‘Fighting’ Movie Review : It Packed Enough Punch
“Fighting” starring Channing Tatum as Shawn McArthur is about a young kid who hustles on the streets of New York to make a quick buck,and has a messed up past between him ,his father,and a old wrestling teammate named,Evan Hailey(Brian White). Channing’s character gets his merchandise and money stolen while hustling,but not without a fight which captures the eye of small time fight promoter, Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard).
Harvey eventually catches back up with Shawn McArthur, and talks him into fighting his first fight for $5,000. He goes on to win which sets up a tentative business relationship between the two. Shawn fights some tough competitors in the movie,and interestingly enough finds a way to win against this one well trained Asian guy who apparently seemed way better than him at first which sort of got me riled up. But his toughest competitor is yet to come with his old wrestling teammate, Evan Haley who he has some run ins with throughout the movie. Evan also manages to push his buttons with talk about Shawn’s father and what went down in the past.
Shawn also meets and forms a relationship with a little Puertorican hottie named, Zulay Valez (Zulay Henao) who secretly places bets for Shawn’s manager, Harvey Boarden. Harvey continuously tries to get him to throw fights instead of winning them so he can make easy money,but Shawn refuses and always says he fights to win. Eventually when it comes down to the final fight of the movie between him and Evan Hailey who is now an extreme fighter star . Harvey wants him to throw the fight so they can win $100,000. This is where the movie takes a turning point and a great one at that. They have Shawn tell Harvey that he is willing to throw the fight, have him place all his bets on that fact along with multiple investors who are ready to kill Harvey if the fight doesn’t go down as planned.
Now, all the bets appear to be paced on Shawn loosing,but since Zulay is actually placing the bets and has a relationship with Shawn. They devise a different situation in which the bets are placed on Shawn to win. Needless to say the situation turns out good, and sort of leaves you with a “feel good” feeling I guess you could say.
My Take :While I’ve heard from other people that the movie didn’t have enough action, I thought the movie had sufficient action for what it was. I mean it was a drama about fighting. It had to have some sort of storyline. It can’t just be all entirely about fighting. I thought the storyline was good and justified at least enough for me.
The build up was excellent,and I like how they got the tension to build up between Shawn and Evan Hailey before the final big showdown. I mean it wasn’t the most original plot, but the whole fighting stuff gets me going everytime. I love it. And what can I say about Zulay Henao, Channing’s love interest in the film, accept that she’s just a little hottie. Oh, and her acting was good, I guess.Nudge,nudge, wink,wink. In conclusion while the plot wasn’t the most original, the movie itself was very entertaining for me.
Grade : B +
Movie : Fighting
Release Date : April 24,2009
Studio : Rogue Pictures
Cast : Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Brian White, Luis Guzman, Zulay Henao
