FIGHTING PACKS A PUNCH, TOO BAD YOUR FUN IS WHAT TAKES THE BLOW
Do you like movies without interesting characters, and barely any story to speak of? If so Fighting starring Channing Tatum is the perfect movie for you. The fight scenes aren’t even very good albeit except one. This one will just leave you bored and wondering how much longer this by the numbers film will end. It’s all too clear what is going to end up happening and even David Patterson could see it coming.
The film starts off with the main character Sean McArthur (Tatum) is on the street selling iPod’s and Harry Potter books which both happen to be knock offs. Some gentlemen give him problems and he beats them up. Harvey (Terrence Howard) notices this and asks him if he would like to make some money. Harvey happens to be a hustler of sorts and makes Sean presentable to these other guys who organize the fights and introduces him. Naturally he ends up with a fighting gig or two and it’s been some time since I’ve had a fight but apparently the latest in modern combat is to let your ass get kicked then come back in one move and win the fight. The fight scenes are horribly edited and you can’t even tell what’s going on, not even in the one fight that was actually good.
After all this the bosses start taking bets on Sean to lose. Sean we find out has an old rival from high school who appears in like two scenes (guess what’s gonna happen). There is also a romantic aspect to whatever story was in here. Upon further review it turns out George Lucas isn’t the worst writer of romantic story aspects after all. There’s no chemistry whatsoever between Sean and the movie’s female lead Zulay (Zulay Valez). Practically nothing really builds the love story between them. There’s a scene where he offers her money and she refuses to take it and this is practically the only thing that resembles any kind of romantic endeavor between them. Let’s not even talk about the two minute lunch date they have in which she leaves to go to work before they even eat.
Tatum’s character I think is the most dull protagonist I have ever come across in any movie I’ve seen. Literally nothing at all is interesting about him not even his backstory. His wooden and uninspired performance really didn’t help matters either. Basically he was on a high school wrestling team where his dad was the coach and so was Evan (the rival I mentioned earlier) and Evan was always better than him or something and it drove Sean mad and he ended up hitting his dad. You know it isn’t explained in a way that you will really care. So the bosses decide to put Sean against Evan thinking he won’t win and they’ll make a payday. Harvey even bets against Sean and well the fight is on.
The gritty atmosphere was a plus about the movie. Unfortunately it’s the only one and by the time it ends you are really just too bored to notice. Nothing really happens in the movie and nothing really is resolved. The only good fight in the movie features real life MMA fighter Cung Le and it’s pretty much him carrying the scene. The pacing of the movie is alright but virtually no story exists to pace. I strongly recommend against seeing this one but nobody is putting a gun to your head (although they should if you read this and still go).
