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Recent releases:
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Grudge Match
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, Jon Bernthal, Camden Gray, LL Cool J, Joey Coco Diaz, Jim Lampley
Director: Peter Segal
The plot?
If you figure out youre seeing Rocky meets Raging Bull after 30 years, you wont go far wrong.
And why not?
After all, weve already had several septuagenarians having a ball in Vegas.
And here, following the pensioner-friendly vogue, the climactic televised boxing match between Stallone (67) and De Niro (70) is sponsored by the American dietary supplement Geritol.
Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothmans sentiment-saturated, dramatic-comic screenplay (De Niro reconciles with his long estranged son Jon Bernthal, Stallone finds true love with Kim Basinger) misses few clichés. Happily the affair finally comes off rather well under Peter Segals straightforward star-centred direction as pleasing switch-off-your-brain entertainment. Cineastes looking for subtext may feel themselves being starved of intellectual stimulation - but thats show business.
De Niro, whose comic timing gets better and better after such previous embarrassments as Meet the Fockers clearly enjoys himself as he trains to finally get his revenge on Stallone after three decades and doesnt mind making a fool of himself in the process. When his all-too-obvious man boobs bounce during training, the comment bad Baywatch follows. And the duos singing of the US National Anthem at a sports event is very funny indeed (unless, possibly, you are American?)
I enjoyed watching Stallone upstaging him much of the time. De Niro must have known this was likely since he persuaded Stallone to join him in Grudge Match. On screen, as also happened in the stars London press conference, De Niro seems perfectly happy to play Abbott to Stallones gag-making Costello.
Kim Basinger is fine as the catalytic girl in the show, while Alan Arkin has a ball as Slys ancient trainer, forcing the actor to drag a a car and later a giant truck and conning him into soaking his fists in a bucket of horse urine to make them more leathery.
If youre looking for Art, forget it. But if you fancy a lighthearted, star-driven show with a load of (not too vicious) fighting this will do very nicely. Just dont figure on remembering it for long.
Alan Frank
USA 2013. UK Distributor: Warner. Colour.
113 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.
Review date: 18 Jan 2014