Earlier today, I caught a TV spot for the upcoming film Grudge Match, due to be released on Christmas Day, starring Sylvester Stallone as he returns to a familiar setting playing a boxer who doesn't have a lot of money, which he did in Rocky, Rocky II, and Rocky Balboa. In other movies he fought Mr. T, communism, and Paulie had a robot. Then they put him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, which gave some people a heart attack.
But that is neither here nor there. In Grudge Match, the 67-year-old Stallone battles a 70-year-old Robert De Niro, who of course played Jake La Motta in the 1980 classic Raging Bull, so he's a familiar face in boxing films as well. Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, Jon Bernthal, and Kim Basinger also star.
I guess beyond even the dorky premise of the movie, I'm a little concerned that it's directed by Peter Segal, who did helm Tommy Boy back in 1995, but followed that up with a series of turds -- My Fellow Americans, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, three Adam Sandler movies (Anger Management, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard), and the 2008 Get Smart movie, which I actually thought was alright, honestly, but most people didn't care for it.
The good news is that Segal has experience directing old, respected actors in crappy movies, as the late, great Jack Lemmon starred in My Fellow Americans, and Jack Nicholson was alongside Sandler in Anger Management. So that's something!
I dunno. This looks like it could be decent if you're not taking it seriously and just viewing it as a heartwarming, fluffy holiday movie that everyone can enjoy. But it could easily be garbage.
I have no big point to this, I just wanted to see if any of y'all were interested at all in this movie, or if you plan to see it, or whatever. It caught my eye today. Here's a BLOG about it.