Teacher-On-Teacher Violence Solves Life Problems In ‘Fist Fight’ | Film Review

Fighting doesn’t solve anything.

That’s what our parents taught us, a message many of us hand down to our children and so on. Diffuse a situation with discussion, never aggression. Having sat through Fist Fight (itself a loose remake of Three O’Clock High), it’s safe to say the filmmakers took a pass on those life lessons.

When we first meet English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day), it’s on the last day of school. Rowdy teens run amuck with prankish decadence, and Andy wants nothing more than to turn a blind eye to the shenanigans in order to cut out of school early for his daughter’s talent contest. Though Andy is a cliché of meek underpinnings, he has a genuine desire to engage and educate his students. He also avoids conflict with a level of desperation akin to a modern-day George McFly.

Running contrary to Campbell’s sheepishness is Ice Cube’s Strickland, an authoritarian History teacher with Cube’s signature cocksure eyebrow who glowers over his students, terrifying them into submissive learning. Strickland is a guy so intimidating, I’m pretty sure he barked away his own first name. As we learn, he also cares about his students and the crumbling foundation surrounding every aspect of their academics.

Each teacher remains oblivious to the other as they set upon their day, until their paths cross in the most ludicrous of manners. Campbell offers to help Strickland with a primitive video presentation, when things get out of control and we witness a teacher taking a fire axe to a student’s desk. Hey, learning can be brutal.

When Campbell gives him up to avoid his own termination amidst the omnipresent prospect of budget cuts, Strickland promises Campbell a round of teacher fisticuffs after school in retribution. When #TeacherFight goes viral – and why wasn’t the film given this title? – Andy realizes he will be forced to dance in a ring of certain death. This fuels Day’s engine for the next hour as Andy screeches and wails around campus groveling for any solution, regardless of legality, from his fellow alum (including Jillian Bell as pretty much the worst teacher ever, and Tracy Morgan…as Tracy Morgan).

Fist Fight is expertly cast as Day and Cube play to the strengths of their exaggerated personas. Each actor has an opportunity to capitalize on the pillars of their careers, even as the script careens wildly in-and-out of insanity. There are several moments where a Looney Tunes cameo would seem rational based on the shifting tones, and then director Richie Keen wisely guides the train back onto the tracks.

The biggest issue with Fist Fight is the dialogue. Writers Van Robichaux and Evan Susser have a love affair with the F-bomb, which I typically wholly support, yet when your film revolves around teachers wrestling with topical issues – even in a hyperrealistic setting – it becomes a struggle to watch each one of them address their students and superiors with a flurry of obscenities. This isn’t being prudish, this is just being sensible. There are moments in Fist Fight where it almost feels as though Chris Rock popped in to teach these kids, it’s no wonder they’re launching juiced-up horse mascots down the hallways.

Despite all of the head-slapping – figuratively and literally – from the script, Fist Fight is a light movie with only one lesson plan in mind: to entertain. With a committed cast (complete with a random rap that is easily the film’s highlight) and an insane conclusion that somehow delivers, it’s worth staying after class.