Fist Fight

Here is a film that continually squanders its cast and your time.

Screenwriters Van Robichaux, Evan Susser, and Max Greenfield raise the satirical ante with a nicely jaundiced view of the school, which is underfunded, riven by office politics, and teetering on the brink of anarchy.

With its bullying mob mentality and inexplicable character motivation, this is film-making for people who watch YouTube clips of happy-slapping for kicks.

All the amusement value of a smack in the mouth.

It's notable only for the deeply shabby way it treats Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and for its extremely odd penchant for child-abuse jokes.

This fitful timewaster doubles rowdily down on all its flimsy-to-questionable ideas.

Why craft a punchline when the camera can run indefinitely while you look for one?

Aggressive in its insistence on being as awful as possible.

Doesn't lack punch, but many of the jokes feel like open handed slaps than direct hits.

What it does have are two solid leads, doing what they do best, leading up to a seriously nasty punch-fest that should make any audience collectively cringe as the pain works its way into your body.