Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2011

Call a movie Fighting, you expect action. Only include shots of Channing Tatum shirtless in the trailer, you expect to see half-naked Tatum. Fighting doesn't deliver either.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2010

All of this, however, is plainly just a veneer on a solidly generic punch-up movie, and it thus becomes a drag. A more cartoonish approach would probably have been more fun.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 17, 2009

The tell-it-as-it-is title hardly indicates anything out of the ordinary, but this bare-knuckle boxing flick is put together with more love than you'd expect.

| Original Score: 3/6 | May 15, 2009

There are no surprises here - this is a story that has been told before, many times. But Tatum gives us a glimpse of the charisma that could make him a star.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2009

You couldn't call Fighting great - at its core it is simply too cruddy - but Montiel has managed to inject it with the smell and feel of the streets that he clearly once knew well.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2009

Montiel's film lands on its feet with a gripping, will-he-or-won't-he third act - it's worth the wait.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2009

The film is lifted slightly by the performances of Howard and Tatum, even though the latter's mumbling delivery is more Stallone than De Niro. But even Rocky's narrative had a redemptive arc.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2009

It's lively, relentlessly cliché-ridden and, for no good reason - this certainly doesn't contribute to an air of authenticity - presented in a succession of apparently and often uncomfortably semi-improvised scenes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2009

The brawls have a brutal energy, and Howard's performance is magnetic, but one gains little sense of character from the improvised dialogue or Tatum's sub-Brando mumbling.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2009

This one's a cut above, despite the sellout ending, thanks to its vivid capturing of New York's hustle and flow, and surprisingly deep-rooted turns by the perfectly matched Howard and Tatum.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2009

The audience are left with something in the middle-not enough brains, not enough brawn, and, most importantly, NOT ENOUGH RUDDY FIGHTING.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2009

The fights may not be very convincing, but the story's underdog structure is satisfying in a happy-cliché sort of way. Fighting is Rocky without the bombast, Fight Club without the daft metaphysical pretensions.

| May 4, 2009

A sad-solid TKO.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 1, 2009

Sitting through it isn't so much a chore as it is an opportunity for a nap which, I'm assuming, isn't quite the type of knockout the people behind it were hoping for.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 30, 2009

Fighting arrives fully charged by the charisma of its star, Channing Tatum.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 24, 2009

By making good use of its New York setting, Montiel does bring a certain indie grit to the generic story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 24, 2009

The screenplay about a hunky street vendor turned underground fighter (Channing Tatum of Stop-Loss) is sloppy and false.

| Apr 24, 2009

Though by no means original or especially ambitious, Fighting turns out to be a surprisingly watchable B-movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 24, 2009

Disarmingly entertaining.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 24, 2009