I had a nice
movie weekend, but I decided to top it off by watching Fist Fight—one of
the most moronic things ever put together and called a movie.
I’ll give the
movie credit for one thing: everything happens in a single stretch. The
producers didn’t have to worry much about locations or scripting, as most of
the scenes take place during one day in a high school.
Whoever wrote
this movie and thought they’d created something worth watching—other than
themselves—must have been on some of the drugs featured in the film. The pacing
was awful, moving so fast at times that I forgot the names of the lead
characters and had to wait for someone to say them out loud.
The movie is supposed to be an over-the-top portrayal of teachers in a school with fictional, badly behaved teens as students. It’s meant to be silly fun, but it’s not. Everything that’s supposed to be the comic attraction—the reason you’d stay to see the ending—is missing. Instead, you’re left with a bunch of adults making fools of themselves and calling it a movie.
Charlie Day has
always been comfortable playing characters who are blissfully unaware of their
childishness, happily living in their own little world. Ice Cube, on the other
hand, plays a tough, confident guy with motives to make the world a better
place. When these two teachers meet, the producers were probably hoping for a
buddy comedy about an odd couple. But judging by the ratings and box office
returns, they didn’t get what they wanted.
You’d think with
these two actors in their comfort zones, the movie would turn out great and be
worth watching. But that wasn’t the case with Fist Fight. The characters
might have been comfortable in their roles, but the movie was so terrible that
it made them just as bad as the events unfolding on screen.
The movie didn’t
even bother to waste time developing any characters. It rushes through
introducing the leads, the supporting cast, and the theme. Then, we watch as
these two leads go back and forth—one trying to fight, the other trying to
avoid it.
The plot is
simple: Andy (Charlie Day) witnesses Ron (Ice Cube) wielding an axe in class
and chopping up a desk. When Ron asks him not to rat him out, Andy does anyway,
fearing he’ll be fired. Now, a furious Ron tells Andy there’s going to be a
fist fight after school for snitching.
The rest of the
movie follows these two leads as they go through the day, leading up to the
fight.
What a waste of
film reel.
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