Grudge Match

Actors:  Sylvester Stallone, Robert Deniro, Kim Bassinger, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Jon Bernthal

Rating:  8 out of 10, I didn’t have high hopes for based on what I’d heard about it, but c’mon Rocky Balboa against Jake Lamotta – I was going to see this movie.  While it certainly did have its awkward moments it was very enjoyable.  They went a little overboard trying to make connections back to the Rocky movie, some more blatant than others and Kim Bassinger was completely out of her league. Stallone’s gone the lunkhead route for most of his career but he’s really not that bad an actor and more than holds his own with Deniro which is no mean task.  The movie is predicable but again, enjoyable.  It was the kind of movie I know I should dislike but I couldn’t help myself, a tribute to the two leads, ably supported by Alan Arkin, one of the funniest guys to ever draw breath.  The hardest thing to do was suspend disbelief that Stallone would not immediately mop the floor with Deniro in the ring, so maybe this was really an Oscar level turn for Deniro.

MVP:  Arkin steals every scene as the ancient trainer and is funnier than Hart