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BIG RELEASES FRIDAY: Fist Fight
BIG PICTURE: "Parking lot. After school." Unless you were home-schooled, you recognize the unmistakable meaning in those words. Fight rumours have always travelled around classrooms and hallways faster than the speed of light. This oddball comedy doesn't showcase the traditional hormonal participants in this crude ritual: the challengers are two man-children standing at the head of the class. When a timid high school teacher (Charlie Day) -- described as "a worm and a bit of a sneak" -- is challenged to a fight by the faculty bully (Ice Cube), it brings a dysfunctional high school together (spawning everything from a hashtag to a tailgate party). Tracy Morgan co-stars as a nutbar gym teacher.
FORECAST: On the bright side, this film's not a sequel, but it does make you wonder if Hollywood writers have nothing new to teach us. What's next if Fist Fight is a box-office success? A horror movie called Red Rover, followed by the bloodier, mediocre sequel called Red Rover, Red Rover: Send Jennifer Over? I predict a romantic comedy called Recess about two odd-couple middle school students who fall in love over one fateful schoolyard break, inadvertently bringing their feuding teachers together. (The teachers will be played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and it will be a musical).