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If
fifty is the new thirty, then what does that make sixty? In the new
comedy, Grudge Match, we’re told that hitting the senior decade does not
automatically put one out to pasture and neither does it necessarily
make one any wiser.
Billy
"The Kid" McDonnen was a contender, but that was a very long time ago.
Now in his sixties, the former boxing champ has leveraged his fame into
a lucrative career as - what else? - a used car salesman and is still
regarded as a minor local celebrity. While Billy is doing well, his
greatest pugilistic rival, Henry "Razor" Sharp is facing the plight of
many Americans when he and his fellow shipyard workers are laid off.
It’s at this low time that Dante, a wily boxing promoter, tempts the
two men with the proposition of ending their decades-old in-ring feud
once and for all. The idea of the sixty-year-olds getting into fighting
trim for a bout that would be worth any viewer’s while is utterly
ridiculous; especially to the boxers themselves. However, the idea of
resolving their professional and personal rivalry, the lure of financial
gain and perhaps some recaptured glory eventually hooks the geriatric
gladiators. Refusing to be thwarted by the world’s mockery, Dante’s
social media skills come into play and after his YouTube clips of some
candid and contentious moments between the old foes go viral, the fight
transforms from a laughing stock to being so crazy that it just might
work.
It’s
odd to think that both the god of acting, Robert De Niro - who made Taxi
Driver - and Sylvester Stallone - who made Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot
and The Expendables (Entertaining, but not exactly the stuff of
Olivier) - both have stood victorious on the Oscar stage: De Niro
for Raging Bull and Stallone’s magnum opus, Rocky, won Best Picture of
1976. It might also be easy to forget that Grudge Match is not the
first time these Italian-American icons have appeared together in a
film; they costarred in the excellent drama Cop Land in 1997. These are
a couple of old Hollywood lions that have seen it all and the pairing of
the two in the very funny Grudge Match is much more successful than one
might suppose. Giving De Niro the flashier, sillier role of the
unrepentant reprobate, Billy, who is only too happy to reap the
still-abundant spoils of his faded glory, was a good move. De Niro does
seem to like to cut loose (as demonstrated at the expense of a
training partner in one gag scene) in his comedies and break away
from the intense dramatic roles that are still his hallmark. Billy’s
spent his entire life running from any real responsibility and is fine
with that until the day the grown son he’s never met comes through the
door. Even this potentially momentum-killing development is handled
with just enough pathos to get across the intended homily about Billy’s
wastrel life, but remembering it’s a comedy, doesn’t linger long enough
to go saccharine. Stallone’s Henry is quieter, more solemn and
sensible; he would just as soon forget his boxing days, even initially
rejecting the guys’ shared femme fatale when she comes back into their
lives … initially. Stallone is best at more backhand humour with a
drier delivery, making Henry the perfect contrast to Billy’s broader
laughs. The lines are sharp and so is the sniping back and forth
between the two men, fueled in part by the kinetic energy and whipsmart
timing of Kevin Hart. His Dante, the wannabe love child of Don King and
Butch Lewis, is the one who pulls the senior citizens into this mess in
the first place.
Yes,
there are certainly the jokes about aging that would be expected in a
“comedy” involving the AARP sector, but thankfully, they steer fairly
clear of Geritol, hip pain or Viagra. The humour tends to spring more
from the characters’ clashing personalities and often from the
observations of Henry’s old trainer, Louis "Lightning" Conlon, played by
the excellent, acerbic Alan Arkin. With his hats, hearing aid, cardigans
and ego-deflating comments to his charge, Lightning seems to be a
quasi-tribute to Burgess Meredith’s Rocky manager, Mickey. There
are several in-jokes throughout Grudge Match, like Stallone as Henry
imbibing raw eggs and his assumption that his and Lightning’s visit a
meat locker is meant for training by punching sides of beef - he is
hilariously mistaken. The dartboard at Billy’s dealership features the
face of the 1976-era Stallone as its bull’s-eye, which may have been
inspired by the fact that Rocky beat out Taxi Driver as Best Picture
that year. Even the films’ setting of Pittsburgh seems like a reference
to Rocky’s beloved Philadelphia. There is a false note in the romantic
triangle involving Billy, Henry and Sally, played by Kim Basinger; we
don’t know where this woman who had such a huge role in their lives came
from and her scenes with the guys, clearly meant to bring the emotion
and regrets aspect into the film, feel obligatory and slow down the
momentum. Still, we have many other mirthful moments such as the guys’
candid opinions on Mixed Martial Arts, “We had a name for guys that
kicked when they fought – Girls.”
Grudge
Match surprises with its fast-paced, sharp laughs and its atypical take
on aging. I wouldn’t mind seeing Stallone and De Niro take up the
mantle of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau for a new generation of battlin’
old dudes comedies if they keep it as self-effacing and entertaining as
this.
PS:
The Easter Egg at the film’s credits is absolutely perfect. Maybe those
two need a movie, as well.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
Dec.
24th, 2013
We
have our own wee Easter Egg:
LMD
had the opportunity to sit in on the
Grudge Match
press conference and asked a question of
Sylvester Stallone
and Director
Peter Segal
with a small chime in from
Robert De Niro.
The Lady Miz Diva: Mr.
Stallone, Grudge Match isn’t the first time either yourself or Mr. De
Niro have done movies set around a boxing ring. What is it about that
boxing that makes such fertile cinematic ground for telling life
stories?
Sylvester Stallone: Well, first of all, I would ask the director why
he chose boxing. {To Peter Segal} Why that format?
Peter Segal: Well, I’ve heard you say the same thing; it’s a
metaphor for life: Life knocks you down and what makes a person is if
you can get back up again. What attracted me to this story was the
second chances. As a matter of fact, only about nine minutes of the
movie is really boxing, the rest is about relationships and people;
fathers and sons, girls and boys and coming to terms with your age. I
think setting it against the background of boxing seemed really
appropriate.
SS:
I agree. You know, it’s funny, Rocky ... {To Robert De Niro}
What was the name of yours again? Raging …
Robert De Niro: Raging Bull.
SS:
Raging Bullwinkle. Nah, I’m just kidding. I think that they’re not
boxing movies or documentaries; they are biographies and these guys
happen to be fighters. But boxing is just… everyone knows what it’s
like to be frustrated and wanna fight back on any emotional level and
that’s what we pull from. I just have an affinity for it, so does he {gesturing
to De Niro}, so do a lot of people, and that’s why there’s probably
more boxing films done than any other kind of film possible. Except to
get probably past the Hays Code where you can basically be in your
underwear and sweaty for two hours and you’d get through the code at
that time.
And
I’d like say, too, because I never got to say it is what really made
this thing fly is the inspired casting of Kevin Hart. It brought in a
whole new demographic and it really was inspired casting. It’s one
thing to see grumpy old men fight, then you bring in Kevin Hart and I
thought, “Wow!” Of course, Kim Basinger brings in the sensuality to it.
So, I thought it was very, very clever. He could just yawn and it’s
funny. You know what I mean? It just does it.
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