SuppliedFist Fight
Directed by Richie Keen
Starring Charlie Day, Ice Cube, Christina Hendricks, Jillian Bell and Tracy Morgan
In theatres now
With both the star and director of my favourite It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode, “Reynolds vs Reynolds: The Cereal Debate,” involved I had high hopes for their comedy film, Fist Fight. Unfortunately, the reunion of actor Charlie Day and director Richie Keen failed to live up to hilarity of that 22-minute episode.
Fist Fight centers around a looming, you guessed it, fist fight between two high school teachers. Charlie Day plays passive, nice-guy teacher Andy Campbell, who is trying to keep his job at a failing high school, while Ice Cube stars opposite as the school’s toughest and most feared teacher, Mr. Strickland. On the last day of school, Mr. Strickland is fired after Campbell snitches on him, prompting him to challenge the wimpy Campbell to a fight. The film, more or less, then follows Campbell as he tries to gain the courage to stand up for himself, while sprinkling in some commentary on the American public school system.
What worked:
The performances (most of them anyways) are what make this comedy shine. Tracey Morgan as the no-win, incompetent coach, had me laughing out loud every time he was on screen. Specifically, his introduction was one the funniest moments in the movie. I’m glad to see him back in movies, still able to deliver bizarre, and hysterical lines like only he can. Charlie Day was perfectly cast as the bumbling lead, shinning though his Always Sunny, Charlie Kelly like character, and Jillian Bell was hilarious as the promiscuous and drug-addicted guidance counsellor. The actors are what make for majority of the laughs of the movie rather than the situations. It’s refreshing to see a comedy film rely on it’s characters rather outlandish scenarios that get old fast.
What didn’t work:
While the characters are funny, the movie doesn’t always rely on them for the comedy, as the film quite often relied on the students’ outlandish pranks for laughs. The issue being the shock value of these pranks dissipates and they quickly become stale. Because these make up most of the movie’s jokes, the laugh-out-loud moments were sparse throughout the film. Also, Ice Cube’s performance became incredibly hammy and over-the-top, which was more annoying than funny. The Jump Street movies proved he can play these uptight and angry, but still funny, characters well, but here it’s like he doesn’t care about his role for more than a pay check. The film also decides to force in a social commentary at the end that just doesn’t work and feels out of place in the prank-riddled movie.
Verdict:
Fist Fight is a sporadically funny and mildly entertaining romp. It’s not bad, but rather just okay. There are moments of hilarity however it is not at the consistently and frequency I know both the director and cast can deliver based on their past work. That being said, it’s a perfect Sunday night cable movie — you can turn it on at any point and it will serve as adequate background noise.
Rating: C+ (It’s kinda funny in Philadelphia)
