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We just posted Cung Le Stars in FIGHTING, an interview with Cung Le by yours truly.
Cung Le is a person to be proud of, I have always admired his fighting ability, the more I read about him the more respect I have for him as Cung le, the person, a real " down to earth" guy.
About the movie, I wouldn’t miss this for nothin ! 
Didn’t see it yet, but here’s some stats and reviews
According to Boxofficemojo.com
- Obsessed $28,500,000
- 17 Again $11,665,000
- Fighting $11,441,000
Terrence Howard, a hustler in ‘Fighting’
Michael Ordoña, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A sharp-dressed man in a tailored black suit, noodling on an acoustic-electric guitar, Terrence Howard bears no resemblance to Harvey, his two-bit hustler character in “Fighting.”
Howard’s sharply drawn portrait of a street-fighting coach who takes one more chance on a young street fighter (Channing Tatum) is one of the film’s strengths. Howard said he chose the film after being impressed by director and co-writer Dito Montiel’s Sundance Film Festival hit debut, “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” which also starred Tatum.
Q: I know this will sound bad, but I was surprised how good “Fighting” is. There’s a level of detail you don’t expect in this genre. The extras casting is great; the location scouting is great.
A: A lot of directors will make the mistake of giving their child to a babysitter way too early. Dito made sure his baby stayed in his hands. He set up the play dates and the friends at the play dates, made sure they were trustworthy and telling the same story.
This film is a beautiful, beautiful walk on that journey from “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.” I think every director is still telling the same story, just from different perspectives. Look how many sci-fi films Steven Spielberg has made - always about something from the unknown, coming. He’s still trying to understand some vision that was shared with him a long time ago. Every director is trying to reflect some light that was shared with them, I think.
Q: I liked Harvey.
A: Harvey is the broken nature when you refuse to fix the pieces, when you refuse to tie up your shoelaces. No matter how many times he trips over them, he refuses to tie them. So he’s forever slumping his way through the city and never able to pick up any momentum because he can’t keep his feet beneath him. That was a dark place to live, as that character; someone who no longer believes in his own reflection.
Q: Its depiction of American poverty is pretty rare - the recent film that comes to mind is “Frozen River.”
A: I love that movie. This would be another factor of that story, what could happen if you run out of choices. “Frozen River,” the choices that woman had to make - hard, hard choices - what she had to learn about herself, the depths she would go to, to feed her children, for that dream of having a house. Harvey and Shawn, looking for that place they belong in, looking for forgiveness in each other, struggling to be happy. It’s hard enough to be happy; why do people have to make it so much more difficult? Why do they throw so much on each other?
Q: You’re now working on your second album. Have you thought about scoring films?
A: Yes, but I need to practice scoring my own imagination for a little bit before I take on the responsibility of telling someone else’s story. {sbox}
Fighting (PG-13) opened this weekend at Bay Area theaters.
Movie review: Characters win in ‘Fighting’
Peter Hartlaub, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
Friday, April 24, 2009
POLITE APPLAUSE
Drama. Starring Terrence Howard, Channing Tatum and Luis Guzman. Directed by Dito Montiel. (PG-13. 105 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
It looks as if preproduction for “Fighting” involved locking all of the actors in a room and making them watch “Rocky” on a constant loop. Most of the main characters in this movie have good hearts, make their living by questionable means and talk as if they’ve been punched in the head one too many times.
But that’s not a bad thing. Writer/director Dito Montiel must have known that the audience for this movie would have been happy with another “Bloodsport,” and he endeavors to give them so much more. While there are plenty of underground street fights in this film, they never come at the expense of the characters or atmosphere. To paraphrase Paulie Pannino, Montiel remembered the neighborhood.
That neighborhood is modern day New York, channeled through the 1970s - with the Isley Brothers on the soundtrack, cramped apartments filled with tacky furniture and pre-Guiliani levels of street crime. Channing Tatum is Shawn, a polite hustler trying to make a buck, selling fake Harry Potter books on the sidewalk. Terrence Howard is Harvey, a ticket scalper who tries to rip Shawn off, then discovers the kid has wrestling skills, a good right hook and the superhuman ability to take unguarded punches to the head and keep getting back up. (Yo, Adrian!)
There are no training montages in this movie, and the filmmakers don’t slow down to explain every character’s motivation. While we slowly learn more about Shawn, Harvey and a ****tail waitress named Zulay who always seems to be near the center of the action, we also get a strong feel for the other people in their world. This would have been a great film in which to get work as an extra.
Harvey’s ****ensian crew of possibly underage underlings provides comic relief, but they’re never obvious. Zulay’s skeptical English-challenged grandmother manages to steal every scene she’s in, while never seeming like anything except a real person. This film is a drama first, and an action movie a distant second.
The ambiguous characters in “Fighting” add to the tension, and there are several clever turns during the fights themselves. Unfortunately, the filmmakers succumb to using quick edits and shaky visuals during the action, as if the director handed the camera to a spider monkey whenever a fight scene started. It seems as if a movie called “Fighting” should show the actual fighting.
The ending is a bit predictable, and a few things happen with Zulay that seem out of character. But these small shortcomings only stand out because the rest of the movie is so nuanced and well-crafted. In a genre where too many films are all brawn and no brain, “Fighting” is a contender.
– Advisory: This film contains strong language, gunplay, one sex scene where you don’t really see anything and a lot of fighting.
Fighting was pretty good! From the previews I thought it was going to be another “Never back down”, and at the start of the movie I didn’t know if I was going to like it or not. Terrance Howard is great in the movie as someone who similar to previous roles he’s had as a hustler, but very different in his mannerisms and speech. Beautiful performance. The movie has its highs and lows, and there are some technical issues I had with it, but overall it was a really good movie that I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
I expected the onslaught of overplayed hip hop tracks to every fight but it was great that they didn’t go that route and instead went for a more realistic approach.
Great job. This movie is closer to Redbelt (and imho a better movie) than it is to Never Back Down. (which I love to watch just to make fun of)
ttt
Still haven’t seen this…
Channing Tatum’s Fighting talk
5 hours ago
Channing Tatum said he’s “very proud” that he performed his own stunts in his new movie, Fighting.
The 29-year-old said: “There’s not one frame of the movie that’s not me, I am very, very proud of that.”
But Channing revealed his mother can’t bear to watch him in action, saying: “My mom, she is just like ‘arggh’ - she can’t watch, she still covers her eyes.”
The actor believes learning martial arts taught him how to concentrate when he was younger and helped control his Attention Deficit Disorder.
“I did Kung Fu from nine to about 13 or 14 and it’s just an amazing discipline you know. I think it taught me really early how to focus,” he said.
The former model from Alabama says if people want to get into martial arts, they should learn it properly, rather than fighting in the street.
He said: “It’s an art form, martial arts, it’s knowledge, that’s really all it is. You can be tough, you can know how to throw a punch but if I know more than you I am gonna beat you.”
You should have seen this one coming…
Enter to win Fighting on DVD. Entries must be received by 6:00 p.m. PST on 9/07/09. Good luck!
Our Fighting DVD winners have been announced
Sorry so tardy on this one. Congrats to the Fighting Winners!
Fighting - the film
i’m sat here watching the film fighting. i think that the reviews are a tad unfair actually. i’m quite enjoying it!
anyway… i wanted to ask how realistic people thought it was? i know its a film and therefore it has been embellshed, but are people really earning $5,000 a time to fight bare knuckle in the USA?
i know the fights must still happen, as almost every ethnic community (including Anglo-Saxons) in the UK has their own circuit, which sometimes overlap. but $5,000 a fight? at entrance level? you’re lucky to reach £500 ($750/$800) a fight in the UK unless you bet on yourself, although there is a culture (especially prevalent amongs the traveller community) of ‘tipping’ the fighter if you win money on him. any info past or present will be greatly appreciated. pm’s or on the forum 
Picked it up. Gonna watch it on Sunday.
2 stars outta 5
story’s nothing special.
fight scenes are meh.
plot is thin.
it was ok, but not something I would recommend as a must see.
The only thing that made it worth watching to me was Terrence Howard’s character and the way he talked. It was odd and pretty funny at times.
[QUOTE=brothernumber9;961139]The only thing that made it worth watching to me was Terrence Howard’s character and the way he talked. It was odd and pretty funny at times.[/QUOTE]
Now, you make an interesting point.
If the story was about Howard’s character it would have been 10x a better movie I think. That was an interesting character and teh back story would have been way better than “homeless guy wins money brawling”. lol
The fighter character was very one dimensional and not very talented acting wise.
I did want to find out more about Howard’s character though.