In the tradition of the great Animal House, there has been a slew of gross out comedies set around American high schools, some good some bad and some down right rubbish, Fist Fight come's in somewhere around average to good. And while the main story of two teachers squaring up for a fight after school is pretty good and original the rest is all the usual high jinks that we have seen before including a horse running amuck in the school corridors. The cast its pretty top notch, Charlie Day of Horrible Bosses and
Its Always sunny in Philadelphia fame, is of course the wimpy yet likeable English teacher who tries to win over the kids with kindness but fails miserably. And the legend that is Ice Cube is the psychotic history teacher who wields an axe to control his classroom. Ice Cube who lets be honest has a limited acting range plays angry pretty well, and does not have to say much but stare at you to get your attention. Charlie Day who is great at playing losers or people generally at odds with life, is as always likeable and in general very funny and has some of the best lines in the film. Although Ice Cube gets to utter the immortal line **** the police. Fleshing out the faculty is Tracy Morgan as an utter useless gym teacher and Jillian Bell as foul mothed drug taking and potential sexual predator. Perhaps I may be getting grumpier in my old age, or perhaps I'm not the demographic that this film is aimed at, and while there is a few chuckles along the way, I did find that the over use of the f word seemed redundant since it was in nearly every other sentence and also the shock value of these type of comedies has worn thin, even when Charlie Day catches a student masturbating in a toilet cubicle or Jillian Bell talking about having sex with a student its all wearing a bit thin, give me the innocent days of John Belushi spitting food at people or horse dropping dead any day.
