Fist Fight

Richie Keen's campus comedy is a reworking of 1987's Three O'Clock High, only the battling characters are now warring teachers rather than high school students. Making the combatants older does not, of course, make the material any more mature. A typical contemporary R-rated comedy that confuses raunchiness for humor and nastiness for smarts, Fist Fight serves as a starring vehicle for nerdy comic Charlie Day, who plays Andy Campbell, a dedicated milquetoast English teacher at Roosevelt High. On the last day before summer break he falls afoul of Roy Strickland (Ice Cube), a mad-as-hell history teacher prone to violent outbursts. When Andy's maneuvering to save his job in the face of budgetary cutbacks winds up costing Roy his position, the latter challenges Andy to a fight in the parking lot after classes let out—a taunt that is of course caught on student smartphones and quickly goes viral, ensuring a big turnout for the beat-down. Andy, who also has to tend to the needs of his very pregnant wife and attend his daughter's talent show, tries to avoid the possibility of getting pulverized, but his various schemes go awry and a confrontation becomes inevitable—although naturally there is an implausibly happy ending. Some subplots—with Tracy Morgan as a clueless coach and Jillian Bell as an oversexed guidance counselor with the hots for a graduating senior—are particularly crude, but it is the basic idiocy of the central premise coupled with the clumsy choreography of the concluding brawl that ultimately send Fist Fight down for the count. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (16 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a location featurette (2 min.), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a weak comedy.] (F. Swietek)