Film Review: Fist Fight

"We're Gonna Handle Our Differences Like Real Men..."

When reviewing a film such as Fist Fight, the first thing you have to realise is that the Ice Cube which is top-billed on such a movie is indeed the same Ice Cube famous for being the great wordsmith which invigorated the gangsta rap scene in the late 1980's with N.W.A and indeed the same Ice Cube whose latter-day career choices include seemingly blundering into a continuous array of comedy-based cinematic projects, with only a few actually being of some notable success such as 21 Jump Street and erm, 22 Jump Street. It comes as no real shock therefore that Fist Fight is nothing more than a lazy, thoughtless and cringe-worthy attempt of a comedy, with awful dialogue, a dwindling, lacklustre narrative, and one of the most pain-inducing performances I have ever seen from Charlie Day in a leading role which consists of a character who is slated for being friendly and kind and instead finds redemption and a sense of purpose by resorting to drug dealing, swearing at minors and unreasonable levels of violence. You know, all those things which make you "cool" nowadays. 

Although running for a reasonable length of 90 minutes, Fist Fight is one of those movies in which you absolutely feel every single second drag past until you reach a conclusion and final act which not only is generically mediocre, but smiles at you whilst it crackles at the thought of the money the audience has paid to watch such a dire attempt of a comedy. Although the blame doesn't entirely lie at the feet of Ice Cube, it just baffles me why this is the kind of film in which he has settled for after a strong start to an acting career which started with the likes of Boyz in the Hood and the culty favourite Friday, yet the real loser of the show is indeed Charlie Day who screams his way into a leading role which laughs at the state of modern-day education, resulting in the first case of a fictional character this year who has actively driven me to a straightforward high level of hatred. Saddled with jokes about underage sex, statutory rape, drug use, casual racism and a clanger of a mis-step in the form of a incredibly young child relaying lyrics from Big Sean to an audience of similarly aged children, Fist Fight is just poop from beginning to end. That's right, poop. I can be a child sometimes too. 

Overall Score: 3/10

Ride Along - Quicky Review!

If you've ever seen the Rush Hour series, you have a very good grounding in Ride Along. The buddy cop movie that features Kevin Hart (Ben Barber) as campus security for a college/high school budding for a job in the police to live his dream and marry his girlfriend (played by Tika Sumpter). Barber's girlfriend happens to be Ice Cube's (James Payton) sister who is in the midst of an investigation that he's poured all of his man hours into and is seeing little results from. To deserve Payton's respect as both a police rookie and his blessing of marriage, Barber must go on a ride along to prove his worth.

Comedy movies are genuinely hard for me to review. The obvious lack of attention to the story is normally bad in any other genre apart from certain action movies but Ride Along has a balance of a story (all be it predictable) laced with comedy. It was enough to engage for the majority but moments tried to initiate emotions that weren't compatible with the flow (real good time to run to the toilet if you drank to much). However, to actually progress the story did well at giving an ending, no matter how cheesy it was.

As one of Kevin Hart's stand out roles in which he is the main focus, he does fairly well. His comedy style can be widely accepted by many and when you act stupid and do nothing but talk on stage, it isn't very hard to get into character for Ben Barber. Ice Cube also didn't have far to go, going from gang banger to FBI agent in 21 Jump Street and now wild police officer doesn't stray to far from the line. With flashes of meme based comedy that heavily involves memes of himself blended with some of his tunes are a great homage to his work and how much he's changed. As much as he was type-cast, the past "cop-killer" attitude makes his presence that much funnier.

Before I conclude, I would just like to pick on the filming and editing. At points, the editing done to the scenes (primarily the title sequence) look horrible. The screen is far to filled with action to be screwed over by some cheap ass graphics thrown across them that look like they've come out of Microsoft Word 1998.

To conclude, the film was great fun. Although a bit risqué for a 12 rating in the UK, its comedy thrives off of the success of Rush Hour by mimicking the duo style (PS - Ride Along 2 has been announced.). A good cast, a decent plot that can be ruined within minutes of the movie and a movie that is built for pure enjoyment. I look forward to another instalment and give this a 7/10.