When I first saw a clip of this movie on Instagram reels where a young girl and her dad sang Big Sean, I was like this is going to be an interesting movie. I looked up.the name on the comment section and found out it was “Fist Fight”
It was the poster that grabbed me on Netflix: Ice Cube’s intense glare, Charlie Day’s terrified face, and the cheeky tagline about a teacher being challenged in the parking lot. On paper, Fist Fight looked like a one-joke premise: a meek English teacher versus the school's toughest disciplinarian. Curiosity got the better of me. Plus, I'd enjoyed both actors in other roles. If they could make it work, maybe it’d be fun.
Imagine a school full of crazy students who play expensive pranks on the teachers. 😂
It is the last day of school at Roosevelt High and the English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) is barely hanging in there: fielding senior pranks, worrying about layoffs, and trying to get through to his students before summer. Inadvertently setting off the firing of history teacher Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) by tattling on him, the result is quick, Strickland storms into Andy's classroom and threatens to see him after school. Basically, Fist Fight turns into a 90-minute time-bomb to the parking-lot smackdown.
Based on the set-up it is apparent that the film is loaded with jokes that come in quick succession mostly lewd, crude and many of them at the lowest levels of humor. There is a horny counselor portrayed by Jillian Bell, a diva teacher portrayed by Christina Hendricks, a security guard portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani and Tracy Morgan as the insanely over-the-top gym coach. These characters are humorous in a way, yet they seem more of a sketch than a memory.
Ice Cube steals every scene he appears in as ferocious, axe-wielding Strickland, he pumps up the stereotype of the tough teacher to frightening physicality and withering one-liners that work best when delivered with a glare. In the meantime, the Andy of Day is a neurotic mess of a panic--his panicked response to the danger is meant to give weight to the craziness through an anxious sympathy.
The Set Up Is Secure. It is a valid criticism to refer to the film as the “one joke stretched to feature length.” According to many reviewers, the main conflict is not worth surrounding it with the plots on the layoffs and pranks. The middle part of the film is very slow and Andy is doing everything possible to prevent the inevitable fight with less and less rational tactics.
However the Finale Delivers. The final fight between Andy and Strickland is pleasantly unexpectedly well staged, not unlike a WWE match. It is loud, excessive and most importantly it is satisfying after all the build-up jokes.
A Reddit commentary echoed my reaction:
“It was surprisingly funny… the jokes worked, the performances had chemistry, even if the middle dragged.”
Empire and Express News critics labeled the movie as fatally misconceived or pulling its punches too long but said that it has a spark it previously lacked in the end.
Fist Fight is a comedy on autopilot that sometimes runs into greatness. I found it ridiculous how Charlie Day evades mailmen, takes refuge in classrooms, falls into preposterous plans because he feared full-on confrontation that was beyond absurd.
There was a sense of realism between the actors. Ice Cube strutted on to every scene with weight; when he said after school it seemed that Andy felt his blood run cold. And Charlie Day and his inability and panic? Horribly familiar in its own over-the-top manner.
It feels good to have the climax, as well: the fight is not only physical, it is Andy overcoming fear and embarrassment, and Strickland overcoming complacency. In a world where even teachers are being treated as expendable (an underplot of the film) the face off is metaphorical.
Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie