Starring: Channing Tatum, Terence Howard, Zulay Henao
Directed by: Dito Montiel
Rating: 0 stars
For a movie called Fighting, there is very little fighting in it. Unless you take into account the people in the cinema fighting their way out of the fire exit because of their uncontrollable need to escape the truly awfulness of this film.
Fighting is advertised as a ‘sport drama’/action film in the vein of Rocky and Rambo. And that is what I, and every other person in the cinema, expected to see. But unfortunately, this was not a sporting drama, or an action film, or even a thriller; it was a social drama with a few bare-knuckle fights interspersed between scenes of the ‘gritty’ mean streets of New York and a soppy love story.
The plot consists of a down and out tramp, played by Tatum, who stumbles upon a man who says he can help him earn money by fighting. And that is it. The rest is one hour and forty minutes of character building, with three two minute fights shoved in for good measure. That’s right: three fights. It just doesn’t make any sense. I know that an action film must have some kind of plot, no matter how weak to hinge everything around it on, but this didn’t even have any action in it. Or a proper plot. And the character building was not even very good- I am a big fan of Terence Howard, but I spent most of the film trying to figure out if his character was meant to have learning disabilities or not (and I don’t think he was), which goes to show that not even he was convinced by the tepid script.
For a movie called Fighting, there is very little fighting in it. Unless you take into account the people in the cinema fighting their way out of the fire exit because of their uncontrollable need to escape the truly awfulness of this film.
Fighting is advertised as a ‘sport drama’/action film in the vein of Rocky and Rambo. And that is what I, and every other person in the cinema, expected to see. But unfortunately, this was not a sporting drama, or an action film, or even a thriller; it was a social drama with a few bare-knuckle fights interspersed between scenes of the ‘gritty’ mean streets of New York and a soppy love story.
The plot consists of a down and out tramp, played by Tatum, who stumbles upon a man who says he can help him earn money by fighting. And that is it. The rest is one hour and forty minutes of character building, with three two minute fights shoved in for good measure. That’s right: three fights. It just doesn’t make any sense. I know that an action film must have some kind of plot, no matter how weak to hinge everything around it on, but this didn’t even have any action in it. Or a proper plot. And the character building was not even very good- I am a big fan of Terence Howard, but I spent most of the film trying to figure out if his character was meant to have learning disabilities or not (and I don’t think he was), which goes to show that not even he was convinced by the tepid script.
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| This image is basically what the movie consists of- Channing Tatum topless and pouting. |
Tatum on the other hand is just there for eye candy: his acting consists of pathetic puppy dog, angry puppy dog, vulnerable puppy dog, and caring puppy dog. But let’s be honest: he was only cast for his striking good looks and well-chiselled body- something the women in the cinema moaned with delight at every time he took his top off (which happened extremely often). I on the other hand, not being someone who fancies him, just wanted to see some beat-em-up action scenes, not drool over the main man, and that is probably why I really didn’t like it. There was a sexy lady for us straight men in the audience, but unless she was Eva Mendes hot (which she wasn’t), there was no way she was going to force any oestrogen into the sausage-fest testosterone filled environment that this film choked us with. She didn’t even get her breasts out- something that I was very disappointed about, and may have given this film an extra star rating for if she had. We saw his flesh the whole way through: why not see hers too? After all, it is only fair to give us something to enjoy in a film this dire.
As I said before, the film is called Fighting, but there isn’t much of this at all. And when it does happen, it is slightly disturbing. I thought that the fighting in this film would be boxing or something, like Rocky, but instead it was bum fights replacing the bums with Abercrombie and Fitch models. They fight bare fisted, and they beat each other to a pulp in front of wealthy businessmen spectators who are baying for blood. I doubt in these credit crunch times Wall Street bankers could afford to pay the rent, let alone pay to see street fighters beat each other up. So the fighting, when it did happen, was brutal, with heads being smashed against walls and, um, heads being smashed against floors, and err, heads being pummelled into bloody pulps. So it wasn’t ‘legal’ fighting, it was something you could watch on You Tube if you were sick enough to want to see starving men (who look like models) attack each other. They weren’t cool fights like in most action films: they were just sadistic.
Please, I urge everyone considering watching this film not to be fooled by the name and the advertising. Unless you want to see a ‘deep’ film about a runaway hobo with daddy issues and anger problems, and let’s not forget a schmaltzy heart of gold, then do not see this.
Fighting is only for people who want to see one thing and one thing only: Channing Tatum walking around topless.
As I said before, the film is called Fighting, but there isn’t much of this at all. And when it does happen, it is slightly disturbing. I thought that the fighting in this film would be boxing or something, like Rocky, but instead it was bum fights replacing the bums with Abercrombie and Fitch models. They fight bare fisted, and they beat each other to a pulp in front of wealthy businessmen spectators who are baying for blood. I doubt in these credit crunch times Wall Street bankers could afford to pay the rent, let alone pay to see street fighters beat each other up. So the fighting, when it did happen, was brutal, with heads being smashed against walls and, um, heads being smashed against floors, and err, heads being pummelled into bloody pulps. So it wasn’t ‘legal’ fighting, it was something you could watch on You Tube if you were sick enough to want to see starving men (who look like models) attack each other. They weren’t cool fights like in most action films: they were just sadistic.
Please, I urge everyone considering watching this film not to be fooled by the name and the advertising. Unless you want to see a ‘deep’ film about a runaway hobo with daddy issues and anger problems, and let’s not forget a schmaltzy heart of gold, then do not see this.
Fighting is only for people who want to see one thing and one thing only: Channing Tatum walking around topless.
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