes are good enough (plus seeing Chael Sonnen being knocked out was priceless); yet, even then, it is not a great comedy either and no moment where I can say I truly laughed out loud.
Then again, considering its director and writers, 'Grudge Match' is not half-bad. Just keep low expectations, and you might even enjoy it.