Image courtesy of Universal Pictures

By: Gregory Brand, Jr.
Entertainment Editor
SOTG Magazine

Fighting
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The Rogue Pictures release of the brawler flick, "Fighting," makes attempts at mixing action and emotion, yet the resulting film just barely reaches average.

Featuring a mixed cast of known talent and relative newcomers, the films has been able to generate a considerable amount of buzz surrounding its potential to be a real knockout.

From the first glance, the film has all of the makings of a dirty, brawling classic.

Imagine tons of physically fit, modern-day gladiators duking it out in slugfests to earn their living while entertaining the rich and bored.

The film could be considered an advertisement for underground MMA (mixed-martial arts) extravaganzas with women in mind.

While the film shows promise in the trailers, the resulting feature bounces along clumsily between awesome fight sequences. Indeed the fights themselves are the stars in this film despite all of the star power lurking within the cast.

The film opens with Shawn McArthur (Channing Tatum) bootlegging on a crowded New York street. While on the street, he is robbed and hustled by a team that will soon become his allies and eventually his friends. Before becoming his friends, he has to beat the crap out of them.

While he is selling his bootlegged materials, he is robbed but succeeds in slamming a few of the would-be thugs and impresses their handler Harvey Boarden (an annoying Terrance Howard).

At a lightning fast pace, Shawn is fighting in one of the illegal fights and the man who had him robbed in the first place becomes his friend and promoter.

The film that follows is entertaining but drags a lot.

Fighting's strong suit are the fights themselves. While there are not as many as the title suggests, they are all well choreographed and exciting to watch.

While the fights themselves look awesome, the overall camera work is deadpan average. No visual risk is taken and as a result lots of the shots are uninteresting and boring.

The film's additional weaknesses include but are not limited to, the fantasy attached to Shawn winning all of the fights and the film’s overall crapy dialogue.

While Tatum appears athletic in the film, his character battles a real boxer, martial artist, gigantic grappler and a professional MMA fighter, and while Shawn has a background in college wrestling, he manages to pummel ALL of his foes. Although he could simply be beastly in the ring, this is highly improbable.

Some of the performances also fall flat as well. While Tatum does well as the films main attraction, Howard is more annoying than captivating.

Overall the film has the look and action but not much else.

Bottom Line: "Fighting" gives moviegoers an appealing look inside the underground fighting world but fails to make them feel it.

Labels: movies