Fighting review

expectations: embarrassingly kind of high
expectations met: sort of

Fighting is not the brawlfest i was expectiing nor is it as fluffy as something like Never Back Down. There are certainly good looking people beating each other up without shirts on but Fighting isn't trying to be the Fast & Furious of MMA. it's not Lionheart either (but then again, what is?). Fighting is an almost personal film. it's more about the relationship between the characters played by channing tatum and terrance howard than it is about the underground fight scene in new york. i've been anti terrance howard ever since he tried to put the moves on my girlfriend right in front of me, but i can't fault the man's acting. his character, harvey boarden, is reminiscent of Djay from Hustle & Flow and while i was chuckling about his demeanor and voice at first, i eventually found it to be endearingly effective in portraying a 2 bit hustler who just can't seem to get the respect he wants. channing tatum does a decent job as well but he's almost too good looking to be believed as a down and out homeless street vendor. down and out male model or gigolo, maybe. he does have a solid physical presence and that makes me a little hopeful for his role in the upcoming GI Joe. There's also a cute little romance between channing and the very fetching zulay henao. a lot of their interactions seem improvised and their growing attraction to each other felt natural. the fight scenes in Fighting are not overly choreographed or shot and edited very well, but as i said, this isn't really a martial arts action movie. to its credit, most of the real fights i've seen look pretty much like they do on screen in Fighting, where the opponents punch at each other a little wildly, go to the ground and then scramble around for dominance or a choke out. So i guess in that sense, the choreography is realistic. overall, i enjoyed Fighting. I don't like how neatly everything is tied up at the end but i happened to be in the mood for something not too heavy with a happy ending and some eye candy which is what i got.