Grudge Match parents guide

Grudge Match Parent Guide

Spending the time and money to watch "Grudge Match" may end up on your regret list.

Overall C-

Sylvester Stallone steps back into the boxing ring, this time as an aging pugilist who has agreed to stage a grudge match between himself and a competitor (Robert De Niro) he hasn't faced in 30 years.

Release date December 25, 2013

Violence B-
Sexual Content C
Profanity C-
Substance Use C

Why is Grudge Match rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Grudge Match PG-13 for sports action violence, sexual content and language.

Run Time: 113 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

What says “holiday entertainment” better than two old men in a boxing ring! Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro play old rivals who split wins 30 years ago. Now they are being coaxed out of retirement to fight a deciding grudge match.

The reasons for the fight are many, though none of them really make sense. Henry ‘Razor’ Sharp (Stallone) is paying the medical bills for his former trainer Louis ‘Lightening’ Conlon (Alan Arkin). Lightening, the crude-mouthed octogenarian, has just been ousted from his care center for talking nasty and hassling the employees. Razor is already behind on his bills. Now he has to find new housing arrangement for his trainer. In the meantime Razor is laid off from his blue-collar job on the docks.

Billy ‘The Kid’ McDonnen (De Niro) has been luckier with his post-boxing career. He owns a little bar and spends a fair amount of time sampling the product. He’s still a womanizer, an egotist and a partier. He also has something to prove after losing to Razor in their last match.

Finally Dante Slate, Jr. (Kevin Hart), the man who’s organizing the fight, wants to become a talent agent. Right now he lives in a rundown hotel, but if he can get enough support behind the event, he’s hoping to erase the bad image his father left in the industry and make a name for himself as a boxing promoter.

None of the causes seem sufficient to warrant such a spectacle. And the fact that they could hope to garner an audience—in the era when mixed martial arts is gaining popularity—seems even more ridiculous. Luckily there’s social media. At a chance meeting, the two men begin sparring, and thanks to bystanders with cell phones, their brawl quickly goes viral. Apparently watching a couple of old guys destroy a sound stage is entertaining enough to sell tickets to a rematch.

The boxers are stereotypical stock characters. Razor is the good-hearted underdog whose unemployed buddies from the shipyard are betting their last dollars on him. He takes an old school approach to training that includes drinking raw eggs and a trip to the butcher shop. (He stops just short of running up the stone steps of a museum—all features of another Stallone boxing flick- Rocky.) The Kid is a self-absorbed braggart who tries to buy his way to the best trainer in town. He gets an opportunity to change his tune, yet he’s hesitant to take it. While the script attempts to build sympathy for both characters, it’s not hard to predict the outcome of this movie.

Unfortunately in the interim, the audience is assaulted by the former trainer’s crude verbal commentary along with sexually suggestive and crude utterances from a host of other characters. A car accident and some sports violence result in bloody facial injuries., Still, this is not the kind of hard-hitting pugilism you see in either Rocky or Cinderella Man.

As events unfold, including a draining training schedule and the reappearance of people from the past, one character says he decides to fight because he has had too many regrets in life. He doesn’t want this to be another one. Sadly, spending the time and money to watch Grudge Match may end up on your regret list.

Directed by Peter Segal. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Kim Basinger, Alan Arkin. Running time: 113 minutes. Theatrical release December 25, 2013. Updated

Grudge Match
Rating & Content Info

Why is Grudge Match rated PG-13? Grudge Match is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sports action violence, sexual content and language.

Violence: Sports violence includes punching, a kick to the groin and brief mixed martial arts action. Some bloody injuries are shown. Characters are knocked out. Characters are involved in a car accident that leaves one of them with a cut on the head.

Sexual Content: A man repeatedly talks about his sexual exploits including getting a woman pregnant. A character has implied sexual encounter in the back seat of a car is implied between an older man and a much younger woman (only bare shoulders are shown). Numerous crude terms for body parts, prostitutes and sexual acts are repeatedly used. A reference is made to inappropriate interactions with a scoutmaster. A man brags about his sexual activities. A man makes a comical quip about raping a fellow prisoner. Girls are shown in bikinis.

Language: The script contains frequent profanities, scatological slang and terms of Deity, along with crude terms for sexual acts and anatomy. A man uses a crude hand gesture.

Alcohol / Drug Use:A character drinks frequently, including at breakfast. His alcohol consumption is a problem during training and causes him to make other poor choices.

Other: A character soaks his hands in horse urine. Characters teach a child to lie.

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Grudge Match Parents' Guide

Do any of these characters seem to have matured during the last three decades? How does The Kid’s irresponsible behavior hurt others? Would there be a better way to resolve their grudge? How can holding on to offences impede a person?

What safety precautions would likely have been implemented for these older boxers?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Grudge Match movie is April 8, 2014. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Grudge Match

Release Date: 8 April 2014

Grudge Match releases to home video (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) with the following extras:

- The Bull & The Stallion

- In the Ring with Kevin Hart

- Ringside with Tyson & Holyfield

- Blow for Blow with Larry Holmes: Kevin Hart Unedited

- Alternate Opening

- Alternate Endings with an Introduction by Peter Segal

- Additional Deleted Scenes

Related home video titles:

Sylvester Stallone made a name for himself as an actor in the Rocky franchise. He plays a similar, aging boxer talked back into the ring in Rocky Balboa. Robert De Niro has been in the acting business since the 1960s. He can be seen in Everybody’s Fine and Awakenings.