Old resentments come up swinging

The characters are reasonable approximations of the actors’ screen personalities. Mr. Stallone’s Henry Sharp, a.k.a. Razor, is a sincere palooka who has made big mistakes in life but remains pure of heart. Bilked out of his earnings by a former promoter, he has toiled in a Pittsburgh shipyard until the call comes to get back in the ring.Mr. De Niro’s Billy McDonnen, nicknamed the Kid, is a rowdy hard-drinking hothead and inveterate gambler who owns a successful car dealership and a restaurant. Their rivalry was big sports news back in the day, when they exchanged victories in their first two matchups. But on the eve of their tiebreaking bout, in 1983, Razor abruptly announced his retirement from boxing. Billy has been steamed ever since.What reunites them is a television special about their history that prompts a video game company to use their images. At a promotional event, taunts are exchanged and a fight breaks out. Caught on video, the scene goes viral on YouTube, and public pressure mounts for an actual rematch. Promising big bucks, Dante Slate Jr. (Kevin Hart), the son of the promoter who squandered Razor’s earnings, coaxes them back into the game. Standing blankly in the middle of the fray is Sally (Kim Basinger), the blonde who got between Razor and Billy in their glory days.“Grudge Match,” directed by Peter Segal (“Get Smart” and the 2005 remake of “The Longest Yard”) from a story by Tim Kelleher, who wrote the screenplay with Rodney Rothman, is more of an outline than a fleshed-out narrative. The back story, especially the romantic part, has no resonance. Ms. Basinger, now 60, is ravishing, but her character registers as little more than a speck in a PowerPoint presentation.“Grudge Match,” though sprinkled with tepid jokes, isn’t funny. A running motif is the nickname of Billy’s son, B. J. (Jon Bernthal), who appears in the middle of the film and becomes his father’s trainer. The screenplay belabors the meaning of those initials, one of which is “butterscotch jelly beans.” Alan Arkin as Razor’s former trainer, Lightning Conlon, is clearly ready to serve sardonic comic duty, but the jokes are too feeble to land.Whatever life “Grudge Match” stirs up emanates from the stars, stand-ins for macho couch potatoes everywhere who still dream of their athletic glory days. Mr. Stallone, 67, remains a hunk with shredded abs, although the changes in his face are alarming. There are only leftover traces of the sinewy physique that Mr. De Niro, 70, cultivated for “Raging Bull.”“Grudge Match” walks a delicate tightrope. If the movie were to be truly funny, its stars would waddle around the ring, missing punches, gasping for air and making complete idiots of themselves. That version of “Grudge Match” would belong to the now unfashionable “Grumpy Old Men” school of geriatric farce.Programs like Cenegenics and slogans like “70 is the new 50,” not to mention erectile dysfunction medications, now dominate the senior male market in our never-say-die culture. Testosterone rules, as the grunts and bellows of Rocky Balboa and his ilk echo into eternity.“Grudge Match” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for sports action violence, mild sexual content and language.Grudge MatchOpens on Wednesday.Directed by Peter Segal; written by Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman, based on a story by Mr. Kelleher; director of photography, Dean Semler; edited by William Kerr; music by Trevor Rabin; production design by Wynn Thomas; costumes by Mary Vogt; boxing consultant, Robert Sale; produced by Mr. Segal, Bill Gerber, Mark Steven Johnson, Michael Ewing and Ravi Mehta; released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes.WITH: Robert De Niro (Billy the Kid McDonnen), Sylvester Stallone (Henry Razor Sharp), Kevin Hart (Dante Slate Jr.), Alan Arkin (Louis Lightning Conlon), Kim Basinger (Sally) and Jon Bernthal (B. J.).(nytimes.com)ANN.Az