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Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:48
Rotten:69
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Though Fighting has a likable lead performer, and the fight scenes are impressive, the paper-thin plot ultimately unravels.
Theatrical Release:Apr 24, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $23,036,320
Synopsis: In director Dito Montiel’s 2009 drama, FIGHTING, Channing Tatum (G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA) portrays Shawn, a young man from the South trying to make a living on the streets of New York City.... [More]
Starring: Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao, Brian White
Director: Dito Montiel
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Has stylish editing and moderately exciting action sequences, but that doesn't come close to compensating for a contrived, bland screenplay that ultimately lacks palpable thrills and fails to pack any real punches when it comes to drama and romance.
The first rule of fight flicks? For God's sake, don't be boring.
The ladies in the crowd will be demanding a refund when it takes far too long for Tatum to show off those abs of steel.
With all the street fighting flicks, still no one beats Charlie Bronson and James Coburn in 'Hard Times'. This one doesn't even come close.
[Tatum is] believably tough and appealing, but the long stretches of nothing between the fights make this a chore to sit through -- without a fast-forward button.
Stuck between the aggressively dumb and violent and movie its audience might be expecting and the subtle, tender movie Montiel seems to be aiming for, Fighting never quite finds its groove.
Stuck between the aggressively dumb and violent and movie its audience might be expecting and the subtle, tender movie Montiel seems to be aiming for, Fighting never quite finds its groove.
It's all footnotes, hardly any main story, and overcompensates by jacking up the violence.
Still, the biggest problem with ighting is that Fight Club (which was released 10 years ago) got there first. On almost every level -- pacing, humor, originality, the choreography of the fight scenes -- Fighting can't touch it.
A better title might have been Talking as fighting plays second fiddle, maybe even third fiddle, in this gritty tale set in the world of New York street fighting.
A purpose-free, self-serious yawner that is just dreary, uninspired and hopelessly forgettable.
Montiel's debut indicated that he had something real to say about working-class life, but none of that passion comes through here.
The movie courses with the crazy energy and urban life that usually get sapped out of these tales of men beating the life out of each other. This one feels almost electrically authentic.
Top Critica film that is, itself, fighting to break free of its own contrivances and conventions
As painful as the movie's bloody bare-knuckle brawls can be to watch, they don't hold a candle to the frightening spectacle of Tatum brooding or, yikes, Terrence Howard doing whatever it is Terrence Howard's doing in this movie.
Though its rough-around-the-edges style occasionally veers into outright sloppiness, the film is an antidote to slick studio product like 2008’s MMA advertisement Never Back Down, and it infuses even its clichés with the poetry of the everyday.
White-knuckle action and bruisingly bad dialogue make for an uneven but wildly entertaining fight flick.
I like the way the personalities are allowed to upstage the plot in Fighting, a routine three-act fight story that creates uncommonly interesting characters.
Top CriticFighting evocatively captures the texture of New York City
May not score a knockout, but it sure wins on points.
April 23, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Fighting Is Down For The Count
This week at the movies, weve got bare-knuckle bouts (Fighting, starring Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard), the wonders of nature (Earth, narrated by James Earl Jones), a... More...
April 23, 2009:
Five Favorite Films with Terrence Howard
The Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard has amassed an impressive resume since making his Hollywood breakthrough in the 1995 drama Mr. Holland's Opus (he also starred in that... More...
April 23, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Don't You Dare Mess with Beyoncé's Man
The environment needs saving so Hollywood is doing its part to go green by opening recycled versions of Fatal Attraction and Fight Club in hopes of attracting young adults. In a... More...
January 18, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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