‘In the words of the late, great, American poet, Mr. Marvin Gaye, “Lets!… Get!… It!… On!”
If you’re going to make a movie titled Fighting then fighting is what I expect to see for 90 minutes. What I don’t want is a bunch of badly scripted character development and half-baked social commentary. I want montages. I want blood. Essentially, I want a Rocky film. Fighting fails on all fronts…
Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is a down-on-his-luck scam artist who is introduced to the shady world of underground boxing by street hustler Harvey (Terrence Howard). Through him, Shawn becomes embroiled with Martinez (Luis Guzman) in then some fighting occasionally happens. It doesn’t happen enough that’s for damn sure.
Writer-director Dito Montiel does a good job of capturing life on the streets, helped out by an admittedly excellent soundtrack, but the fight sequences are flat and forgettable and the characters are broadly drawn. Tatum does his best with the material but honestly, a man as beautiful as him will never fully convince as a character who is basically homeless. Terrence Howard is the film’s MVP doing some quietly excellent work as a character who struggles to keep the desperation out of his voice and demeanour but in the end it’s not enough to save the movie.
Fighting is not a terrible film but it is far too long and the fight sequences are uninspired. Watch one of the many other films about men hitting each other instead.