On the last day of the school year, mild-mannered high school English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) 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 (Ice Cube), 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.
“Who doesn’t love a good high school movie?,” says Day about the funny script. “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. Those were the elements that made the script exciting to me.”
Even before Andy’s date with destiny or death, depending on whom you talk to-he is not exactly having a good day. Director Richie Keen elaborates, “The kids at school are crazy; Campbell’s 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.”
Charlie Day currently stars as the hapless Charlie Kelly on the series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which he created in collaboration with friends and co-producers Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton.
In 2011, he received a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He also writes and executive produces the show, which will return for its 12th season in January on FXX.
On the big screen, 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. His other film credits include Going the Distance, Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim and Vacation. He also lent his voice to the animated hits Monsters University and The LEGO Movie.
Now playing across the Philippines, “Fist Fight” is distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Like this post? Subscribe to Manila Life by Email