By Jonathan Smalls, Film Critic

The romantic movie Dear John has all of the ingredients, and the right recipe, but the wrong chef.

For some reason the writing manages to take a popular book, featuring all of the things, which US Americans feel strongly about: soldiers at war, loved ones at home, terrorism, and betrayal. The writing takes all of these elements, and still manages to make a forgettable, and incredulous story.

Amanda Seyfried, fresh off of her role in Jennifer’s Body, is OK. The problem with romance films is that there is usually not a lot of meat for an actor to dig into. We have seen promising things from her in the past, and hopefully will see more in the future, but being Savannah Curtis in this movie is all about looking cute, feeling cute.

That works to the advantage of Channing Tatum as John Tyree. He began as a model, and became an actor rather than the other way around, so his specialty is looking good, and making the ladies go “ooh.”  This is never more apparent than in the opening shots of him at the beach, surfing the waves, his body glistening in the sun. He relies on his supporting cast, and circumstances to
develop the story.

Who really surprised me was Richard Jenkins. He brought a real sense of realism, and respect to the role of the shy, avoidant, and likely autistic Mr Tyree. He really dominates all of his scenes, and the lead actors lean heavily upon him to relate to the audience, and it works.

He gets our sympathy just like so many, other elements of Dear John. There is the awkward, but helpful neighbor. There is the unrequited suitor. There is an autistic child. There is even the Sept. 11 2001 attack on the Twin Towers.

Dear John is actually an aggregation of all of what makes other films great, but this just turns into such a tear jerker than even the most sympathetic, audience members eventually become numb to it. If you suspend disbelief, however, you can totally believe that a coed, and a soldier can initiate three  years of long distance relationships with only a spring break together.

I am unsure of how prominently the letters featured in the novel by Nicholas Sparks. I assumed that they worked pretty well for his book to get picked up to be a movie like so many others of his: the Notebook, a Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe. However,  in the screen play by Jamie Linden they are pure coincidence. The letters are just some thing to do for a few scenes, and the
story would likely have been unaffected without them.

Dear John is not actually a bad movie. It is just disappointing, because it could have been great. There was so much potential in it, and yet the writing squanders it by glazing over points before we as viewers can really let them sink in. The is a frequent problem with translating books to film, and Dear John is no exception.

By Jonathan Smalls, Film Critic

Fighting is a story about hustlers–, “someone who can’t win, but who wins.” That quote from the movie itself sums up the direction of this film very well.

The general story arc is extremely simple that even a grade schooler could have written it after watching tany simplistic combat story in the last thirty years: a mild mannered man just wants to mind his own business, but external forces compel him into a seedy world of violence.

Dito Montiel, (Left), coaches Channing Tatum, (Right), in preparation for a fight scene.

He is surprisingly good, bangs a few heads and gets the girl. The end.

Dito Montiel and Robert Munic are not exactly veterans of fine scripting, but they certainly could have done better than that.

Dito Montiel, (Left), coaches Channing Tatum, (Right), in preparation for a fight scene.

The film runs an hour and forty minutes, which seems to be standard for modern movies, but is hardly enough time to tell a good story and develop character interaction.

Aside from the actual combat, there is very little conflict in this movie. There are no twists, no intrigue. The most that the audience gets is a sparsely informed, back story.

The tag line for Fighting reads, “Some dreams are worth the fight,” but the film never even establishes what motivates any of the characters beyond greed.

While the story is weak and underdeveloped, its execution is what saves this film. Montiel directs the camera in ways to completely immerse the viewer in the dark gutters of street fighting, making his heart pound as he experiences vicariously how frenetic and desperate a fight really is.

The direction really shines in the Chinatown fight with Cung Le, bringing together a champion, mixed martial artist with some of the best shots and timing you could ask for.

Each fight is a completely different beast from the last, the boroughs each have unique personalities. Directing is clearly where Montiel excels.

Channing Tatum as Shawn MacArthur plays a simple, southern boy well. The character is not at all nuanced and never develops or changes as the story progresses, so this role will not do much to build Hollywood credibility for him, but it certainly works well for the story at hand.

Terrence Howard however is extremely nuanced. He assumes a very tremulous, effeminate persona for his role as Harvey Boarden. While it at first seems strange, it affords him an opportunity to show subtle differences between when the character is confident and powerful and when the character is anxious or nervous.

Terrence Howard

There are a few, funny and enjoyable moments in the story, but the supporting cast mostly serves to stolidly march the story along to the next fight. This includes the obligatory romance with Zulay Henao, who uses her, real name in the movie. That is not true at all of Brian White as the antagonist though. He is just arrogant, mean and he makes the audience hate him.

Fighting manages to distinguish its self from other films in its genre with excellent casting, fine acting, realistic choreography and immersive filming. While its story falls flat, the movie still manages to show what a talented crew can do to salvage the poorly written script.