Girlfight (2000)

So much average

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) has a violent streak and has already gotten in four fights in one semester. One more fight and she's getting expelled. Her mother is dead. Her father sends her to pay Hector Soto who is training her little brother Tiny to box. Tiny would rather be an artist. She wants to box but doesn't have the money to pay Soto. He thinks girls shouldn't fight anyways. She steals the money from her dad and Soto reluctantly agrees. She slowly grows as a person, improve as a boxer and falls for another boxer Adrian Sturges.Rodriguez arrives like a stick of dynamite. This is all her. The plot is a fair girl power coming-of-age movie. Director Karyn Kusama does a good job mostly by pointing the camera at Rodriguez. I'm not really talking about her boxing although she does a good job faking it. She has an intensity that comes out right from the first frame of film.

So I flipped on the digital subscriber channels one night a couple of years ago and thought I'd pass a half hour watching "Girlfight" while waiting for "Hart's War" to start. With a title like that I figured it was some exploitation 'B' flic about inner city girl gangs.Much to my surprise it wasn't about that at all. Instead it is a well acted, well scripted story about a young woman who almost accidentally gets into female boxing. She is responsible for taking her younger brother to his practice sessions and get interested while observing his bouts. As he doesn't really want to be a boxer (only following through on their father's wishes) she convinces his coach to take her on in his stead. The story unfolds in an intelligent and believable way as she goes through various trials on her quest. For starters, her brother's coach doesn't want to take on a female boxer. After grudgingly doing so there is the problem of lining up matches for her. Then the confrontation with her father when he finds out what is going on. Yes, a love interest develops but it serves to enhance the plot, coming across more of an interesting inter-human reaction with its own fight related consequences.All in all this is a great little sleeper movie that few seem to have heard of. Some time later when I saw the much advertised and acclaimed "Million Dollar Baby" I thought "wait a minute, this seems kind of familiar". Needless to say, I didn't watch "Hart's War" that night.

Girlfight is a story about a troubled teen named Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez). Diana is burdened by her mothers suicide and a sexist father living in a sexist community. A short temper and plenty of things to spark a fire, shes about to get kicked out of school for fighting. Her brother, Tiny (Ray Santiago), is training with Hector (Jaime Tirelli) in boxing. Diana is told by her dad, Sandro (Paul Calderon), to deliver that weeks payment for Tiny's training. While Diana is walking through the gym, she realizes thats what she wants to do. She wants to box. Diana asks her dad for money to train but he refuses because shes a girl and should do more 'girly' things. All Diana wants is to be treated like any other guy. Not looked down upon because she is a woman. She steals money from her father to begin training.Great movie. Genius, pure 'effing' genius. Recommend to anybody who needs to see a good clean movie with no 'monkey business'.

girlfight is using a well-known formula as someone pointed out, however, i have seen plenty of movies that don't do it this well or that are not this credible. i believe it is in the end easier for a woman to empathize the character and that way feel more touched by the movie.the movie is encouraging both mentally and physically even if your life and environment were completely different and, i think the viewer can still gain a lot by seeing this. although it took me 5 years to start boxing and sports in general, this is the movie that gave me the spark.so the plot is familiar/common. actors are good. but the thoughts that it can spark are what make it above average in my opinion. it made a big impression on me and i know i'm not the only one.