Never too old for a Grudge Match

GRUDGE Match is a lightweight story about two geriatric former boxers who get back into the ring 30 years after their last championship fight. The comedy is forced, although there is some traction to be derived from the fact that it features two well-wrinkled actors whose careers have been defined in part by classic boxing-themed movies. Unfortunately, the mojo is mostly missing this time.

A lifetime ago, Robert De Niro (70) and Sylvester Stallone (67) starred in vastly superior films about boxers: Raging Bull (1980), director Martin Scorsese's seminal biopic about Jake LaMotta, and the original Rocky (1976), the Cinderella-story (for both Stallone and Rocky Balboa, the character he played) that led to a money-churning movie franchise.

Rocky versus the Raging Bull played for laughs must have been an appealing one-line movie pitch and a mouth-watering prospect and on the face of it, Grudge Match, directed by Peter Segal and written by Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman, is a no-brainer. The latter stages of De Niro's career are littered with comedic roles while Stallone's one-dimensional screen persona is also tailor-made for the part he plays here.