From the trailer and no-frills title, you'd think you know what to expect from Fighting, director Dito Montiel's followup to his charmer debut A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.

In fact, there's not as much fighting as you'd expect in Fighting. And as brutal and unvarnished as these scenes are (there are four in total), the director seems less comfortable staging them than in squeezing moments of humanity out of what is essentially an old-time boxing movie re-written for the mixed-martial-arts era.

Then there's Terrence Howard, who seems to be inhabiting another old movie entirely. In interviews, he has likened the street-hustler character he plays to Midnight Cowboy's Ratzo Rizzo. Who knew he meant he would actually be doing a Dustin Hoffman impression?

The curiously retro-seeming movie does have a Midnight Cowboy-ish opening, with fresh-off-the-turnip-truck Birmingham boy Shawn (Channing Tatum) holding doors open for strangers on the subway, en route to his job selling fake Harry Potter books on the street outside Rockefeller Center. Amid crowds and confusion -- and a few well-placed blows at people trying to grab his money -- he comes to the attention of down-and-out hustler Harvey Boarden, who smells the scent of a winner.

In the old movies, Shawn would be the fresh meat entering New York's seedy boxing circuit. In this one, he's fresh meat entering a fancifully imagined New York fight-club circuit -- a gladiatorial conspiracy of arrogant young stockbrokers, gangs of various ethnicities (Russian, Asian, Hispanic) and a contemporary breed of sneering yuppie, all-American gangsters with slicked-back hair.

They fight, no-holds-barred, everywhere from the back alleys of the Bronx to Manhattan penthouse gardens, with purses that run up to $100,000. And as bad luck (or a credulity stretching plot) would have it, Evan (Brian White), Shawn's bete noir from back home, is the champion of this shadowy fight league.

Seems Shawn's dad coached them both in college wrestling and loved Evan more than his own son -- a situation that led to a public brawl at a match, and a family in shambles.

Add to that the love of a good woman, a single-mom barmaid named Zulay (Zulay Henao), a sweetly painted relationship that includes a hilarious turn by Zulay's "mom" (Gabrielle Pelucco) to thwart their every attempt at intimacy.

But the real relationship core of Fighting is Shawn and Harvey, each seeking redemption from a threadbare existence (Harvey's "posse" is strictly bottom-of-the-barrel, and he's disrespected by every other hustler in town), each facing down a longtime foe (Harvey's is his successful ex-scam-partner Martinez, played by Luis Guzman).

And the plot twists? They couldn't seem any more familiar if Shawn were played by a young William Holden (ask your grandparents). Will Shawn be forced to take a dive for big bucks? Will Harvey sell him out? Who's scamming who, anyway?

It's all well-enough acted, but an audience young enough to find this dramatically fresh will be disappointed that Fighting isn't the non-stop head-smacking bloodbath they are promised going in -- that it isn't, say, another Never Back Down.

It is, in fact, a little bit smarter than that.

But try selling smart these days.

(This film is rated 14-A)

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