Fighting DVD Review

"Fighting" reviews

DVD

Fighting

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-10-08 15:14:30

Rating

3/5

Provider

DVD Review

With pretty boy Channing Tatum as the down on his luck street fighter aiming to get his life back on track, this looked like a Rocky or, more worryingly, Never Back Down type tale.

Turns out though, the title is somewhat misleading. Sure, Channing Tatum plays a street fighter under the watchful eyes of Terrence Howard’s ticket scalp hustler, but their relationship is primarily the main focus of the film rather than the action set pieces.

Director Dito Montiel is obviously channeling 70’s cinema dramas –the gritty, urban look, the cool, zippy soundtrack and the lingering, shaky close up all hark back to the days of Rocky and Midnight Cowboy.

Tatum has Stallone’s mumbling and charming naivety down pat, while Howard convinces as a hustler who is a little bit to nice for his own good. The pair are losers, street rats just scurrying about for scraps to survive. Until the film introduces the one big score towards the end, they do what they do to live from one day to the next.

Refreshingly, the pair never have a big dramatic reason for coming together. They do so because they’re lonely, and they stay together because they kinda like each other. It’s rare that a Hollywood film aims for such an uncluttered relationship.

It's a scrappy little movie that’s more featherweight than heavyweight, reminding of those little films that appear late at night buried amongst the TV schedule.

- Martin Howden