Basically, Channing Tatum plays Shawn, a kid trying to make it in New York by selling umbrellas and Harry Potter knockoffs, who gets spotted by a local scalper/illegal street-fight scout who takes him and helps him win cash by getting his brains punched in a lot. Except it turns out that the scalper guy, Harvey (Terrence Howard), has a lot of issues with authority, and he's low guy on the totem pole (most of the time, because he's got people under him) and he's just thrilled to have a guy who can actually fight. And Shawn has this rival from his hometown who fights legally (with ropes and gloves!) who has some lingering issue with Shawn and his dad. And of course there's a girl Zulay (Zulay Henao), pronounced July... which they repeat many times, who has a kid, works at night club, has money troubles and whatnot. And when you mix these things together, it is two hours of my life that I can't get back. These are the biggest mistakes that they made, in case you ever have the urge to make a really terrible fighting movie in the future.

Too Much Plot
I'm not saying that a screenwriter shouldn't try their hardest, but if you're going to call your film Fighting, make sure that there's a fair ratio of brawling to plot, so that you aren't misleading your audience. I didn't need a whole backstory on Terrence Howard's hustler character Harvey Bordem and why he was selling rip-off theater tickets, or why he was always carrying a briefcase -- although, much like in Pulp Fiction, we never really learn what was in that briefcase... but here, I didn't care. And so much discussion about a father we never see... so much.

Not Enough Fighting
This movie is nearly two hours long, and I would estimate that only about twenty minutes are actually spent fighting. It didn't even have the decency to have him training for a while, like The Karate Kid. Sure, the street battles were fun to watch, especially the one in the back lot of the lesbian-run convenience store, but there weren't nearly enough and they didn't go on long enough.

Watching Someone Use a Computer is Not Exciting
Unless it's, like, The Matrix or The Net, where lives are at stake, no one should ever have to sit through a five-minute scene of a girl researching her boyfriend's shady past via the Internet. I wonder which hyperlink she'll click on next! The suspense is killing me!

People Trying to Act
I should have known there was trouble when I saw that Terrence Howard was in it. I've got nothing against him, he's actually a very fine actor, but he's too good for this movie. Clearly he was bored, so he started doing a bizarre accent and gave his character specific mannerisms and actually acted... too bad that no one else in the movie was told they should step up their games to match him. It was like he was in a completely different movie that just seemed to be filming at the same time as this one.

It's Unrealistic
This film is set in New York, and my friend and I spent the majority of time trying to figure out where they were going. (Yes, that's how bored we were...) They'd leave Manhattan in the middle of the day and it would be pitch black when they got to Harlem? The Bronx? Wherever they were going. It was hard to tell, but they must have taken some slow subways. Oh, and they had bathrooms in the subway... that were unlocked! That never happens, not that I'd brave using them anyway. My pal and I both work in Rockefeller Center, and we've never seen so many street vendors lining Sixth Avenue, or a brawl between the vendors during the middle of the day like the opening scene depicted. Though it would make lunch hours much more entertaining.

A Lame Relationship
Of course Shawn needs a girl, but could they not find someone that Channing Tatum has chemistry with? And they have the stupidest/stalkery courtship, with very bad verbal communication. If they had just made her a hot chick with no frills, it would have been fine, but they tried hard to flesh out her story, which made their whole non-engaging contact (and unexciting sex scene) even more tedious.

Lack of Rock-Hard Abs
Maybe I've seen a few too many Statham or JCVD movies, but when a guy takes his shirt off to face his opponent on screen, I've come to expect a super-toned tummy. Not so here. While Tatum has ripped arms, his stomach is lacking the chisel that I was hoping for. Again, it's a movie about a guy who hits people for a living... he should be in prime shape.

Soooooooooooooooo Slow
There was just so much time between fights, and it was filled with Shawn looking bored and annoyed that Harvey hadn't booked another brawl. Him being bored only made me even more bored.

If you're thirsty for some fighting this weekend, I'd recommend renting my old standby Bloodsport, or pretty much any other kickboxing/martial arts/boxing movie, or just look for some UFC matches on cable. It will be much more satisfying.

Have you see Fighting? Let us know what you think of it below.