★½
(MA) 91 minutes
Mainstream Hollywood comedy has been in the doldrums for a while, and Richie Keen's Fist Fight has the thrown together, not-even-trying quality that now appears to be the norm (see Bad Moms, Office Christmas Party, and Why Him? – or rather, don't).
![Ice Cube (Ron Strickland) and Charlie Day (Andy Campbell) are not great comic actors.](/web/20170223164136im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/d/a/j/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gud8ch.png/1487742341027.jpg)
On the last day of term at an under-resourced suburban high school, conflict breaks out between two weary teachers – the meek Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) and the hot-tempered Ron Strickland (Ice Cube), who challenges Campbell to settle their differences man to man.
One problem with this premise is that it turns the whole middle stretch of the film into padding. Given the title, we know the fight is bound to happen, whatever desperate schemes Campbell devises to evade his doom.
Another problem is the lack of a consistent underlying point of view. Strickland is portrayed as a violent hothead who deserves to be fired, but also a dedicated professional who's basically correct about the need for classroom discipline. The fight marks a low for the protagonists and the public school system generally – but for Campbell it's also a blessing in disguise, allowing him to step up and prove his manhood.
It doesn't help that neither leading man is much of a comic force in his own right. Ice Cube is typically cast as the grounded straight man, Day as the pipsqueak who gets pushed around: in combination, they tend to cancel each other out, as if each were waiting for the other to score laughs.
As a drug-addled guidance counsellor who ogles the senior students, Jillian Bell scores more laughs than the guys – but the character is all provocative talk and no action, remaining an onlooker to the plot.
Keen intermittently tries to raise the energy level with non sequitur sight gags, rapid camera movements and blasts of hip-hop. Elsewhere, though, he's content to stand back and film the actors' improvisations in a desultory, barely functional way.
Given the abundance of familiar TV faces in the cast – including Dean Norris, Christina Hendricks and Tracy Morgan – it's worth noting that the theme of rival educators is also the basis for Jody Hill and Danny McBride's cable show Vice Principals, which premiered last year.
Like Fist Fight, this is a broad, vulgar comedy, but one that's significantly funnier, better-acted, and sharper as a statement about masculinity in 21st-century America. Television, in short, wins this round.