Fist Fight
(2017)After school. Parking lot. It's on.
Comedy starring Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as a high school teacher challenged to an after-school fight by an irate colleague (Ice Cube).... More
On the last day of the year, mild-mannered high school English teacher Andy Campbell (Day) is trying to keep it together amidst senior pranks, a dysfunctional administration and budget cuts that put jobs on the line. But things deteriorate when he accidentally crosses his much tougher and deeply feared colleague, Ron Strickland (Ice Cube), who subsequently challenges Campbell to an old-fashioned throw down after school. News of the fight spreads like wildfire and ends up becoming the very thing this school, and Campbell, needed.Hide
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Directed by Richie Keen (TV's 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia')
Starring Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell, Christina Hendricks, Kumail Nanjiani, Kym Whitley, Dean Norris
Written by Van Robichaux, Evan Susser
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 8 providers
Flicks Review
BY Liam Maguren Flicks Writer
There’s a fun comedy in Fist Fight and it lasts for about half an hour. The first 15 minutes present Charlie Day as an English teacher / adult-sized welcome mat that just wants to get through the last day of class without falling victim to the students’ pranks or the principal’s firing line. Instead, he pisses off a monstrous teacher (Ice Cube) that vows to beat him up after school. There’s some good gags in the setup to show how deep this school is in the gutter and the actual fist fight is enjoyably nuts.... More
But the middle hour takes such a laughless nosedive that you’ll wish they just cut out that 60 minutes and slapped the remaining 30 on TV. Much like Day’s character, the film runs around trying to figure out what to do, only to come up short at every opportunity. The supporting roles aren’t enough to keep it floating either, since everyone seems to have been given a Seven Dwarfs-like personality – Jerky (Dean Norris), Predatory (Jillian Bell), Psychotic (Christina Hendricks), Tracy Morgan (Tracy Morgan).
There’s no progression except for the clock, sluggishly crawling towards the fist fight finale via a breadcrumb trail of one-liners. Nothing amplifies except Day’s dog whistle of a voice, a quality better suited to upping the ante on the pranks or the school’s descent into chaos. The one big laugh this middle section coughs out, set during a father-daughter talent show, doesn’t even have anything to do with the situation.
If that wasn’t enough, Fist Fight has the audacity to try and make a serious statement about the state of underfunded American schools and how unjust it is to lay off teachers. But with a staff made up of jerks, psychos, predators, and Tracy Morgans, you can’t help but feel they were justified.Hide
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Fist Fight
The Press Reviews
For much of its fast-paced running time, the film... is just amusing enough to make up for its sheer preposterousness; it operates in such a seemingly far-fetched world that logic is out the window at pretty much hello. Full Review
By far the most disheartening studio-produced movie in recent memory, setting an abysmal example for anyone who goes to school (or the movies, for that matter) still hoping to learn. Full Review
Represents a missed opportunity, given the talents of this charismatic and game cast. Full Review
It did give me something I needed. Not catharsis or uplift but a bracing dose of profane, sloppy, reasonably well-directed hostility. We take what we can get. Full Review
Day's the runt, Cube is the bully, and for a punishing 91 minutes of rank idiocy we wait in vain for something funny to happen. Full Review
Fist Fight isn't there to make you think, but to make you laugh, and it mostly does. Full Review
The laziest kind of comedy, and a waste of time for everyone involved, including the audience. Full Review
A cinematic lesson in how not to make an entertaining comedy. Full Review
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