Fist Fight
Director: Richie Keen
Stars: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Christina Hendricks, Tracy Morgan
Three stars
A high-school comedy with bruises on its knuckles, Fist Fight is not about a scrap between nerds, jocks or mean girls.
The ones throwing the punches here are the teachers. Worn down by bureaucracy, a failing system and unruly pupils, it is no wonder they reach a breaking point.
As the teacher that cracks, Ice Cube is almost the perfect choice.
All the way back to his music with NWA, there has always been an innate aggression in his demeanour, and it is used to a tee here in his role as Ron Strickland, a history teacher with – quite literally – an axe to grind.
When one of his students plays a trick on him, repeatedly switching off an ageing school VCR with a mobile-phone app, Strickland loses it, grabbing a fire axe and splitting the kid’s desk in two. English teacher Mr Campbell (Charlie Day) sees it happening and the mild-mannered family man, fearing for his job, accidentally points the finger at Strickland, who is fired.
Infuriated by this lack of loyalty, Strickland tells his colleague that at the end of the day, they will fight like men. In the playground.
What follows is Campbell’s madcap dash to save his neck, as he rushes around the school, wheedling and whining to buy his way out of a beating.
Director Richie Keen, who previously worked with Day on long-running sitcom It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, lends the film a certain chaotic energy.
Day himself is an able comic performer, finding a credible chemistry with Cube, who growls and scowls like the proverbial sore-headed bear.
The supporting characters are less well developed. Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, as a knife-wielding French teacher who mistakenly believes Campbell is a pervert, is given precious little to work with.
Likewise, 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan (in his first film since the terrible road accident that almost claimed his life) and Jillian Bell improvise, to little effect.
Fortunately, the film does deliver when the time comes for the promised showdown. While it's easy to imagine many Hollywood films wimping out when it comes to shooting a scrap between two teachers, this is a savage bout that makes Fight Club look like two men tickling each other with feather dusters.
While it never really captures the zest of the 1980s teen movies, such as The Breakfast Club, it so obviously admires, Fist Fight does hit them where it hurts. Cult status beckons.
* James Mottram
