"One of the 50 Coolest Websites...they simply tell it like it is" - TIME
Grudge Match | 2013 | PG-13 | - 5.5.5
Two retired Pittsburgh boxers (Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro) reluctantly agree to record footage for a video game and their long-time rivalry resurfaces and their disagreements go viral on social media. Seen by promoters, the two receive offers for commercials and a highly publicized grudge match to settle old scores. Also with LL Cool J, Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, Kim Basinger and Jon Bernthal. Directed by Peter Segal. [1:53]
SEX/NUDITY 5 - An older man and a younger woman dance in a club and leave together; later, sitting up suddenly from the back seat of a car, we see the older man wearing only boxer shorts and the woman wearing a bra (we see his bare chest, shoulders, arms and briefly, his lower thighs; and we see her bare shoulders, arms, cleavage and her abdomen); a little boy in the front seat later says that he saw a naked woman. A man kisses a woman briefly in a boxing ring.
► At a motel, four prostitutes hang around wearing short coats and skirts that reveal most of their thighs. In a clinic examination room, a doctor squeezes transparent gel onto his rubber-gloved hand, walks behind a man bent over the table facing the camera and the man groans, suggesting an rectal exam. Several scenes include many shirtless men wearing boxing shorts extending to mid-thigh and we see bare chests, backs and a few tattoos. A gym features a painting of a boxer wearing trunks and shoes, but shirtless (bare chest and abdomen are shown). A man appears in an underwear ad poster, wearing a T-shirt and briefs, revealing bare legs to the thigh. A few women at a boxing match wear low-cut gowns that reveal bare arms and moderate cleavage. A woman on a dance show wears a long gown slit to the top of the thigh and reveals significant cleavage. In a yoga class, women wear clingy leotards and tights, revealing curves and some cleavage at the necklines. Women wearing bikinis walk around a boxing ring with signs announcing round numbers; they reveal bare shoulders, arms, moderate cleavage, abdomen, thighs, buttocks and lower legs. A ventriloquist's puppet wears only boxing trunks and the body has no detailed features.
► A man tells a woman that she would be a smoking hot bald lady if she ever lost her hair. In a holding cell in a jail, one man says about another man, "Would someone please hurry up and rape this guy?" One man says about another man who is not present, "I banged his girlfriend. I knocked her up." A man and a woman argue in a diner in front of their grandson; the woman says that she loved only two men, but not the grandfather, because he slept with her sister and then her best friend. A man in a gym shouts to another man, "You'll scare him so that he climbs right back up into his mother's vagina," causing women to turn around and stare in anger. An elderly man in a nursing home refuses a sponge bath, shouting that the staff person for sponge baths treats him like a scoutmaster sexually abusing a child. An elderly man twice says that he will get some snapper, meaning a sexual date, but he never does. An elderly man teases another man about a woman friend by dancing, shaking his hips and hanging his tongue out. An elderly man says that he likes big-[anatomical term deleted] blondes and that he has three white pubic hairs. A man tells his adult son that the son's initials BJ might mean blowjob; later, the adult son's small boy asks what BJ means and the grandfather says, "Butterscotch jellybeans." An elderly man tells a short man that he has not yet reached puberty. A man tells a short-haired woman that she looks like a man. A man says that MMA fighters are "girls" because they have to kick during fights. A trainer tells a rope-jumping boxer that the boxer has man boobs that bounce.
VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A man driving at night suffers a sideswipe by another car; we see and hear broken glass and see a small cut on the forehead of the man's passenger and we later see her in an ER with a small bandage on the cut. A young boy gets into an SUV and starts the vehicle with the keys left in the ignition; he drives as a police car pulls up with lights flashing and siren sounding; the boy's grandfather pops up from the back seat and shouts for the boy to put on the brakes, which he does, avoiding hitting another vehicle; the boy's father arrives to retrieve the boy and tells the grandfather to stay away from them.
► A 10-round boxing match between two retired boxers shows many punches to the head, face, and body; one boxer punches the other boxer after the bell, one boxer has cuts over his eye that bleed and his eye swells shut, the other boxer has cuts on his nose and face that bleed, and one man falls to one knee at one point and the other man falls face down twice (no clear knockout occurs); trainers, coaches, friends, and audience members shout loudly throughout the match and both men become sweaty with sweat is flying as some punches to the face land in close-up and sweat and blood run down both fighters' faces; trainers are shown covering cuts with small bandages.
► During commercial filming, a man pushes a second man out of an airplane, then jumps out and chases him, reminding him to open his parachute and opening his own; one of the men hits the side of a van on landing, but is unharmed.
► A man wearing a motion capture suit covered with lighted sensors knocks over a standing punching bag when another man wearing a similar suit enters the room; the two men shout at each other and then fight, smashing equipment across each other's backs, breaking glass windows with loud crashes, and rolling on the floor; an animated video of the two men as boxers shows one man slamming a safe on top of the other man and flattening him.
► Ringside at an MMA match, two boxers argue with an announcer and an MMA fighter; the MMA man slaps a boxer in the face, but the boxer quickly knocks the MMA man out with one punch. Footage of boxing matches and real time scenes of men training in gyms feature men punching each other in the face and abdomen, and some knocked out and falling to the mat. An older man punches a trainer in the stomach, causing the trainer to double over and shout, "Ouch!" An older man knocks out a younger sparring partner. A man appears to hit something off screen, but we do not see it.
► During commercial filming for a casino, a man says that gambling is cancer and another man begins shoving him around. Several loud arguments occur between boxers and their trainers and promoters, between two boxers, between MMA fighters and boxers, and between a man and his adult son. An elderly man in a nursing home complains about the staff giving poor sponge baths and shots so loudly that he is audible through the halls; the director of the home tells the man to find another place to live. The owner of a club called Knocked Out argues briefly with a female heckler.
► A boxer tells a woman that he dreams of killing another boxer; that night, the other boxer throws stones through two of the first man's house windows, shattering them with loud crashes and shouts at him.
► A boxer in training picks up the edges of huge tractor tires and overturns them; he later pulls a car and then a semi-truck by ropes tied to a body harness and the car hits him in the buttocks (without injury) and slides into a ditch.
► In a clinic examination room, a doctor squeezes transparent gel onto his rubber-gloved hand, walks behind a man bent over the table facing the camera and the man groans, suggesting an rectal exam. A boxer drinks a glassful of six raw eggs, some of which run down his shirt. In a meat factory where sides of beef hang from a ceiling, a boxer punches one but his trainer stops him.
► A boxer over trains and vomits a yellow substances into a trashcan and a man sitting nearby on a bench becomes ill and vomits a yellow and orange substance onto the floor. A trainer has a boxer soak his hands in greenish-yellow horse urine. A trainer has a friend soak his feet in horse urine without telling him what it is; the friend asks about the smell and the trainer only grins. We hear that a boxer is blind in one eye.
LANGUAGE 5 - 1 clear F-word and 3 bleeped F-words (we see lips forming the "F"), 1 obscene hand gesture, 45 scatological terms, 34 anatomical terms, 24 mild obscenities, exclamations (shut-up), name-calling (crazy, stupid, insane, moron, dummy, dumb, nuts, idiot, Captain American, Mr. Sandpaper Hands, Webster, Buzz Lightyear, geriatrics, punk, whore, fat, pathetic, nerd, drunk, loudmouth, womanizer, chicken, old man, wrinkled geezer, stubborn, bum, dinosaur, trash, clown, nonsense), stereotypical references to boxers, gym owners, fight promoters, Whites, Blacks, overweight people, short people, senior citizens, men, women, gamblers, heavy drinkers, 7 religious profanities (GD), 13 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, Thanks God, Dear God, Good God, Holy God, Jesus Christ, For God's Sakes, Holy [scatological term deleted]).
SUBSTANCE USE - We see several bottles of prescription medicines on two desks in an older man's room (we cannot read the labels), a man opens a medicine cabinet and swallows a few Ibuprofen tablets without water, and we see medication bottles with indistinct labels in a medicine cabinet. Several scenes feature a bar and restaurant where men and women at tables drink beer and mixed drinks and wine, we see men and women at another restaurant with wine in glasses on their tables before them and one woman drinks some wine, a woman drinks wine in a diner, a man counts a delivery of a dozen bottles of bourbon in his office, a man drinks a glass of scotch with his breakfast pancakes, two scenes feature a crowd of people in a bar watching a boxing match on television (no one drinks any alcohol), a boxer says in an interview that the only shots he wants to take are Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker Red, a man leaves his young grandson alone and sitting in a bar where men and women are seen drinking mixed drinks, a man uses a 12-pack of beer as a booster seat for his grandson, and men spray champagne from bottles around a restaurant before opening time.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Aging, boxing, MMA tournaments, fight injuries, relationships, love, gambling, alcoholism, children, single parents, responsibility, conflict, resolving grudges, reconciliation.
MESSAGE - Life's problems need immediate attention in order to prevent grudges. Senior citizens are still productive people.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Heretic - 3.6.3
Conclave - 1.2.2
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - 1.3.2
Memoir of a Snail - 6.6.4
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $1/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we don't always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.