MOVIE FIST FIGHT
Bibliographic Information:
Director: Richie Keen
Actors: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan
Release date: February 17, 2017
Box Office: $41.1 million
Summary: On the last day of school the seniors are pulling every kind of prank they can think of to make the most out of their last day. Charlie Day, who plays Andy Campbell is already feeling the effects of the last day of school pranks which only fuels his anxiety over possible job cuts. He runs into Ice Cube who plays Strickland, who saved him from getting sprayed in paint so as a good gesture Campbell agrees to assist Strickland with his strange TV problem. Campbell was able to find the root of the problem: one of the students had put something in the VCR, and was controlling the tv with his remote. Upon finding this information Strickland goes crazy and furiously grabs an axe and hacks the student’s desk. When the principal gets wind of this outrageous situation, he threatens to fire first just one of them and then both of them if he can’t find out who was the cause of this situation. In a moment of desperation Campbell tells on Strickland, which later on results in Strickland declaring that they are going to have a fist fight after school to settle their dispute. Though Campbell tries reasoning with Strickland, he can’t change his mind to call off the fight. Campbell is scared but eventually up for the challenge. Who will win?
Critical Evaluation: I absolutely love this movie, it is hilariously funny. I literally can watch it over and over and still laugh every time. Ice Cube is brilliant in his acting skills as always ;however, it feels like he always plays the same character. He is either a thug, reformed thug, family man who is rough around the edges, or the angry Black man in most of his roles. This is conflicting for me because Ice Cube did a great job, but his character is basically the stereotypical angry Black Man. How he reacted in response to the prank in his class is exactly how Black people are often assumed to react over miniscule problems: crazy, irrational, uncontrollable, and wanting to handle disputes by fighting. From that perspective, his role is annoying. The big scary Black man who constantly uses profanity and everyone is afraid of thing isn’t appealing as a concept. Besides that the story is hilarious.
Reader’s Annotation: N/a
Director Information: Richie Keen is both an actor and director. He grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. Richie’s resume in television and movies is quite impressive. He has directed episodes of the show Shameless, The Mick, Disjointed, and The Goldbergs. His feature movie directing debut was Fist Fight.
Richie has won a lot of awards as well for his outstanding work. Some of the awards that he has won include: The Writer’s Guild Award for outstanding achievement in writing original media for directing the show Aim High. He received the Digital Luminary Award also for his work on Aim High. Some of the entertainment companies/networks that he has either assisted in developing projects and or written for include NBC, Hulu, Fox, and YouTube Red.
http://www.richie-keen.com/bio.php
Genre: Comedy
Curriculum Ties: N/a
Book Talk Ideas: N/a
Interest Age: 13 and up
Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:
Challenge Issues: Profanity; Fighting; Mature Content; Crude Humor;
Plugged In Review: https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/fist-fight/
Director Richie Keen discuses making Fist Fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNxnCsMlN8
Why included: This is one of my favorite movies. One thing that I absolutely loved about this movie is that for once teachers are displayed as real people. As students in junior high and high school, you see teachers all the time but never really get a full glimpse into their personal lives. As teenagers, we just focus on them being the fun police, and giving us homework. But teachers really are people too. It wouldn’t surprise me to know that a lot of teens enjoy this movie since it is very funny.
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