Grudge Match

Raging Bull and Rocky, two of the greatest movies about boxing ever, and sports in general really. Both films have stood the test of time and both deserve the status they have earned as true classics. As for the stars, yeah, I guess Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone are pretty cool. So 30-plus years after those movies hit theaters, the two stars are united in an interesting quasi-follow-up, 2013's Grudge Match. What's the verdict?

In the mid 1980s, boxers Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen (De Niro) and Henry 'Razor' Sharp (Stallone) become huge fan favorites with their ever-growing rivalry. McDonnen wins the first fight, Sharp winning the rematch soon after. When a third fight is brought up, Sharp decides to retire instead, leaving the potential for a grudge match just hanging in the air. Sharp retires to work in a factory while McDonnen continues to fight, becoming a spokesman and product pitchman while opening up his own bar in Pittsburgh. Some 30 years later though, that decisive third match is a distinct possibility as Dante Slate Jr. (Kevin Hart), the son of the promoter who worked with both fighters in the 80s, offers them a handsome payday if they agree to fight once more. This isn't just a rivalry anymore though. These two guys hate each other to the point they can't even be in the same room together. Can they hold it together long enough to train for the fight?

My first response when I saw this trailer last fall was simply "No.....just no." I didn't think it looked good in the least. It looked cheesy, cliched and just trying too hard to reclaim past magic from both stars. You know what? I was right on all accounts. You know what else? I was right, and I don't care in the least. Going in with pretty low expectations basically across the board, I ended up liking this sports comedy from director Peter Segal a whole lot. It is cheesy and cliched, but it embraces those aspects rather than trying to avoid them (or worse, trying to avoid them but actually embracing them). 'Grudge' struggled in theaters last Christmas, recouping its 40-plus million budget and little else, as waves of negative reviews convinced people to stay away. Familiar -- maybe too familiar -- it is, but I liked this one as a harmless entertaining sports flick that offers some good laughs.

Come on now, it's Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone. With their respective roles in Raging Bull and Rocky, both actors deserve an all-time space in the Sports Movie Hall of Fame (Look it up, it exists. I swear). Now obviously the drama just isn't as big here. The lead parts aren't so dramatically heavy. People forget sometimes, but Stallone can freaking act when he wants to. De Niro has done more fun movies over recent years than heavy dramatic parts, those choices earning him some hate on any number of message boards. What's wrong with two legendary movie stars and actors having some fun? Of the two, De Niro represents himself well. It's a goofy, over the top story with goofy, over the top characters, and De Niro commits to the part. Stallone looks to be sleepwalking at times, but their scenes together have an enjoyable, funny chemistry. Their bitching and moaning at each other provides some great one-liners in the movie's best moments.

It can't all be old guys busting each other though, can it? Unfortunately not. We get some family drama thrown into the mix, some of it providing some good moments, but mostly, it's just too familiar and cliched. Much of the drama comes from Kim Basinger as Sally, Razor's girlfriend who slept with Billy years before right in the midst of their boxing rivalry. The result of that hook-up? Billy has an estranged son, B.J. (Jon Bernthal), who will now help train the old man while also introducing him to his grandson, the type of movie kid that speaks like no kid ever. Alan Arkin gets the fun, flashy supporting part as Razor's former manager and trainer, "Lightning" Conlon, now relegated to a nursing home. Hart too is pretty funny, his scenes with Arkin offering some memorable lines. Even LL Cool J makes an appearance as a gym owner and trainer. Good cast, decent parts.

Nothing too out of the ordinary here with an enjoyable, familiar formula. We get a couple sports training montages as our two 50-something out of shape fighters get back into shape, editing that in with the less interesting personal drama. The best moments come from Stallone and De Niro reigniting their rivalry with one whackier situation after another. The stop-motion video game capture scene goes especially well, Razor and Kid beating the crap out of each other. I also liked their skydiving gimmick gone horrifically wrong.

Is this especially smart humor? No, not by a long shot, but it is fun. The final fight is nothing too flashy, going for a safe ending. The end credits have some good cameos too from boxing personalities, fighters, on-air commentators and some ESPN sportscasters. An entertaining movie, one that's easy to sit back and watch for a couple hours. Nothing more, nothing less. If you're looking for something more, go watch Raging Bull and Rocky again. And how about that poster, not enhanced at all?

Grudge Match (2013): ***/****

L.A. Confidential

In its heyday, the film noir genre turned out more than its fair share of classic movies in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These were tough stories often shot in black and white with a typically cynical view of the world. Tough guy actors like Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan dotted these stories which appealed to audiences then and especially now over 60 year later. But as great as some of these movies were, they were limited by the times they were made in with censorship and production codes keeping a tight rein on these stories.

No such problem in 1997 when L.A. Confidential was released in theaters with a moderate success in theaters and almost complete critical acclaim. Director Curtis Hanson revisits much of what made film noir popular with this hard-bitten, rough-edged movie. Hanson uses Los Angeles extensively in location shooting, and much like 1974's Chinatown did, produces a feeling of what the city must have felt like in the past. With no censors holding him back, the story is blunt and straightforward, full of language and violence that never seems extreme and is almost always essential to the story. This one slipped by me since its release, but am I ever glad I caught up with it.

Based on a novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential has a plot that is pretty near impossible explaining here without giving away many of the key twists and turns it takes. Anyways, here's the gist of it. It's 1953 Los Angeles where the LAPD is full of corruption and scandal with three very different cops stepping into the limelight. First, there's Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), a rising star on the force looking to make a name for himself the right way, the moral way. Second, there's Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a veteran of the force and a bit of a celebrity for his work with 'Badge of Honor,' a thinly veiled Dragnet rip-off. Don't be confused though, Vincennes is a good cop, even if he may take some shortcuts in his detective work. And last, there's Bud White (Russell Crowe), a brutish homicide detective not above planting some evidence or beating a confession out of a suspect.

Not always working together, the three officers are all involved in one way or another with a massacre at a little diner where 5 people, including a former cop, were murdered, apparently by three young black men wielding shotguns. But as the trio soon figures out, everything is not so cut and dry as it seems. It's nice to see a deeply-layered story like this that requires the viewer to pay attention to each and every scene, every line of dialogue. Even paying close attention, the story is so convoluted and full of twists and turns that it can be hard to follow. Never fear though, the last 30 minutes wraps everything up nicely with an impressive body count too.

Movies with a big ensemble cast have always appealed to me, and this is one of the best. Pearce, Spacey and Crowe all bring something different to their parts, cops who are very different but also very similar. They go about things differently, but they want the same results. Joining them in the cast is Kim Basinger who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her part as Lynn Bracken, a high-price callgirl involved with Crowe's White and the case they're all working. Often more recognized for her good looks than her acting chops, Basinger delivers a strong performance as a woman who ends up as a pawn in a huge conspiracy. Rounding out the cast are James Cromwell as commissioner Dudley Smith, Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens, a paparazzi before there was TMZ, and David Strathairn as Pierce Patchett, a millionaire working with the movies, cops, drug dealer and prosititutes.

Racking up Oscar nominations in 1997 like crazy, but only winning two -- stupid Titanic -- this is one of those movies that has it all from casting to cinematography to a great understated score from Jerry Goldsmith. It's a throwback to the movies of classic Hollywood, the Golden Age of movies, albeit with a lot more language, cursing and graphic violence. LA Confidential has a professional feeling hovering around it that too often movies are lacking. Can't recommend this one enough, although the final scene does have a bit of a cop-out. Small potatoes I guess in the bigger picture.

L.A. Confidential <----trailer (1997): ****/****

Netflix review #19: Never Say Never Again

It's the red-headed stepchild of the Bond series that no one's quite sure what to make of. But it's got Sean Connery back in the role that he made famous so it's got to be worth mentioning, right? That movie is 1983's Never Say Never Again, an unofficial entry into the James Bond series released the same year as Octopussy.

Making his 7th appearance as OO7, Connery is back after a 12-year absence since Diamonds Are Forever. Roger Moore had capably filled in his shoes for six movies already, but for whatever reason, Connery returned to the role. If you're thinking you've let some new, original Bond story slip by you, don't get excited. 'Never' follows the same storyline as Thunderball, one of my personal top 5 Bond movies. There's differences from the original, it's not a scene-for-scene remake, but I wouldn't recommend watching them back to back.

That was one of my issues with the remake. If Connery's coming back as James Bond, why would you remake one of his movies? And one that didn't need to be remade at that. Maybe the creators and producers were going for the comfort food factor, audiences liked the original and they'll like this one because we tell them to. If it was a stand alone movie with no original to compare it to, it would get higher marks, but unfortunately it isn't nearly as good as Thunderball.

The movie starts with a good opening sequence (with Bond theme inserted) as Bond tries to rescue a kidnapped princess from a heavily-guarded South American compound. The OO's have been deactivated, but now M (Edward Fox) is forced to bring them back into action. Two nuclear warheads have been stolen by SPECTRE, and NATO is given one week to pay up or have two key locations wiped off the face of the Earth. Clues lead Bond to a man named Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) where he begins his globe-trotting adventures that take him to the Bahamas, the French Riviera, and North Africa.

Connery slides back into the part nicely although he does look a little too old for the part, much like Moore did in his later efforts. But even then, I'm nitpicking, it's always fun to see the best Bond around back in action. As good as the others are, Moore, Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby, Connery will always be the best. In the rivals department, Barbara Carrera plays Latima Flush, a SPECTRE killer who revels in her job. Maybe a little crazy, she loves nothing more than finishing off her kill.

Brandauer as Largo is more back to the villains of the Connery movies. No supervillains here, just some royally bad dudes working for SPECTRE looking to cause mayhem and chaos around the world. Max von Sydow even has a small part as Ernest Blofeld, but it's only a scene or two. Depending on whether you count 'Never' as an official Bond movie, Kim Basinger is right at the top as one of the hottest Bond girls. Made in 1983, this movie gets away with more in the way of nudity than the 60s movies did. We're not talking gratuitous nude shots every scene, but Basinger spends most of the movie in short/sheer/see-through outfits. No complaints of course, just pointing it out.

I could stop there with the cast, but there's some other parts worth mentioning. Q is played by Alec McCowen and puts a different spin on Bond's gadget master, and Fox breathes some life into M. For a trivia question, it's Bernie Casey and not Geofrey Wright that played the first black Felix Leiter. And in one odd choice of casting, Rowan Atkinson, later Mr. Bean, plays an embassy officer working with Bond.

Where Thunderball is remembered for some great action scenes, especially the underwater finale with spear guns, the remake falls short. One no-holds barred fistfight is a good one, seen here, as a recuperating Bond takes on a much bigger, stronger SPECTRE killer. A chase late in the movie as Bond runs from Latima and her henchmen has some cool stunts s well including a fiery end. But overall, something's missing. Parts are too tongue in cheek while others just fall flat. And it does hurt when the James Bond theme can't be used. It's easily one of the most recognizable things about the series.

The DVD is somewhat overpriced at almost $15, but it's a good package. Widescreen presentation looks clean all the way through, but the only special feature is a short trailer. An average and unofficial Bond movie worth seeing for Connery's return and Kim Basinger, I'd say rent Never Say Never Again before buying it.

Never Say Never Again (1983): ** 1/2 /****