Teacher feud tale rated D for Dumb
Fist Fight
K (out of 4) Starring Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Jillian Bell, Tracy Morgan, Kumail Nanjiani, Christina Hendricks and Dean Norris. Directed by Richie Keen. Opens Friday at major theatres. 91 minutes. 14A
High concept meets lowest common denominator comedy in Fist Fight, a schoolhouse farce that has nothing to teach about entertaining the masses.
The laugh quotient is wearisomely low. First-time feature director Richie Keen and his screenwriting team squander enough talent for three movies in a story you could tell in a tweet: dukes up between meek Charlie Day and gruff Ice Cube.
Keen hails from the short-attention realm of sketch comedy ( Important Things With Demetri Martin) and sitcoms ( It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and it shows in this patchy and profanity-laden attempt at storytelling.
Day’s Andy Campbell plows a shallow furrow similar to his It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia character. He’s a wimpy English teacher at an Atlanta secondary school that makes Ridgemont High look like Hogwarts.
Cube’s Ron Strickland is a sociopathic bully swinging a baseball bat and fireman’s axe and threatening violence against students and fellow staffers. He teaches American history, by the way.
But Strickland fits right in. The students are all jerks and vandals and it’s always prank day. The guidance counsellor (Jillian Bell) is hooked on meth and apparently having sex with the students.
Chuckling yet? Also on staff are slightly less reprehensible teachers played by Christina Hendricks and Tracy Morgan, and an intense security officer played by Kumail Nanjiani, all little more than cameos.
Campbell runs afoul of fellow teacher Strickland after the wimp rats out the bully for bad behaviour — brandishing weapons, howling with rage and trashing a classroom violates the low standards of even this sad excuse for an institute of learning. Summarily fired by the principal (Dean Norris), who is cutting staff anyway, Strickland challenges Campbell to score-settling fisticuffs in the schoolyard when classes end not just for the day, but also for the summer.
“Snitches get stitches,” Strickland says, with that Ice Cube glower familiar from NWA rap videos and better movies such as 21Jump Street and Ride Along.
About 20 of the film’s 91 minutes are needed for Fist Fight’s setup and smack down. The other 71 are filled with hot air, bad writing and rude jokes.
The only good thing about this movie is that it happily marks the return of Tracy Morgan, who was nearly killed in a car crash a couple of years ago.
His Coach Freddie character is likeable enough. He makes an observation about the school that could also describe the film: “Losing here is a tradition.”