New Grudge Match Movie Got Really Bad Reviews From Top Critics
New Grudge Match movie got really bad reviews from top critics. Warner Bros. Pictures dropped their new comedy/drama film, “Grudge Match” into theaters this past Wednesday, December 25th, and the top movie critics in the biz, served up their reviews. The results ended up being pretty negative, overall, as it got an overall score of 37 out of 100 across 27 critic reviews at metacritic.com. We posted a few of their snippets (below). The movie stars: Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, Jon Bernthal,and Camden Gray.
Odie Henderson at RogerEbert.com, awarded it a 63 score, stating, “Grudge Match belongs to a fast-growing genre I’ll call “Senior Citizen Action Porn,” or SCAP. Proud members of SCAP include “Red” and its sequel, “Red 2,” the “Expendables” series, and the best of the 2013 crop, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The Last Stand.”
Mark Olsen at the Los Angeles Times, gave it a 60 score. He stated, ” Grudge Match never settles on the movie it wants to be, wavering uncertainly between a jokey old-guys comedy and something more dramatic and heartfelt.” Tom Russo at the Boston Globe, gave it a 50, saying, ” Stallone and De Niro simply don’t generate enough combative spark to make this anything more than an amiably mediocre diversion.”
Peter Hartlaub from the San Francisco Chronicle, gave it a 50 score. He said, “Grudge Match at its core is an affront to the cinema gods, an attempt to capitalize off two iconic films for a few cheap laughs.” Stephanie Merry from the Washington Post, gave it a 50 score, stating, “Luckily, a strong supporting cast makes up for the protagonists’ tepid interactions. The brilliant duo of Kevin Hart and Alan Arkin steal the show.”
Andrew Barker over at Variety, gave it a 40 score, stating, ” Essentially recasting “Grumpy Old Men” with the senescent specters of Rocky Balboa and Jake LaMotta, the result is sporadically amusing, with some chucklesome sight gags and crowdpleasing supporting turns from Alan Arkin and Kevin Hart, yet it’s all so overcooked that it defeats its own purpose.”
Scott Bowles over at the USA Today team, gave it a 38 score. He said, “Grudge could have saved itself with a rousing finale, but the buildup is so tedious you just want the fight to end.” Bill Zwecker from the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it a 38, stating, “Grudge Match does not work on any level. The story is unconvincing. The comedy elements are weak… And, worst of all, the acting in most scenes, particularly those involving Sylvester Stallone and Kim Basinger — is atrocious.”
Stephen Holden from The New York Times, gave it a 30 score. He said: “An overlong, drab, not-so-funny sports comedy.” John DeFore at the Hollywood Reporter, gave it a 30 score as well, saying, “The movie only wakes up when Hart and/or Arkin are on screen (preferably together).”
Kyle Smith form the New York Post, gave it a 25 score, stating, “Even the audience at whom the movie is aimed — the crowd for whom dinner and a movie means meeting up at 3 p.m. — will be bored by the stale funk coming off every scene.”
Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News, gave it a 20 score, stating, “A director who really wanted to honor these actors’ legendary roles, rather than simply use them as a marketing hook, might have found a way to make this concept palatable. Segal (“Get Smart”) is not that director.”
Finally, when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Marc Savlov at the Austin Chronicle, gave it the lowest 0 score, claiming, ” This is a strange, unfunny, and unmoving boxing riff that simultaneously apes the hoary templates of Thirties and Forties fisticuffs films, nails cliches, and telegraphs its eventual outcome at every opportunity. A remarkably uninspired movie overall, Grudge Match is pure pablum melodrama all the way down to the final count.” Stay tuned. Follow us on Facebook by Clicking Here. Follow us on Twitter by Clicking Here.
Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Hollywood Hills on Facebook, Twitter, & Email
