Directed by Richie Keen, Fist Fight transports me back to 1987, when a similar flick called Three O’Clock High (Casey Siemaszko, Richard Tyson) was released and the classical bully versus nerd fight ensued at the end of the school day.
The big difference is that Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) and the mean Strickland (Ice Cube) play the roles of teachers involved in an unorthodox quarrel.
With wild and out of control students awaiting the final bell for the last day of school, Campbell finds himself running, dodging and trying to evade an after school fight with the tougher than nails professor after he snitched him out and got him fired following an incident during Strickland’s class.
I loved the supporting cast. Jillian Bell did an amazing job portraying Holly, a perverted lascivious school counselor popping in and out of the movie trying to save Campbell from a fistful of pounds to the face.
The street thug turned high school Coach Crawford (Tracy Morgan) tries to provide Campbell with a quick, “how to survive a beating from a scary dude” tutoring lesson, and principal Tyler (Dean Norris) is hilarious in every scene. He goes from a professional demeanor to exploding on his faculty, to being annoyed with being caught in the middle of all the drama. Not to mention, he has a Mexican Mariachi following him around.
The students also played a huge part in Fist Fight, advertising the teacher’s fight as the biggest ticket in town. With Strickland’s rough and rowdy past and his history of beating up people, he seems indestructible. On the contrary, Campbell is made to look as soft as a Charmin toilet paper who’s to chicken to stand up to anything, let alone anyone in life.
The funny thing is that this movie actually mirrors what today’s modern high schools may look like; drugs, sex, violence and social media obsession. Anytime we have an occurrence in any of our nation’s high schools it becomes viral YouTube sensation.
Bullying and cyberbullying are common. Popular websites such as Worldstarhiphop and Facebook decided to publicize them.
In the end, Strickland seems to be a bully teacher whose mission is to not only surgically remove Campbell’s face for snitching on him, but to empower him to be an actual teacher who needs to wake up and take heed to what’s going on in their school. He does it in an unorthodox way and perhaps by beating it into him.
This movie will entertain you, shock you like a Howard Stern radio show, riddle you with obscenities that will have you laughing, and keep you locked in to see what happens next.
