At first, the trailers for Fighting didn’t interest me at all. Being a huge MMA fan, I feel that movies like this tend to serve as ammunition for detractors of the sport. While the action depicted in the movie is nowhere near what goes on in the world of sanctioned MMA, the general uninformed public can easily be misled to believe the two are quite similar. When the movie arrived on DVD, I decided to give it a shot.
Although the title gives away most of the movie’s plot, Fighting is actually a decent flick. Shawn McArthur, played by Channing Tatum (GI Joe, Step Up) is a hustler living on the New York streets trying to make money to survive. After a group of thugs tries to rob him, Shawn successfully defends himself by fighting his way out of it. This catches the eye of Harvey Borden (Terrence Howard), a street hustler who also happens to be connected to an underground fighting ring. Harvey later approaches Shawn to fight, with the proposition of making big money. As Shawn racks up victories, we discover more about each character that reveals they may not be who they seem at first.
The plot is pretty standard and predictable, however there were a couple of minor developments that caught me by surprise. The acting is fairly solid. Tatum does a decent job here and he manages to tone down his swagger just enough to become a likeable character. Terrence Howard is great in this movie as well, however it is a performance we have seen before from him, and perhaps done better by him. Howard is an amazing actor when given the right push, however he doesnt really have much opportunity to flex his acting muscles in this film. Zulay Henao, who plays Shawn’s love interest in the film, looks amazing. I don’t remember her acting ability to be anything outstanding, but her ability to look hot definitely deserves to be mentioned.
Fighting isn’t anything groundbreaking, but if you’re looking for a rental to keep you busy for an hour and a half it is pretty solid. It’s not a bad flick and it proved to be more entertaining than I thought it would be.
Wasn’t plannning on watching this movie after reading negative reviews. Now that I read your review, I’ll give it a try. Thanks for sharing! :)
@ Jaypee-
It’s definitely a rental. Nothing spectacular, but definitely entertaining for the 1 1/2 hrs.
@CRS
If you can compare Fighting to Never Back Down on an entertainment level…which is better? Cause after seeing Tatum in GI Joe (my first time seeing him “act”) I vowed to never see another film starring him. The previews are cheesy enough as it is and it has Lionheart written all over it, so made me wanna pass…but since you and I have similar tastes in fim I might be willing to wait till it’s a free rental at Blockbuster…
haha. Tantum was in that dance film too right? Im not a big fan of his at all. I skipped GI JOE although some friends mentioned it was good.
I actually thought Never back down was decent. Still haven’t picked up fighting.
That’s exactly what this film is = decent. Tatum irritated the hell out of me in GI Joe but he’s not too bad here.the film is a bit of a mix between Lionheart’ Karate kid, and Gladiators (old Cuba Gooding jr flick). Not bad but definitely nothing new.