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    Fist Fight

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    I foolishly walked into “Fist Fight” with hope. The premise is so outlandish I was convinced that it was satirical, but no. It plays out its story blissfully unaware of how wrong it is.

    When milquetoast English Teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) gets his colleague, history teacher Mr. Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) fired on the last day of school, Strickland challenges him to a fistfight.

    There’s a lot of potential for humor there, particularly considering the school it's set in, essentially “Battle Royale” pre-massacre. However, it's missing a crucial element: a straight man, someone we can relate to. Everyone is either a blithering idiot or a loony caricature. When you realize that the students can get away with basically anything at this school – even letting a horse roam wild in the corridors - and that the teachers are too stupid to get their act together, you want to dig your thumbs into your eye sockets and rend your skull in two. This film’s got nothing intelligent to say at all.

    I know we’re supposed to find the fact that Campbell is too dense to think of rational ways to solve his problems funny. His hare-brained schemes only made me groan. When he does the sensible and call the police, they don’t do anything to help him (until they do; the concept of actions and consequences varies from scene-to-scene) but I didn’t chuckle, I got angry. This picture’s so disillusioned with reality it doesn’t even realize what it’s saying. “Fist Fight” endorses bullying, physical violence, and vandalism towards children and adults… as long as it leads to that predictable "feel good" ending.

    I can’t help but think that "Fist Fight" started good but got warped along the way. Is the idea of two teachers beating each other actually funny? I don’t think so, not when we’re supposed to be cheering for the weenie that lets everyone walk all over him. A student who is turning 18 or 19, who decides to mouth off and then realizes that the institution is ready to stoop down to his level and pick a fight once school ends? That's comedic. This is simply mean-spirited.

    I did chuckle at a few points but in the end," Fist Fight" reminded me of that news story of the Russian woman who called the police asking for protection from her ex-boyfriend, got a sarcastic remark from the operator and was beaten to death 40 minutes later. “Fist Fight” is woefully misguided and doesn’t even have the gray matter necessary to be truly original. The second you see Andy’s wife Maggie (JoAnna Garcia) arrive on-screen 9 months pregnant, you’ve figured out the film's ending. No number of child spewing profanities, jokes about students watching pornography, phallic illustrations or teachers doing outlandish things can change the fact that “Fist Fight” just isn’t that funny. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 18, 2017)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  4.3.2017 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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