"FIGHTING"
Blu-ray Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLURAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Channing Tatum as SHAWN MACARTHUR Terrence Howard as HARVEY BOARDEN Zulay Henao as ZULAY VALEZ Michael Rivera as AJAX Flaco Navaja as RAY RAY Peter Tambakis as Z Luis Guzman as MARTINEZ Rated PG-13 and Unrated Studio: Rogue Pictures Directed by: Dito Montiel Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is a small-time street hustler in New York City who has quite a talent for fighting. When con artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) discovers him on the street, he tries to turn him into the next big thing in underground street fighting. However, Shawn proves to be hard to control, both in the match and outside with the beautiful bookie assistant Zulay Valez (Zulay Henao). When it comes to facing his long-time nemesis in a high-stakes bout, Shawn refuses to lose.
WHAT I LIKED
There is a certain degree of modern urban hipness to this movie. While the bare-knuckles street fighting genre is not necessarily my cup of tea, “Fighting” does deliver in the coolness department. Terrence Howard has the presence for this film, even if his performance does seemed to be phoned in a bit.
Channing Tatum may not be the best actor on the planet, but there is a certain likeability to him on screen. He’s just bland, rather than being abrasive. And putting him on screen with the fetching Zulay Henao at least gives both sexes in the audience something to look at.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The key to any good underdog story is the characters behind the story. Sadly, the characters in “Fighting” are either so bland they are barely worth remembering (like Shawn or Zulay), or they are so forgettable that I didn’t even bother looking them up on IMDb for verification (like Shawn’s nemesis... whatever his name was).
Yes, both Channing Tatum and Zulay Henao are good looking enough for the opposite sex to enjoy. Unfortunately, neither is going to win any acting awards soon. They have careers for their looks alone, and they’d have better careers delivering pizza than delivering dialogue.
Even good actors like Terrence Howard and Luis Guzman seem to be phoning in their lines. And with Terrence Howard’s character, he just seems aimless, staggering around the film like he’s had too much to drink.
This movie borrows from so many other, greater films. It’s got the same story as “Saturday Night Fever” without the groovy music and funky dancing. It has the same underdog fighting nature of “Rocky” without the gritty realism. and it’s got the same whip-pan music video style as, well, practically every music video that’s been made in the past ten years.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray comes with hi-def deleted scenes and a digital copy disc that can be transferred to your portable device. It is also D-Box motion enabled and access to BD-Live for favorite scenes, trailers and additional content.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Anyone who wants to see Channing Tatum punched in the face.
