Fist Fight

Starring: Charlie Day, Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell, Dean Norris, Christina Hendricks, Kumail Nanjiani, Dennis Haysbert, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Alexa Nisenson
Directed by: Richie Keen
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A teacher (Ice Cube) challenges another teacher (Charlie Day) to a fist fight after school.

Review:
Tim: The biggest problem with Fist Fight is that the idea is too small, too narrow to support an entire film. Two teachers are going to have a fight after school. I guess that's a good idea, but there's not a 90 minute movie there. The film tries hard to fill it the blanks, to give us enough to hold our attention, but there's simply not enough here. Director Richie Keen, making his feature film debut, doesn't quite know how to tell a story that engages the audience for the entire run time. His television and television movie experience didn't quite translate- this isn't a very good movie at all.

There are certainly funny moments sprinkled throughout the film, but the whole movie felt stretched too thin- there wasn't enough story to go around, so a lot of ab libbing needed to take place. It felt like Keen just let his actors go and hoped they would say something funny at some point to add to the movie to take up some time. Two teachers are going to have a fist fight, and it takes like an hour to get to the actual fight. The build up doesn't actually feel like there's any sense of momentum or progress. It feels like the main character's focus- a series of stall tactics. Some of these little subplots work, but most of them don't. We continually wonder when the titular fist fight is actually going to take place. Now, when it does, it's pretty decent. It just makes up far too little a sliver of the film.

Charlie Day is fine in the lead role. This is the kind of role he's played so many times before, so it was firmly in his wheelhouse. He's likeable enough, although he often strays into annoying territory. It was fun seeing Ice Cube, but again, he's totally playing to his strengths. How many movies have we seen like this, where he is acting tougher than he really is? The casting was fine, but it felt so incredibly safe. I did enjoy some of the Day-Cube interactions, but they weren't exactly thrilling moments. Tracy Morgan adds some good comedy. Jillian Bell was probably slightly better than she usually is, but I don't think she is nearly as funny as she thinks she is. I loved seeing Dean Norris in a small role. Christina Hendricks had a few funny moments, but her acting felt really weak. Kumail Nanjiami was pretty strong and humorous. This movie really needed a stronger female character. Bell and Hendricks were not cutting it.

While there are a few funny moments, most of the film feels like a bad attempt at humor. Some of the jokes were too juvenile or had been done many times before. It didn't feel like this movie offered anything especially memorable or hilarious. The fist fight at the end is clearly the highlight of the movie, but there's simply not enough laughs throughout the 90 minute run time. The characters are all caricatures, so we never really care about them. Do we really care whether Day's character gets out of the fist fight or not? Do we care whether he wins or loses? Day and Cube are both presented as somewhat likeable characters (for different reasons) so it just feels like a low stakes thing (it's a fist fight, after all). Why does anything we're seeing matter?

I wish I could have liked this movie more, but it's just another forgettable, minor comedy. A lot of that had to do with the writing and the direction. The cast can bring energy, but the story itself was too weak for this film to be successful.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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