Slow burning but mindless fun

Fighting, Exeter Vue

Certi 15, 105 minutes

By Graham Taylor

Marshmellows taste delectable, light and fluffy. They make your mouth tingle with pleasure, with all the sweet, sweet sugar inside of them. As you wallow in a mini heaven, you feel at ease and joyous. But sitting on cloud nine doesn’t last long, as the sweetness becomes a little too much, and you feel yourself being hurled back to Earth; as well as the sick bowel.

This may not seem the perfect way to describe a film called Fighting - possibly the most commercially able title in cinematic history, if only in competition with Lesbian Vampire Killers - but once you look past the rough, tough exterior, you notice that this is light stuff, which is great in moderation, but too much will make you want to heave.

Channing Tatum, fast becoming one of America’s biggest new stars, stars as Shawn McArthur, a young man who lives life in the slow lane, selling knock off books and iPods for a living. When he’s mugged during three sales, Shawn reacts violently to the theives stealing the only money he has, and beats the majority of them to a pulp, but fails to reclaim his cash when he runs away from the situation.

Later in the day, he sees one of the young men working in a resteraunt who stole his money. As Shawn goes to get back the money he was mugged of, he meets Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard), who reveals himself to be an expert at making money, by letting talented young men win thousands of dollars in cash, for a few rounds of bare knuckle, no holds barred, fighting.

Although reluctant to return to a past he was once champion of, Shawn desperately needs the dough, as he’s homeless, penniless, and lonely. He agrees to the arrangement, and prepares to win big bucks to secure his living.

Throughout this violent but somewhat compacted movie, the stakes are raised, and Shawn could win enough to have his whole life sorted, and begin again with a possible lady love, Zulay Valez (Zulay Henao). But lives are at stakes, as blackmail, lies and decieit come to the forefront of this knuckle crunching tale.

Not exactly well renowned for fast paced movies, Dito Montiel directs with style here, the cameras whizzing as the fighting begins, amid a blur of blood and broken bones.

The film chronicles every stage of Shawn’s rising star as a talented underground boxer, and each time the film steps up a notch as Montiel finds his strength again, like he did with his last collaboration with Tatum, A Guide to recognizing your Saints.

Tatum may have been a former model, but it’s not just his looks that are getting him the jobs. His raw talent shines through, and although he is constantly picking similar movies to star in, he seems to effortlessly pull them off. His next gig, Public Enemies , sees him step away from the boxing scene, which will be great to say. Howard is merely a presence rather than a performance, and the detailing of his character is ridiculously minimal, as he’s such an important character.

The main problem with the film is the lack of relatibility to the characters, and some poor descriptions to the back stories.

You wonder why Shawn grows to like Harvey, as it’s obvious he is a manipulative, squinty man, who is portrayed as a saintly like God. If only the detailing of the backstory had been more thorough, the relationship may have been believable. The same goes for the back story of Shawn’s former boxing past alongside his coach father, which is spread out for the last hour of the film, but wrapped out in around two minutes. Very poor.

Fighting begins well though, and the crunching fights between Shawn and his opponents are well done, if a little short. I would say that the 15 rating is somewhat unjustified, as there is little here that rises it above the average 12A flick.

It’s a shame that the film loses its footing for the last hour, as the fighting becomes tired and repetitive, and the relationship between Shawn and Zulay seems unnecessary and predictable. The wafer thin Zulay (a hard working, young single mum with a secret) is merely their to fill the time, but the performance is worthy. The direction may take a step forward, but the plot and interest takes five steps back.

Fighting is high octane at times. The slow burning storyline between the action is rather dull, and the dialouge is slightly clunky, but there’s enough to keep you entertained, at least for an hour or so. Mindless tosh.