Not as bad as I fear

Rating: 5/10 (4 June 2014)

Henry 'Razor' Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen (Robert De Niro) were the toughest of rivals. At the height of their rivalry with a big fight coming up, Razor abandons his boxing career and retires after Billy gets his girlfriend Sally Rose pregnant. Now 30 years later, Razor is working a lunch box job while Billy is still living off of his past success. Dante Slate Jr. (Kevin Hart) is the son of their late former promoter who comes to them with a job for a video game. Billy ambushes Razor at the video game taping and starts a fight. The fight goes viral and Dante has a new opportunity. He offers them $100k each to fight for real. Razor gets his old trainer Louis Conlon (Alan Arkin) to help. Sally (Kim Basinger) and the long lost son B.J. (Jon Bernthal) re-enter their lives.
It's not as horrible as I feared. The big problem is that most of the jokes don't work. Even the red hot Kevin Hart can't solve that problem. He's not in it enough anyways. This movie almost works with the dysfunctional personal drama, but it's a little too slow. Kim Basinger and Stallone have very awkward chemistry. DeNiro has a better time with his new family. It's a lot of geezer jokes and geezer training. There are a couple of smirk-worthy moments like Razor almost punching the slabs of meat or Alan Arkin having fun with Kevin Hart. The movie has its moments but the ending drags on and on. It turns into way too serious of a fight. Stallone just can't let go of Rocky. Peter Segal is not a favored comedic director of mine. This does not improve my opinion of him.