Terrance Howard is a wuss. I don’t know why he keeps getting cast into roles where he needs to be a badass because he isn’t. His voice is soft, he doesn’t know how to portray a sense of urgency, I’ve heard more anger from my kindergarten teacher when I woke up early from nap time than I’ve heard in any of his “fits of rage” and then to top it off, he had to go and make that snooze-fest of a CD that was reminiscent of the pansy-ass, skiddish, frightened behavior that accompanies the line: “honey, I know we just had a fight but…can it just be my turn tonight?”
The Nyquil-induced performance that is Harvey Boarden in Fighting is another prime example of just how far sucking cock will get you in Hollywood, as Terrance Howard bores you to death as a promoter/scam artist in New York City’s bare-knuckle street fighting underground. No way on God’s green earth does this character have the amount of aggression needed to even kiss the murky shoes of those who run this world, but the movie ignores that because…well, they don’t have a good reason. Anyway, plotline!
On a random day where Harvey is observing the counterfeiters on the city’s “Just Make NYC Look Like A Little Slice of Heaven Bazaar,” he notices “book and iPod seller” Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) who gets into a scuffle with some buyers smart enough to know everything is fake but stupid enough to hand over money away. Holding his own very well, by which I mean “he threw punches at businessmen wearing ties worth more than him,” Harvey decides that Shawn could have a future in fighting…but only after he robs Shawn during the scuffle and Shawn magically finds him in a café.
Getting him caught up in the world of bare-knuckle fighting, Harvey rides the high of this natural powerhouse despite trying to get Shawn to throw the fight every stupid time for the sake of making quicker cash with the bookies and ignoring the fact that if he loses, he’ll never fight again (whatever…). Shawn says fuck that losing noise and wins fight after fight all leading up to the one against his old high school rival that apparently has some sort of importance because if your high school was ghetto enough to have a fight club, it was pretty safe to assume its graduates would find themselves bare-knuckle fighting on the streets of New York City.
Shawn is as weak a character as Harvey is as weak an aggressive personality. Because he has nothing else, he just kinda nods and drools when Harvey presents the career choice of “getting your ass kicked for money.” As he fights his way to the top of a very short ladder, Shawn also sets his sights on his “what the fuck, might as well throw it in there” love-interest Zulay (Zulay Velez…yep…same goofy fuck name) in a way that really gets you a restraining order, but after the 4th time of what some classify as stalking and harassment (unheard of in NYC, I know) she decides to give him a shot and the two…fuck one day and that’s about as much depth as that relationship has. Other than that, you have no real reason to care about anybody and Fighting doesn't try to make one up outside of the concept of a "rags to riches" story...even though nobody's life gets even marginally better with the extra money. Shawn still finds himself sleeping on park benches because that's really fucking safe with a wad of cash in your duffel bag. Fuck logic.
I’ve hated on this movie quite a bit because…well it was pretty damn dumb, however, I have to hand it to the fight sequences. They were actually pretty well done and intense and put in at enough of a pace to keep me interested in continuing on, which, considering its poor story and non-existent character development, is saying a lot. I don’t know what it was, kind of like 8 Mile, which is also a bad movie if you actually analyze it (IMHO), it was a good enough watch and although I had a lot of problems with it, they weren’t SO overwhelming that I just screamed at the TV disgusted at its blatant stupidity. It tried to do something…it failed. OK, you’re a movie called Fighting, naturally that’s what people will want to see, like any old martial arts film, you don’t watch it to be captivated by a gripping storyline…you want to watch morons get beat within an inch of their life. And for that, I will give Fighting kudos and at least a 5 dustbusters out of 10.
However, for all you movie nuts out there who want a true “beat-em’ up” with a fantastic story in the mix, I highly recommend you watch Jet Li’s Unleashed.
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