From the fun, though poorly reviewed boxing film, Grudge Match, we have Sylvester Stallone again donning boxing gloves, playing a former Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. Inspired by the Joe Kapp/Angelo Mosca debacle that occurred when the two former (and senior citizens) Canadian Football legends fought in a video that went viral on YouTube, the scenario was replicated in a boxing forum, thus leading to an inevitable fight between the two geriatric pugilists. We won’t spoil the ending if you haven’t seen it, but the boxing match shown on the film did not do a bad job in entertaining.
The critics hated it. The movie going public didn’t care for it. It is hardly ever shown on cable reruns. It is barely remembered. Still, its star is Sylvester Stallone, an icon of the F.A.H.O.F., and though it did not deliver and was corny and somewhat unrealistic, are we wrong that we want to give “Sly” a pass? Even with that pass, the film is not great, and Stallone and company were not able to deliver a good (though visually appealing) Formula One film. That was too bad, as at that time in sports world was ready to embrace one.
We could hear Germans watching this movie and groaning. Not because of the depiction of them as the bad guys, but by the fact that an American Goalie was could be a force in a game against them. Sure, the United States have embraced soccer to the point where they are fringe World Cup contenders, but in 1981 the Americans had zero interest in the sport, beyond the first wave of badly coiffed soccer moms, so when you mix World War II (which Americans knew) with soccer (which Americans didn’t), you had a movie with sparse interest in North America; with the exception of fans of Sylvester Stallone, who was the aforementioned goalie. Stallone may look like an athlete, but was awkward looking as a goalie (which at least the movie tried to explain). This isn’t “Sly’s” best performance in an athletic role, but it is not his worst, and this is a movie worth checking out on a cable rerun. This however is not the athlete we remember most from the movie as a certain Brazilian had our attention instead.
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