Lets...Get...It...On!! (Fighting (DVD))

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Fighting (DVD)
Date:	11/09/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's pretty amazing all round

Disadvantages: Predictability let it down

Fighting is an action film that was released in 2009 at the cinema and the DVD is being released on 28th September of the same year. It is rated 15 due to strong violence, one sex scene and some strong language. The film is 105 minutes long.

Plot
Shawn MacArthur is a nice guy living in New York but he doesn't have much going for him. He has no friends or family around him and sells knock off goods on the street just to try and earn a bit of money and keep himself going. On a normal working day for Shawn, he gets ganged up on by some locals youths who work for Harvey Boarden, a hustler. The kids make off with some of Shawn's goods and all of his money so the next day when Shawn sees Harvey, he decides to try and get his money back.

Instead of giving Shawn his money back, Harvey tells him that he could make $5000 by fighting instead, after seeing his skills on the street. Shawn doesn't really want to fight for money but he's struggling so much that $5000 is too much to pass up. He goes from strength to strength in each match and while his skills improve each time, the opponents get stronger and tougher. At the same time, Shawn ends up falling for a waitress and when the stakes are upped, he has to decide whether or not to do the right thing.

Cast
Channing Tatum as Shawn MacArthur
Terrence Howard as Harvey Boarden
Luis Guzmán as Martinez
Brian White as Evan Hailey
Flaco Navaja as Javon Wilkinson
Cung Le as Dragon Lee
Zulay Henao as Zulay

My opinion
Channing Tatum just keeps getting better and better in my eyes. Every film I see him in, his performance is so much better than his last. He's starting to get some big roles in some major films and it's looking like he's going to be one of the big players in the movie business soon enough. He's certainly come a long way since being a stripper as it was recently reported. Shawn is such a nice guy that you can't help but feel sorry for him. He's the kind of guy who holds the doors open for everyone on the subway before going through himself and he's quite shy to begin with and it just made me want to give him a big hug. Because of all of this, you immediately want Shawn to do well and not be living the way he is. Tatum was the perfect choice for the role and I couldn't fault one part of his performance.

Normally I love Terrence Howard but he failed to impress me this time. The characters that he normally plays are strong and powerful but his character this time, Harvey, was the complete opposite. It came across that there was something wrong with him but there was no mention of this anywhere. At one point, Harvey does tell Shawn that people used to put a lot of money on him so I would assume that it had something to do with injuries from the past. He speaks slowly all of the time and even though he is obviously quite business smart, he seems to be very dim in the way that he speaks and acts.

The story is quite predictable but that didn't stop it from being very entertaining. You can tell who the love interest is going to be from about 2 minutes in and you can probably guess how it kind of ends before even watching the film. Like other recent fighting films like Never Back Down, Fighting brings up the issues of organised fights but this film is completely different. Fighting shows how far one man will go in order to make himself financially independent and take care of the people around him instead of doing it to show off.

Some of the fight scenes in the beginning weren't all that impressive but they got a lot better as the film went on. Some of the scenes really made me want to look away as they were a bit hard to stomach but they were impressive non the less. The way the fights are organised is gritty and raw and really gives the film an edge compared to others that have been released recently.

Fighting has had mixed reviews but I absolutely loved it. Channing Tatum with his shirt off again certainly helped but the film is much deeper than that and I would recommend everyone to see it.

Summary: Great film