By Parker Sublette
Staff Writer
“Fist Fight” is in many ways like a punch; painful to experience, not very subtle, and too violent.
“Fist Fight” takes a simple comedic concept and ruins it horribly with poorly executed concept, immature jokes, and stereotypical characters. The movie is saved in parts by its incredible cast and comedic critiques of modern education.
The movie follows English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) on the last day of school before summer as he is challenged to a fight by his fellow teacher Strickland (Ice Cube) for getting him fired, Campbell then tries to prepare for the fight among excessive senior pranks and an indifferent school staff.
“Fist Fight” doesn’t capitalize on the inherent comedy in the situation it presents, and instead gets lost in over-the-top senior pranks and the trite “man-up” cliche which follows Campbell throughout the film. Rather than using the humor at hand the film seems to go out of its way to make excessive jokes rather than simple ones that would be much funnier that could move the plot along.
It is clear that the intended audience of nearly every joke in “Fist Fight” is a 12 year old who hasn’t taken sex ed yet. Almost every joke in the film bases its humor off of being raunchy or immature, which can be good in small doses, but a full 90 minutes of it begins to become boring and repetitive.
Check out the movie’s official site
“Fist Fight” falls prey to offensive and unfunny stereotypes. Most of the characters in the movie are caricatures of the role and come off as more offensive than funny (Ice Cube’s character is the “angry black man”). Rather than mock these stereotypes intelligently the film simply plays into them and loses another valuable opportunity for comedy.
“Fist Fight” does however boast a fantastic and star studded comedy cast with names like Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Ice Cube, and Jillian Bell. Each actor does an excellent job in their respective parts. Ice Cube and Charlie Day’s characters have interesting comedic juxtaposing personalities that fit the humor of each character well.
The setting of a criminally underfunded and falling apart high school leads the film to have an unexpected level of humor relating to the American education system. Within the few times where the focus isn’t on the R-rated humor, there are some genuinely funny and insightful jokes and moments poking fun at the modern education system and its many flaws which add a much needed change in the humor.
“Fist Fight” is buoyed by its star studded cast and occasional use of poignant jokes mocking modern education, but sadly it isn’t enough to outweigh the immature humor, overused stereotypes, and poor execution of a comedic concept leading to an overall disappointing film experience.
“Fist Fight” is currently showing in theaters and is rated R.
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