So I was wanting to watch something low brow, but not so low as Knock Knock. Sexy who has probably seen every B-rated movie in existence, suggested this.
Dont get me wrong, if you take this movie seriously its painful. Of course its not meant to be taken seriously, and it is fun watching DeNiro & Stallone act in a young mans part again. The story is simple, and the actors are almost all known in some capacity - Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, Kevin Hart, and Jon Bernthal. Bernthal (The Walking Dead) is a true actors actor, but his broken nose will probably attach him to action oriented projects.
The boy who plays his son, DeNiros grandson, was so incredibly bad......a high pitched kid whose voice penetrates with each word, stabbing into you

Camden Gray. His picture should be inserted directly into Gideons Bad Child Performances thread. If you see this boy in a movie,
stay away!
Stallone did a great job acting in CREED, but wasnt as consistent in this one. There were scenes he missed, but overall hes noticeably improved in his older years (Keanu pay attention, Keanu is
still ass). There was a pivotal scene where Stallone tells Bassinger the great secret reason why he had retired suddenly, and the director had the camera on Slys face for the whole take. Id give Slys performance in that scene a B+ to an A-, he nailed it.
Kim Bassinger plays Slys ex-girlfriend, and for the small part she had, well, Kim Bassinger can really act. Shes older now, still very attractive, and I feel if Anne Margaret could have gotten work in her older years than Kim Basinger should be able to. Other than the little kid, the only other actor I fell should have been cast better is Kevin Hart. This should have been Chris Tuckers part, (Smokey must have pissed someone off in Hollywood). Hart was funny at times, but for my taste brought "overacting and too much" to a height before unreached.
Alan Arkin played the "grumpy old man" part in this old man movie i.e. did the Burgess Meredith (Burgess did it better). In all honesty Arkin phoned this one in but is still strong enough to where hes entertaining.
Does the ending deliver? Mmm, yeah, but fair warning, the last round of the fight is
sooooo Hollywood. Thats what Grudge Match is though, a "Hollywood" movie. The Hollywood formula of 2 great known actors, a theme everyones enjoyed countless times, no creative ground broke whatsoever, and Grudge Match delivers. It was a good low-brow movie I was thoroughly entertained by.