CEBU, Philippines - Remember those inspiring high school movies where a dedicated but unconventional teacher is assigned to the worst class and, defying the odds, transforms them all into well-behaved honor students? Well, comedy flick “Fist Fight” isn’t one of those.
Director Richie Keen says, “This is definitely a heightened experience of high school. It takes place entirely over one day — the last day of the year at Roosevelt High, which is the traditional Senior Prank Day, so it’s utter chaos. We wanted to see how far we could push that envelope.”
It starts out as the teachers versus the students, or, as Keen puts it, “the prison guards versus the inmates.” But everything changes when two teachers are pitted against each other. Suddenly Senior Prank Day is overshadowed by the promised faculty fracas that quickly goes viral. #TeacherFight.
Ice Cube and Charlie Day head the cast as the two teachers about to come to blows, and the actors also serve as executive producers on the film.
Cube relates, “When I first got the script for ‘Fist Fight,’ I was like, ‘Yo, this is what you go to the movies for; it’s the kind of film that you can just have fun with.’ It’s like one of those movies where you have a ticking time bomb, but the time bomb here is my character, Ron Strickland.”
Day, who stars as Strickland’s opponent, Andy Campbell, agrees. “Who doesn’t love a good high school movie? And I thought the dynamic between my character and Ice Cube’s character jumped off the page. I liked the ticking clock scenario, where it’s a pressure cooker and the heat keeps getting turned up.”
Even before Andy’s date with destiny – or death, depending on whom you talk to – he is not exactly having a good day. Keen elaborates, “The kids at school are crazy; his pregnant wife is three days past due; and he’s nervously waiting to find out if he’s among the teachers being fired due to budget cuts. Then, being in the wrong place at the absolute wrong time, he happens to witness Strickland having a ‘final straw’ moment with his students, who have pushed him one time too many. He’s put in a tough spot when he and Strickland are called in by the principal who wants to know what happened. With his job on the line, Andy reluctantly points a finger at Strickland, at which point Strickland tells him to meet him in the parking lot after school at 3:00. That’s when things really get started.”
If the longsuffering school manages to survive Senior Prank Day, the faculty and students will witness a no-holds-barred brawl between two of their own. Unfortunately for Andy, this test is pass or fail — and they’re not grading on a curve.
On the last day of the school year, mild-mannered high school English teacher Andy is trying his best to keep it together amidst outrageous senior pranks, a dysfunctional administration and budget cuts that are putting his job on the line just as his wife is expecting their second baby.
But things go from bad to worse when Campbell crosses the school’s toughest and most feared teacher, Ron Strickland, causing Strickland to be fired. To Campbell’s shock—not to mention utter terror—Strickland responds by challenging him to a fist fight after school. News of the fight spreads like wildfire as Campbell takes ever more desperate measures to avoid getting the crap beaten out of him. But if he actually shows up and throws down, it may end up being the very thing this school, and Andy Campbell, needed.
Day is perhaps best known for his starring role in the hit comedy “Horrible Bosses” and its sequel, “Horrible Bosses 2,” for which he earned an MTV Movie Award nomination.
An award winning actor, director, producer and music icon, Ice Cube has established himself as one of entertainment’s most accomplished and prolific figures. After penning the most memorable lyrics on NWA’s groundbreaking songs “Straight Outta Compton” and “F**k Tha Police,” Ice Cube left the group at the peak of its popularity to pursue one of the most successful careers in music history. (FREEMAN)