Comedies can be a genre where one can go and laugh, escape and have a great time with, however, certainly in the last 10+ years the amount of these films that have been of quality are getting fewer and farther between to where I go see a comedy now with great trepidation--and comedy is my favorite genre. With "Fist Fight", I wasn't expecting an Oscar worthy film, especially considering that the premise had promise, but as with other 'comedies' this simply got bogged down with a banal script.
On the last day before summer vacation at a rough-and -tumble high school, mild-mannered English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) accidentally causes his fearsome colleague Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) to be fired. When Strickland then challenges him to an old-fashioned fist fight after school, Campbell must find a way to avoid a vicious beating. As Campbell is trying to keep it together, things go from bad to worse as he attempts to find ways to avoid this confrontation including bribing a student Neil (Austin Zajur) to lie for him to the principal, Tyler (Dean Norris) so as to get Strickland's job back to asking Strickland to reconsider this fight since his wife, Maggie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) will be having a baby any day. Desperate times take desperate measures. Will Campbell get pulverized or will Strickland come to his senses?
Others to round out the cast are Tracy Morgan as Coach Crawford, Jillian Bell as Holly, a teacher, Christina Hendricks as Ms. Monet, a teacher, Kumail Nanjiani as Mehar, a security guard, Dennis Haysbert as Superintendent Johnson, Alexa Nisenson as Ally, Campbell's daughter and Stephnie Weir as Suzie.
Even though Richie Keen has not directed another feature film before this one, he's certainly cut his teeth plenty on all the TV series he's directed and it shows in this project. It's not seasoned directing, but it was effective especially with all the different characters he's dealing with. "Wedding Crashers 2" has been announced so it will be interesting to see what he does with that. It was written by Van Robichaux and Evan Susser based on a story by Robichaux, Susser and Max Greenfield. Where the trouble is with this, as with so many other comedies, is the lack of subtle, well thought-out ideas in script. Why is it that comedies have to be vulgar--going for the jugular, in order to get a laugh? When this tactic is utilized, the comedy is no longer deemed funny. Laugher should be a knee jerk reaction--not forced through over-the-top hijinks fraught with four-letter words, constant reference to sex and drugs and just being totally gross. If one watches comedies of the past--Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Buck Henry, Elaine May, Woody Allen and the like, this is where one will find true comedies that are actually funny, but done with class and finesse. It was extremely difficult to get just about any laughs out of this, not to mention the continuity was mishmashed.
This wasn't a total wash in that at least there was a message that was finally established by the film's end. The outtakes at the end were probably the funniest part of this movie. If that tells you anything, I would probably wait for Netflix on this one.
Out of 4 Stars: 1.5 Rated: R 91mins.
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