Off the top of my head I can’t remember a film that tried to act this tough but came off so weak. Dito Montiel returns to direct his follow-up to 2006’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints with Fighting, a film filled with so much stupidity it is impossible to ever take it seriously. Conversely, the film takes itself so seriously, it is impossible to ever sit back and try to find enjoyment in its stupidity.
Channing Tatum plays Shawn, a dumb as a rock street salesman selling stolen goods including a copy of “Harry Potter Versus the Hippopotamus.” However, he won’t have to worry about the street life for much longer as he has just been introduced to a career in street fighting by the equally slow-witted Harvey Boarden played by Terrence Howard. I won’t tell you how Harvey and Shawn meet because it is just as contrived as this entire film, but suffice to say Harvey is an underground street-fighting promoter of sorts who takes a shine to Shawn and his wily ways and takes him under his wing. “Wanna make $5,000?” he asks Shawn. “Yeah,” is his answer and we are off and running in a film where you have to buy a syllable before even attempting to put together a sentence with more than five words.
Before I bash the film too much I will say the fight sequences aren’t that bad when you can actually see what’s going on. The tight shots on fight scenes work when you are filming a guy dressed as a bat, since you need to conceal the suit’s limitations, but in Fighting we are talking about guys wearing tank tops or even less so a few wide-angles would actually help. However, considering the title of the film, four fight sequences hardly live up to the billing as too much time is spent focusing on garbage no one came to see and building a back-story no one cares to know.
Dito Montiel won a lot of people over with his debut, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, an admittedly decent film worth a look, and a film that features what is most likely the best performance Channing Tatum has ever given. However, Montiel did Tatum no favors with this feature as he stumbles around mumbling his words before the “big secret” from his checkered past is let out of the bag to an overwhelming lack of gasps from the audience.
The only thing Fighting is missing is a half-naked street brawl in the pouring rain with Missy Elliott rapping over Timbaland beats, an idea that would have actually been welcome considering the mess this film is. Montiel, however, is not a director to count out after one stumble as he has already shown potential. As for Tatum I expect he won’t be earning many high marks for this summer’s toys-for-tots feature, G.I. Joe, but hopefully his role as Pretty Boy Floyd in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies will give us something to build on and quickly forget Fighting ever happened.
