Charlie Day Ice Cube Christina Hendricks Tracy Morgan Jillian Bell Dean Norris
This is one of the most pathetic, obnoxious
films I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to
know where to start. It pains me
to learn that it is supposed to be a comedy. Mr. Campbell (Day) is an English teacher in a high school
completely out of control where students are able to put porn on TVs, use their
cell phones to disrupt a video on the Civil War, write obscene remarks on a
teacher’s blackboard (which are not erasable), spray the hallway floor with
oil, and so on. (Hopefully, you
don’t know of any school in the world like this, and that it’s completely a
product of the filmmakers’ minds.)
Campbell is a nice guy, but on the wimpy side, who is not averse to
being sneaky—both of which he is accused of by everyone. He gets framed right and left, but
often because he simply doesn’t stand up for himself.
He is a perfect foil for the teacher-bully at
the school, Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube), who is able to maintain authority simply
with a loud, commanding voice and penetrating stare. Strickland is a good example of how this kind of
authoritarianism is ineffective at best and abusive at worst. He is also primed to single people out
with pointed finger to blame for his troubles. He’s still a (very) big kid with poor impulse control.
The basic scenario of the film is that these
two characters get cross-wires with each other, abetted by the students, but
aided by their own poor problem-solving skills. They have regressed to the point that the bully insists on
the wimp coming outside after school for a fistfight (Fist Fight; get it?).
“We’re gonna handle this like real men”, says Strickland. Real
men? Not!
To add “spice” to the drama, the script calls
for the school counselor to be the hopeless counselor who does drugs and flirts
with a student, and another (Hendricks), who whips out a knife, wanting
Strickland to use it on Campbell.
I always dread films that have school or
psychology as subjects because Hollywood is notorious for mishandling and
miscasting them. Here, most of the students look like they’re at least in their twenties (making the action even
more absurd), and the adults behave like children with poor impulse control who
resort to outright lying when confronted.
Fist Fight models such a bad
school environment it becomes absurd.
But the most disturbing experience of the
screening is that a significant number of people in the audience, laughed
throughout and applauded at the end.
I wonder, “Who are these people?
Do they not grasp the importance of modeling in films? Do they think it’s hilarious when mobs
egg on two people to fight one another, even when there’s a mismatch?”
Fist
Fight is not recommended for anybody anywhere anytime.
Grade: F By Donna R. Copeland
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