Fighting

As bad as this movie looked, I went into it with an open mind but as I suspected it was pretty bad. The dialogue was the worst part by far; it consists of some combination of mumbling and incoherent slang. The acting is terrible despite Mr. Howard doing his best to try and act his way out of the script. The narrative is scattered and cliché and has no original plot elements. You would figure a movie called "Fighting" would at least be saved by its fight sequences but its not, there are some half decent moments but most of the time you can't really tell what's going on however the final fight wasn't to bad. There are some genuine attempts at emotion throughout but usually they fall flat. There were way to many moments where I laughed but wasn't supposed to, especially the speech given right before the last fight. Overall it's a terribly acted movie with an even worst script.

It was well made, but clearly not worth seeing in theaters. All in all, besides a number of movies that this resembles (as you can read in the other IMDb comments), it was truly a poor case of storytelling. The dialog was very close to being on the nose allowing for the most predictable storyline and course of events. Best parts were the fighting which was filmed "O.K." and the women, a.k.a. "sex." New York felt very real throughout this movie, but with the American Gangster soundtrack being used repetitively it quickly lost it's realism. Acting was cool, but then again the characters were unbelievable and boring.

I say 4 out of 10. It could have been filmed like clover-field and still received the same rating. If the story would have been more original, then I would have said higher rating.

Oh and the "Antagonist" throughout this storyline made me laugh. My 5 year old nephew could take him down let alone our main character.

Not sure what disposition everyone else was in when watching this movie but it must have been a dark one.

Yes, its a formulaic fighting movie and I can understand that it might rub you up the wrong way but I really liked the minimal insecure way in which the down on their luck main characters Shawn (Channing Tatum) Harvey (Terrence Howard) held themselves acting wise and I thought they established an excellent rapport by the end. The casting overall felt just right.

Neither of them were likable in the beginning and it was this roughness that gave the film more realism. I don't think you can really compare this to Never Back Down which was, like many beat em up movies, more of a glossy cartoon with human actors. 'Fighting' has more of a grime to it, made immersing by excellent cinematography of NYC and cool locations.

I liked the fact that the fight scenes were not an all singing and all dancing over stylised Tonay Jaa affair. Because of this I felt totally absorbed by the 'in the crowd' camera shots; catching different angles. You really felt the fighting was more realistic, as if you've ever been in a fight you'll know that technique can only take you so far- Its really down to mind, heart and of course luck.

Nothing was overstated in this film and I think that might be the reason it has received such bad rating. I don't care that it felt budget and its nice to have an understated fighting movie for once without too many bells and whistles.

There seemed to be a positive attitude before the film started – which was given a helping hand by the "star" of the film Channing Tatum (who plays Shawn MacArthur) making a guest appearance before the film started to introduce the movie.

A bit of a poor man's Rocky, with (believe it or not) an even worse story. Delving into the seedy, underground world of bare-knuckle fighting – with no holds barred.

A new kid in town, down on his luck in the big City meets up with and becomes unlikely friends with a less than successful con man / fight promoter and his entourage of misfits and vagabonds. The fights get increasingly intense as each opponent gets bigger and stronger than the last, until the big showdown with a boyhood nemesis.

Meanwhile, as a sub-plot, the up-and-coming fighter tries to woo a club waitress by always turning up whenever she is around … alas, I suppose stalking has the same effect as a bunch of roses to some people today.

This was a poorly directed film, and the characters were pretty wooden, the story was very laboured and moved very slowly.

The redeeming features were some of the fight scenes (that were a bit on the brutal side), and the "comedy" performance of the girlfriend's Mother that kept popping into the room on the most inappropriate of moments! Although the fight sequences may be of interest to some – I would say that many others would find these quite off putting.

The film tries to save itself with some plot twists, but, unfortunately – you could see these punches coming from a long way off.

Channing Tatum in the opening introduction before the film started described the plot line of the movie as being loosely based on "Midnight Cowboy" – but it is a very loose connection both in story, acting ability or finished result – and this film definitely wasn't the winner.

I've never in my life felt like my head was going to explode while watching a movie. Throughout the whole film I tried making sense of it all, and finally just came to my senses, it's down right horrible.

Every emotion was misplaced. The dialogue didn't mesh. There was no build up aside from the minor tension between Channing Tatum and Brian J. White.

The movie "cleverly titled" FIGHTING, had not a single worthwhile fight scene in it worth watching. In fact the whole time, I couldn't understand why he was getting praised as a good fighter. It's not even till the very end that you even see a fight where you feel he's got some fighting talent.

I could go into how horrible each actor was, but ultimately decided it wasn't their fault. I'm 100% convinced that the director had no idea how to coach his actors, nor how to write a good script. In fact I'm almost convinced he encouraged them to do horribly.

I felt Brian White did well. And the only other acting that I really could tolerate was the crazy old grandmother. Everything else just seemed like interacting characters were reading from separate scripts.

I used a free promo code to save $1 at RedBox to watch this movie, and I'm still disappointed I didn't get my money's worth.