In 1982, Henry "Razor" Sharp (Stallone) and Billy "The Kid" McDonnen (De Niro) divided the hometown Pittsburgh fans with their epic rivalry. But it was unresolved after Razor inexplicably retired. Thirty years later, Razor works in steelyards, while Kid runs a car-dealership empire. And second-generation promoter Dante (Hart) gets the crazy idea to stage the rematch that never took place. In the process, he reignites a feud that started when Kid had a fling with Razor's wife Sally (Basinger), resulting in a son BJ (Bernthal) who's now a dad himself.

The prologue cleverly uses digital trickery to show Razor and Kid's early matches before we see them as fit but rather creaky older men. Aside from the boxing scenes, the actors never break a sweat, relying on their histories while injecting just enough spark to keep us watching. The lingering feelings between Sally and Razor are undercooked, but De Niro and Bernthal nicely play the trite father-son stuff. And Arkin is reliably batty as Razor's old cohort.

Still, most of the comical sequences are squirm-inducing, including a string of ridiculous pre-match promotional stunts. Thankfully, scenes are packed with witty references to Rocky and Raging Bull. Director Segal shoots and edits everything efficiently, using more than his fair share of montage sequences and indulging oddly strained dramatic moments, including some pushy emotional scenes that come out of nowhere.

Even worse, the screenplay buckles under the pressure to fit into the standard plot formula, providing big issues for everyone at exactly the same time. We never believe for a second that the final match won't happen or that all the family issues won't be ironed out. The only question is how the script will fudge the ending so neither of them loses face, as it were. And without a more robust narrative, the movie very nearly falls apart, only holding our interest because that's De Niro and Stallone on screen giving it whatever they've got left.

themes, language, violence

11.Jan.14