Review: ‘Back in the Day’ is a punch-drunk retread of much better boxing dramas

It’s understandable why “Back in the Day” was not made available to critics for advance screening.

We’ve already seen it — many, many times before.

A stagy “Raging Bull” meets “Rocky” hybrid that tosses every boxing movie cliché into the ring yet fails to land a single convincing punch, the two-hour production plods on listlessly despite a supporting cast including Alec Baldwin, Danny Glover and Michael Madsen.

The film’s screenwriter, William DeMeo, also plays the lead role of half-Italian, half-Puerto Rican Anthony Rodriguez, a decent kid who learned to fend for himself in the mean streets of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after the departure of his abusive, drunken father and death of his hard-working mother.

He’s soon taken under the wing of a pair of mob bosses (Madsen and Baldwin) who hook him up with a fatherly trainer (Glover), while Anthony pines for the supportive but already spoken for Maria (Shannen Doherty).

Leaving aside the acknowledgment that DeMeo, whose performance amounts to a series of reaction shots, is no De Niro or Stallone and Doherty is no Cathy Moriarty/Talia Shire, is the fact that director Paul Borghese, who previously attempted to ape Scorsese with his 2013 mob drama, “Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn,” is content to simply rehash shopworn tropes.

Going up against such bracing dialogue as, “Guys like us, we’re a dyin’ breed,” even the likes of Baldwin and company remain helplessly down for the count.

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‘Back in the Day’

Not rated

Running time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Playing: AMC Burbank 8; also on VOD