Grudge Match
Dir: Peter Segal
2013
***
Grudge Match is the story of a re-match between two aged boxers with a 30 year grudge against each other. An okay premise, but when the two boxers in question are Rocky Balboa and Jake La Motta (Sylvester Stallone's Rocky and Robert De Niro's Raging Bull) it becomes a seriously exciting premise. Not only is it an interesting thing to see the two fictional versions of Rocky and La Motta fight it out, it is also interesting to see the two actors fight it out. Both Rocky and Raging Bull are recognised as the best boxing films of all time, I personally can't pick a favorate of the two and I'm sure I'm not alone, so the film plays on this premise perfectly. Rocky also beat Taxi Driver in the 1977 Oscars, although neither man won best actor that year, De Niro did win best actor for Raging Bull 4 years later. It's been an even fight ever since and although there are similarities to Rocky's last outing, Rocky Balboa, it is good natured and very tongue in cheek. It's not all good though. The script lets the story down and Kevin Heart's character became a little tedious towards the end. All in all though, the back story and the out of the ring scenes were pretty well thought out with the cliches forgivable and at a minimum. It's wry, likable and good clean fun.