Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Fist Fight Blu-ray Movie Review

The Audience Gets Pummeled

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 30, 2017

Fist Fight may not be the worst excuse for a comedy ever released by a major studio, but it makes a scraping sound as it hits the bottom of the barrel. Loud, frantic, frazzled and lazy, director Richie Keen's debut feature wraps itself in its R rating, peppering the screen with repetitive cursing, sexual innuendo and an endless string of crude jokes about bodily functions, mistaking inappropriateness for humor and loudness for wit. It's the 91-minute equivalent of the insipid pranks played throughout the film by the graduating senior class, who seem to think that drawing male genitalia everywhere is the height of sophisticated fun.

The blame for Fist Fight's clumsy script goes to first-time feature writers Van Robichaux and Evan Susser (with an additional story credit by actor Max Greenfield), who have reportedly scripted a sequel to 2005's Wedding Crashers— which is a scary prospect given their work to date. In a Susser/Robichaux wedding comedy, we can expect the best man to pee in the punch while the bride's father slugs the groom, the groomsmen jerk off to computer porn and the flower girl yells obscenities at the guests. (Maybe I shouldn't give them ideas.)

Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses) plays another of his hyperkinetic milquetoasts as Andy Campbell, an English teacher at Roosevelt High School, which is located in Georgia because that's where the production filmed, even though nothing about the setting or the characters feels even remotely Southern. It's the last day of the school year, and students, especially seniors, are trashing the school as thoroughly as the party guests wrecked Wyatt's house in Weird Science (and yes, I'm deliberately invoking one of the late John Hughes's lesser films, because even his worst was Shakespeare compared to Fist Fight). In addition to tasteless and occasionally life-threatening practical jokes from the graduating class, Andy has to contend with the threat of losing his job to the latest round of school board cutbacks, a prospect that is of particular concern to his pregnant wife, Maggie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher). Adding to the pressure is Andy's promise to his tween daughter, Ally (Alexa Nisenson), to arrive at her school in time to perform in the father-daughter talent show.

Andy's problems multiply when he lands in the office of Principal Tyler (Breaking Bad's Dean Norris, slumming) along with Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube), the only teacher at Roosevelt capable of inspiring fear and obedience—but also a powder keg of frustration. Under threat of being fired, Andy has to inform on Strickland for taking a fire axe to a student's desk, and Strickland responds by challenging his fellow faculty member to an aftershool fight that quickly becomes the hottest topic on social media. Andy spends the rest of the day scurrying around desperately grasping at ever more ludicrous strategies to avoid the fight, while he continues to be tripped up by booby traps left around school by the graduating class. (Given what Andy endures, he should be in the hospital, which would certainly get him out of the fight—but never mind.)

Director Keen builds to the climactic showdown with a series of increasingly far-fetched diversions, many of them involving Roosevelt's demented faculty, in which Tracy Morgan's Coach Crawford may be the most normal person, as compared to the knife-wielding drama teacher (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) and the borderline pedophile/stalker of a guidance counselor (Jillian Bell, Workaholics). Occasional moments of genuine levity break through, usually from supporting actors who are smart enough to underplay, like Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani as a persnickety school guard, but the film could have used more absurdist touches like the mariachi band that wanders the halls, ultimately accompanying the titular fight with a familiar pugilistic theme.

Fist Fight makes token stabs at conveying a message about learning to stand up for oneself against bullies, whether of the physical kind like Strickland or the institutional variety like Principal Tyler. But the film's true sympathies lie with the sniggering adolescents tearing up Roosevelt High, who don't stand for anything except juvenile rebellion. In one of the film's most telling (and depressing) scenes—which Susser and Robichaux stole from Little Miss Sunshine, where it was used to far better effect—Andy arrives at his daughter's talent show just in time to join her in performing an obscenity-laced rap by Big Sean, which Ally has substituted for their original selection from Rent. As the prepubescent girl gyrates around the stage belting out lines like "you lil dumb ass b*tch, I ain't f*ckin' with you", the incongruity is supposed to be hilarious, but by this point Fist Fight has already worn out linguistic shock effects so thoroughly that it's just unpleasant. Parents and teachers in the audience are appalled, but Ally's classmates are delighted by her display of defiant vulgarity, rendering her a standing ovation. You have to wonder what hijinks these students will get up to a few years from now when they matriculate to Roosevelt High.

Fist Fight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fist Fight was shot on the Arri Alexa by cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards (Knocked Up and Dirty Grandpa). Whatever the film's shortcomings, the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from Warner's New Line division offers a superbly sharp, clear and detailed image, with Edwards and director Keen taking full advantage of digital photography's capabilities to capture the climactic fight scene in a crowded schoolyard with vivid immediacy. The aerial views are particularly impressive, and you can spot the helicopter filming the sequence in one shot from the ground. The chaotic events leading up to the grand finale are well-lit, realistically colored and free of any aliasing or other distortion. Warner's theatrical division continues its bizarre practice of reserving the best mastering for its weakest films (see Collateral Beauty), here encoding Fist Fight with a high average bitrate of 32.99 Mbps and a capable encode that ensures a superior image.

Fist Fight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fist Fight's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, is a punchy affair with wide dynamic range, employing an array of blows, crashes, horse hoof beats (don't ask) and sounds of breakage to punctuate Andy Campbell's chaotic day and its cataclysmic conclusion. The surround immersion is subtle but effective. Dialogue is clearly rendered, and the energetic score by Dominic Lewis (Money Monster) labors mightily to pump up the punchlines and pratfalls. Young Ally's performance of her Big Sean song drives home the beat with deep bass extension.

Fist Fight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Georgia Film Commission (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:08): Producers, director and crew talk about how much they enjoyed filming in Georgia.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:23): The scenes are not separately listed or selectable. A title card preceding each one offers a short description.
• Meet Donald
• Campbell's Lesson Extended
• Holly's Drug Run Extended
• Holly Overhears Students in Hallway
• Students Share Strickland Stories
• Extended Mehar w/Notepad and Cafeteria Worker
• Johnson Intro.
• William on Roof
• Is Campbell a Cop?
• Mehar in Strickland's Class Extended
• Additional Funny Outtakes

No trailers of any kind are included. At startup, the disc plays the usual Warner promo for 4K discs, even though no 4K release of Fist Fight is scheduled.

Fist Fight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like many contemporary comedies, Fist Fight includes bloopers with its closing titles, and the cast's cheerful laughter as they blow their lines or deal with on-set mishaps is infectious. What does it say about a would-be bundle of hilarity that the outtakes inspire more mirth than the film itself? The Blu-ray is technically proficient, but the movie is toxic. Skip it.