Fighting
User Score
4.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 30
  3. Negative: 16 out of 30

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  1. Vorlargen
    Mar 20, 2012
    0
    Unwatchable. Bad story, bad acting, bad fight corry. I knew it was time to stop watching when I caught myself reading something else with the movie going in the background.
  2. jimmytancredi
    Jul 24, 2011
    6
    Fighting is a film that tries desperately to be relevant in any way, but it is only a weak action film punctuated by some good ideas in the script. The film tells the story of Shawn MacArthur, a young man lost in life after a fight in a square is contacted by an agent that helps him making money in illegal fights.
    With an outcome of the head just wrong (as The Man Who Copied, for example),     Fighting is a film that shows that the end had interesting characters and was supposed to be a good movie, and itâ… Collapse
  3. TavoG
    Aug 31, 2009
    1
    How is this movie getting halfway decent reviews? Worst movie I have seen since the last Indiana Jones movie.
  4. IsaacH
    Aug 28, 2009
    0
    Purely a terrible movie. Bad acting to go with the terrible script and dialogue. You never really understand the whole of what is going on and they never tell the back story for any of the characters even though a large chunk of the movie is based around Sean's past.
  5. JayH.
    Aug 24, 2009
    6
    A likable performance by Channing Tatum is a plus, some good action sequences but unfortunately, the story is nothing new and the plot is paper thin. Terrence Howard offers good support. Not bad.
  6. NerijusD
    Jun 16, 2009
    9
    Terrence Howard is acting perfectly. The film features some very good music as well.
  7. DaveM
    Jun 15, 2009
    1
    Best nap I've had in a long time. An insomniac's must see!
  8. WinstonL
    May 6, 2009
    10
    This was one of the most intense movies I've seen...I loved it!
  9. Jack
    May 3, 2009
    0
    This movie was one of the worst films I've ever seen. And I've seen Wicker Man. I was physically ill after watching this terrible excuse for cinema.
  10. TravisT
    May 2, 2009
    0
    BOO! we left after an hour. LAME!!
  11. pc
    May 1, 2009
    0
    Too much like never back down
  12. ChadS
    Apr 30, 2009
    6
    Jack(Channing Tatum) isn't fighting for a heavyweight belt, so keeping things in proportion is everything. There are no arenas, no hot lights, and no roaring crowds in this line of work: bare-knuckle boxing. The venues are happenings, held at private homes and back alleys, on the fly, witnessed by an invitation-only gathering of lowlifes who find mixed martial arts too tame and regulated. Even when Jack is winning, he's losing. "Fighting" is a sports film without glamour. As the bare-knuckle boxer moves up the ranks, the lack of prestige and gravitas for his accomplishments cast a pall of inconsequentiality over the victories. The science isn't sweet, after all. No matter how many fights Jack wins, the drifter is still right back where he started from, because his street cred has no currency in the real world. Jack has a manager: Harvey(Terrence Howard), a two-bit hustler who finally has himself a winner, but tries to Terry Malloy his fighter by hedging bets like a bum. Jack also has a prospective girlfriend: Zulai(Zulai Henao), a working single mother who deceives the fighter in a way that's not dramatically satisfying to the story. There's a revelatory moment between the three principal characters, but it's the wrong revelatory moment. The boondoggle hatched by Harvey and Zulai isn't down-and-dirty enough to leave much of an impression. (SELF-POLICING SPOILER ALERT) "Fighting" errs by being a crowd-pleaser, even though the storyline cries out for some form of comeuppance towards the people in Jack's corner. The film loses its proportion by making everybody a winner after the climactic fight. "Fighting" could have been, should have been, a contender.… Expand
  13. kgm
    Apr 29, 2009
    2
    Punchdrunk
  14. PabloR
    Apr 25, 2009
    10
    Funny, edge of your seat movie.
  15. BobV.
    Apr 24, 2009
    0
    This movie was absolutely terrible.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 22
  3. Negative: 1 out of 22
  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    40
    The movie never works up a pulpy head of steam. It's like an exploitation movie that thinks it's an art movie, only there's no art to be found.
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  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Adam Markovitz
    42
    Murderously dull stretches of dialogue suck most of the fun out of this sloppy drama.
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  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    50
    For all the utter phoniness of Fighting -- the cockeyed, faux-verite shooting, the lurches in storytelling, the lack of character development, a contrived crisis between Shawn and his would-be girlfriend Zulay and Tatum's dopey-charming thing--Fighting's not so bad.
    Read full review
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