Pecs and Violence

Remember "Rocky V"? The one that was supposed to uproot the series formula and focus on street fighting? Well, it didn't ... and it didn't. But if "Rocky V" had made good on either of its promises, it might have looked a little something like "Fighting", a modest indie set in the seamy underbelly of Manhattan's underground street fighting scene.

In essence, "Fighting" is a vehicle for Channing Tatum, the model-turned-actor who may be using this film to rough up his pretty-boy image. It's not likely to help. Though director Dito Montiel knows how to stage brutal fight sequences, Mr. Tatum's Shawn MacArthur never walks away with more than a scratch. And despite a sweetly underplayed (and even more underwritten) love story with Zulay (Zulay Henao), Shawn remains a burly, mumbling cipher. The film's one bit of suspense is that we don't know anything of Shawn's backstory. It's revealed exceedingly slowly over the course of the film and, ultimately, it's not worth the wait.

Terrence Howard, playing Harvey Boarden, a smaller-than-smalltime hustler with a Ratso Rizzo accent, completely steals the show from the Mr. Tatum. Of course, these two actors are as mismatched as Shawn and one of his unsuspecting opponents. Mr. Howard may have seen this script as a chance to bite into a real character piece. It's a shame there's little else going on to support him. Still, while he's on screen he's impossible to ignore.

But the real star of "Fighting" is its location. I have a soft spot for any movie that shoots on location in New York City - and actually makes it look like New York. The running joke is that the fights take place behind (and beneath) those omnipresent delis and discount stores that dot the city's sidewalks. For a time, as the actors traipse through Brooklyn and the Bronx, "Fighting" aims to do for street fighting what "Saturday Night Fever" did for disco. But Shawn is no Tony Manero.

No, he's closer to Rocky Balboa. But at least Rocky had a training montage. With the exception of some perfunctory push-ups on the subway, Shawn doesn't have much else going for him except sheer force of will. Like Bruce Willis in "Armageddon", "he doesn't know how to fail" - or as Shawn puts it, "I don't want to lose so I'm not going to". If only it were that easy. But a movie, and a character, needs a bit more than that to sustain it.

More troubling is the fact that Mr. Montiel, and co-writer Robert Munic, seem to have no qualms about glorifying their film's brutality. Aside from the fact that the violence is largely without blood or consequence, Shawn's eagerness to fight is based entirely on financial gain. And his skill in the ring comes from unresolved Daddy issues. Remembering his first fight, Shawn recalls, "I just couldn't stop punching". The fact that his father never appears in the film speaks to the fact that the writers aren't interested in exploring this character's motives. They're speaking to a generation raised to communicate with fists over words. And their hero is a borderline sociopath. But hey, he's cute, so it's okay.