Fighting (Unrated) – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Aug 31, 2009, 17:27 GMT

Small-town boy Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Public Enemies) knows firsthand that every day in New York City is a struggle to survive. So when scam artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard, Iron Man, Hustle and Flow) gives him a chance to be something more in the brutal underground world of bare-knuckle street-fighting, Shawn decides that he has something worth fighting for and puts everything on ...more

Remember those 40s B-movie wrestling pics that were the specialty of one ‘Barton Fink’? Well, ‘Fighting’ is our contemporary equivalent. A lunk-headed glorified B-pic that does indeed deliver on the ‘fighting’ but not much else. Did I care though? Not really. 

It’s your typical lunk to hunk crowd-pleaser, essentially the x-y chromosome answer to ‘Coyote Ugly’ with all the goofy melodrama intact between bouts of what people showed up for. I’m actually surprised there wasn’t a bit more meat on the bones considering that ‘Fighting’ is the sophomore effort of director Dito Montiel - whose 06’ festival favorite ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’ was terrific. 

Revisiting old friends New York and Channing Tatum who first got notices from ‘A Guide…’, Montiel probably had a better film in mind but the contrivances that seemed somewhat plausible on paper come off as painfully coincidental on film. Yet the fight sequences are as kinetic and visceral as you would hope so combined with a fine cast that includes Terrence Howard, you got yourself a reasonable night of pulp entertainment. 

We first meet up with Southern-boy Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) as he seems to try and honestly sell bootleg books and ipods on a popular midtown street when he gets hustled Oliver Twist-style by a group of street hustlers headed up by the sweet-talkin’ Fagin, Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard).

Seeing Shawn throw a mean right hook and then escape down the subways, fate is kind when Shawn coincidentally runs into Harvey again demanding his stolen money back. 

You see, Harvey has ties to an underground fighting circuit in New York and he sees dollar signs in Shawn whom doesn’t take much convincing when he hears that he can take home $5,000 for his first fight. Getting lucky in his first fight by throwing a Russian opponent’s head into a drinking fountain, he finds himself the quick attraction where he faces off against the best that the Bronx and Koreatown has to offer him. 

Of course, the big money for Shawn and Harvey is on fighting star Evan Hailey (Brian White) who has a history with Shawn as Brian was on his father’s college wrestling team back in Alabama (whaa?!) and they now despise each other due to Shawn’s questionable past behavior. Harvey wants Shawn to take a dive and get them rich as the odds are against him and he’ll probably lose anyway…so anybody want to place money on Evan? 

The storytelling is way too contrived to gain any real traction with Shawn and Evans past connection one of the more outlandish coincidences I’ve seen in a while. It also loses ground with the inevitably goofy crisis between Shawn and new girlfriend Zulay (Zulay Henao) - who he meets that first messy day in midtown and then runs into her again in a club but the cast almost, but not quite, powers past it. 

Howard seems to have a fully developed character in Harvey but the depth is only hinted at then pulled away. We find out he has a bit of a past with his fellow underground goons (among them, a Luiz Guzman) but the animosity is never fully explained – we just have to guess. Ditto for Shawn’s history with his father and Evan where much is made to build into some sort of emotional climax…but it never happens. 

However, the film is called ‘Fighting’ and its here that will make or break it for peeps that rent or buy a film based on its title and cover. And for me, it delivers. Choreographer Mike Gunther actually has Shawn fight like a college-trained wrestler might which gives the film a fair amount of tension - when seeing a wrestler square off against a, say, trained martial artist.

What would a wrestler need to do against such an opponent? Get those fists and feet of fury on the ground of course. The last fight alone will no doubt please as Shawn and Evan rip each other up across an under-construction penthouse – not high art but fun? Sure. 

The film is presented with a 1.85 1080p VC1 encode that sparkles in high-def with the bustling shot-on-location New York streets looking fantastic. A slight layer of grain adds the intended realism with detail and color being top-notch.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets the job done but is slightly inconsistent in the mixing where dialogue can be somewhat hard to hear over the music. 

Not a huge hit this past Spring, ‘Fighting’ doesn’t get much love with the Special Features offering up only ‘Deleted Scenes’ and both the Theatrical and Unrated versions of the film (and for what it’s worth, a $5 coupon if buying both ‘Fighting’ and ‘The Last House on the Left’ Blu-rays at the same time). There’s also BD-Live and DBox functionality along with the Digital Copy. 

If you go into the film expecting something a bit more weighty (say ‘Rocky’ or the ‘The Wrestler’), you’ll walk away disappointed. If you just want some nice fight sequences and clunky dialogue, go ahead and step up (get it? Tatum was in ‘Step Up’ and ‘Step Up 2’! – What’s that? You want my joke card?….fine….). The video rocks but lackluster extras are a bit disappointing so let’s call it a fun rental. 

Fighting (Unrated) [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.