I do get frustrated at times when talking about Robert De Niro who were once great and have turned in a series of lacklustre performances on similarly backed films and even turned to terribly poor comedy in order to keep their name on screen and the pay coming in. These actors were once great, but not so now.

Still I've enjoyed some of De Niro's more selective roles but he's had more bad than good, and the comedy roles have been really bad. So it's sadder to hear that he is going to be poking fun at one of his most famous roles and he's being joined by Sylvester Stallone who is going to do the same.

Oh I know Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa is not in the same league as Robert De Niro's Jake La Motta from Raging Bull but it is also marks one of the high points of his career, as does De Niro's La Motta, so why do they feel the need to parody them?

Deadline through the BBC has the story that Peter Segal, who directed that groan worthy film Get Smart, is directing a film about two long retired boxers who decide to get back in the ring for one last fight. The most recent draft is written by Doug Ellin who wrote on Entourage, so there may be some clever aspects to the screenplay that aren't all about the standard Hollywood humour.

Still it does look as though this is a straight take off of a retired Rocky versus a retired La Motta and I can't see anything but negativity coming from this, especially since these two characters mark such a high point for both actors. It's almost disrespectful in a way don't you think?

Why does Stallone need to do something like this when his action career seems to be taking leaps and bounds back to the top? Despite my negativity for De Niro's roles in his later years he has been picking up better ones of late and appearing in more thrillers and less lazy comedy.

I'm stumped. I can't answer it, and while it might be funny at times it really is going to feel like a parody of their best.