Never Back Down - Review

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Length: 113 min

Rated: R

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Release Date: 2008-03-14

Starring: Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Djimon Hounsou, Leslie Hope

Directed by Jeff Wadlow

Produced by Craig Baumgarten, David Zelon

Written by Chris Hauty

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Reviewed by Mariana McConnell : 2008-03-12 22:31:25

A violent spectacle sport film of the male persuasion, Never Back Down blends faux-relatable sensitivity with extreme violence, resulting a badly paced formula film. This one’s all about the boys. Edited like a music video (lots, lots of montage), Never Back Down has a heart in there somewhere but it’s buried under so many layers of dumbness it’s difficult to get emotionally involved in the film. The plot concerns an angry young man named Jake Tyler (Sean Faris), who has moved to Orlando, Florida from Iowa when the film begins.

In the first 10 minutes Jake is established as walking cornhusk with a precarious emotional trigger. When he is taunted on the field about his alcoholic father, recently killed in a car accident, Jake lashes out violently. He’s just mad at the world, trying desperately to restrain his tendency towards aggression while everything around him is begging to be ripped apart. Matters aren’t helped when Jake discovers that everyone at his new high school knows of his swinging skills thanks to a video posted on the Internet. As it turns out, this Orlando high school has an uncanny preoccupation with unsanctioned brawling.

Fighting, specifically Mixed Martial Arts, is an underground phenomenon here and students gather regularly at parties to watch men, women, and, yes, ex-couples go at each other in a ring of onlookers. Jake is sucked into this world by two cookie cutter characters: new friend Max Cooperman (Evan Peters), a Ron Weasley-goes-skating AV nerd with a modicum of coolness, and button nosed vanilla pop Baja Miller (Amber Heard). After the comely Baja invites Jake to a party, he meets her erstwhile boyfriend, the cruel, bronzed Ryan (Cam Gigandet), de facto champion of the fighting scene.

Jake quickly surmises that the real reason he was invited to the party was to engage in a bloody fight with Ryan. Despite initial hesitations, Jake bites when he hears the familiar jeer; degrading knock out ensues. Through Cooperman, Jake sets into motion the wheels of his revenge by training under Brazilian John Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter who has given up the sport for a secret reason. With a promise of abstaining from fighting outside class, but with the cast-iron goal of duly humiliating Ryan at the upcoming championship beat down, Jake works tirelessly with Roqua while enduring more teasing and egging on at school.

The film plods on, following the familiar hero's journey trajectory, complete with Homeric references for AP Lit points. Jake gets his chance to cry, to shine, to disappoint his mentor, to redeem himself, to finally defeat his demons and to get the girl. A reiteration of this same old story is never unwelcome, but Never Back Down is so thoroughly genre that even the twists are predictable. The performances are as stiff as the dialogue. Hounsou, narrowly escaping “Magical Negro” categorization by shades of a troubled past, is reliably good but his job is mostly to act as a stand in for Jake’s absent father. Yawn.

The one element that could have set the film apart, the spotlight on the Mixed Martial Arts fighting style, gets an unexplained short shrift. According to the press kit, MMA is a phenomenon that’s sweeping the country. I wouldn’t have known this from merely watching the film. Even with this lack of clarity, Never Back Down does deliver on a promise of a lot of gory action. The violence is lovingly rendered here, with ribbons of spit and blood flying out across the screen in slow-mo every time the hero gets punched in the face.

In spite of its declarative title, Never Back Down doesn’t come down on either side of the violence dilemma. Its ultimate message is terminally mixed: Violence is bad except when you just have to teach the antagonist a lesson and the point must be driven home by a humiliating beat down captured for posterity on a thousand iPhones. And inner turmoil! Don’t forget that particularly cherished hallmark of the dick flick. There’s really a lot of muddled commentary to be found here. Explorations of class structure and bored teenage anomie are attempted in Never Back Down, but who wants their social critique served with a garnish of male anguish? You do? Okay, well you’ll like the film then.

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hi
November 27, 2008 at 23:16

your sexy

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hi
November 27, 2008 at 23:16

my last comment ddnt fucking work wtf is your prooblemm !?!?!?!?

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Bob
November 27, 2008 at 23:16

hiiiiiiiiiii!
i like this movie. it turns me on. 0478402800!

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debbi
November 27, 2008 at 23:16

Debbi is gay. so is andrew. hhaahahahha!

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jaketyler
November 19, 2008 at 00:40

this is my all time number one movie! the best fighting scenes ever and the movie got me so pumped up i ripped my tee shirt off after watching it and plus that chick baha is super hot and all the others as well

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fcm
September 19, 2008 at 19:15

Amber Heard is fat. HA HA HA. She had to lose 25 pounds for acting in "Pineapple express". I thought she was hot, but after watching "Never back down", i changed idea.

And the movie was bad. The movie was to predictable...

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Debra
August 12, 2008 at 17:27

I agree with Zach H . It is a great movie and of course it's predictable , I find almost every movie nowadays predictable . And so what ? It was still entertaining , it was Karate Kid in 2008 and if you're sick of watching Karate Kid over and over then Never Back Down would be the alternative . But even though you know what's gonna happen , you're still watching it . BECAUSE it's entertaining . So you shouldn't be complaining because you seem to be entertained after all . HA !

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sally
August 4, 2008 at 01:05

never back down was one of the best movies i have ever watched. its for sure not a copy of karate kid. its way different. and more modern with the different moves and dialogue. I think the fighting was thrilling. and i liked the moral to the movie most of all. at least from what i got out of it, i thought it was absolutely amazing. a masterpiece and one to be watched and re-watched.

truly inspirational.

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insomniac
July 31, 2008 at 18:08

To me, this is a great movie that many people just dont want to like. There usually arent any actual legitimate reasons for people hating this movie. I swear to god that ive heard about how much this "rips off" other movies, apparently, because there is organized fighting it rips off "fight club" (which was about a CRAZY GUY) or it is totally copying "karate kid" because there is the trainer guy and the tournament (ive never seen that so i cant say). sure it is similair to other movies I GUESS, but thats like saying "i am legend" was a copy of every other zombie movie, but with will smith (which people have said). to make my point, i think that "never back down" is an incredible film that happens to have certain elements from other movies, but overall is a unique and exciting piece of work.

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Johnson
July 28, 2008 at 18:26

i agree the review is way too harsh..this is one of the best movie ive watched till date, everything was rite, be it Amber, Sean, the music, the fighting ... Whoa! All the gits that are complaining about this movie can just keep on doing wat they do best .... whine! (seems they not know how to appreciate hard work). Anyways, for me its one of the finest and ive watched it over 5-6 times.

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ian
July 20, 2008 at 15:15

This movie was awsome i saw it in theatures and if ur not in to the mma then you wont like it but i thought it was great i am waiting for it to come out on dvd i give this movie 4 stars and two thumbs up!

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Zack H
July 17, 2008 at 14:43

I thought the movie was great. The movie was great most likely my favorite movie all year, good music, good fight scenes, great editing. Never back down doesnt leave much room for you to get boared. Ok the plot was predictable, so what have you ever scene a movie where you walked in and knew how it was going to end but you still whatched it. If you don't believe me whatch it for yourself I for one am going to by it on DVD the first day its out and I never actually buy movies anymore unless I really like it.

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Kaleb
June 14, 2008 at 14:27

Why does it say rated R? It was pg-13, and when does it come out on dvd?

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byd
June 5, 2008 at 23:23

This was the greatset I have ever seen, I thought that they all did a great job acting and what hell are talking about amber beard being fat she fucking drop dead gorgeous. When I watched this movie I could'nt take my eyes off the screen for more than 2 seconds and once it was over I ended up watching it 2 more times and I can't wait for it to come out.

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Chyea
May 5, 2008 at 15:11

i couldn't explain it better rich!

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rich
May 3, 2008 at 17:31

this movie kicked ass!!! as a young man , this movie gets your heart pumping and wanting to be in jake's shoes. this is definitly a great inspirational movie. i personally do mixed martial arts and this was a good movie 2 connect too. so for all you old fat losers that talk about movies all day. go screw yourself with your lame ratings. you guys seriously need to stop drinking hatorade and get laid. because this movie rocked!!!

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Heidi and Heather
April 17, 2008 at 15:01

We thought i was a fantastic movie...we dont know alot about the fightin on the ground thing you guys are talking about but if you were the type of person that doesnt have experience with the whole "right fighting skills" you wouldnt even notice...we thought it looked realistic. also it had some sick moves lol...really cool!!...and we also liked the storyline behind it. It is a conflict or inside feeling that anyone could get. and about his dad dieing anybody can have that happen to them...at any moment. Overall that is one of our favorite movies and that we are going to get it when it comes out on DVD!!! cant wait... anywho thanx for letting us review the movie!! GREAT MOVIE!!

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Juan V
March 31, 2008 at 23:25

Al you really don't have to see the accident to know what happend, he got in an accident jake explains it in the movie. My guess is you went to see this movie already disappointed with it, people like you piss me off, and with you saying they ripped off so many movies, what movie now a days doesn't? but to tell you the truth a lot of teens are doing MMA now, and whether they are getting into brutal fights or not is totally up to them, personally one of my friends does MMA and he came to school looking like he got the crap kicked out of him. and for the guy complaining about them being able to get out of an advanced armbar, it's a movie, I know how near impossible it is, but once again a movie. Overall I thought it was a really good movie, good action scenes a lot of the fighting was done well, of course they could have done better but once again your not gonna go full on in a movie, one you could injure someone pretty bad and it's just not necessary.....so skip your trash mariana, go review some chik flik

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Al
March 31, 2008 at 15:40

ok i just went to see this movie and what is wrong with people today.... how do u make the world of mma into a teen drama movie... ridiculous... buddy almost kills u and u give him the i respect u look lol doesnt make sense... and they ripped off sooo many movies like rocky when their running on the peer or whatever it was and then the love story well that basicly rips off every teen movie out there lol so why doesnt he play football anymore? how did his dad actually die we never see the accident.... and who the hell is buddies dad that everyones afraid of... this movie was a waste or reel film... overall i wasted my money on seeing this movie...

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Betty
March 27, 2008 at 19:44

Well i want to start by saying that i don't know if the fights look real or not, but i liked this movie because it shows real emotions that teens have. Im not a teen anymore but I know alot of them that are always angry at the world so this movie shows that extra activities do help maybe its not fighting but they can get into music classes or dance..But aside from that the movie was so good...so if that means that I like dick flicks so be it...mariana

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Frank
March 25, 2008 at 02:21

Well i am a jiujitsu fighter and i must say the ground fight were not realistic enough. yes of course ther ewas alot submissions and it is one of the only movies ive seen with streetfighters fighting on the ground, but i mean sometimes just a simple beginner move couldve done the job and then he does an amazing advanced armbar...yes yes not alot of people know of ground fights and submissions but i mean when you got the guy in a perfect armbar like one guy had at a moment and the other seems beatten sudently does a backflip to escape i find it not representative of what real ground fighting is at least for the level thoses guys were supose to be in the story.(trained with gracies and won vale tudo...)

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J.T.
March 24, 2008 at 23:14

This movie is an awesome movie, it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. the peer reviews for this move bring out the true side of it. It has all the things you need in a great movie, good looking girls, fighting, beatings, its got it all. i give this movie a 10/10

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Kat
March 20, 2008 at 14:22

first of all, i want to start by saying that this was a genuinely good movie and entertaining. not to mention filled with much appreciated eye candy. but Crooked, (cool name btw) you are seriously disturbed if you think Amber Heard is fat. She was gorgeous in that movie b/c she was not anorexic. It is people like you who continue to perpetuate this impossibly unhealthy standard of Hollywood beauty and am appalled by it. Eating Disorders are awful and you seem to want to breed them, so thank you for continuing this unhealthy stereotype.

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Cameron
March 19, 2008 at 04:49

OI...you must not have watched the same movie I did. In the BEATDOWN I am pretty sure all of Jake's wins came from submission ON THE GROUND. And not all REAL fights are on the ground. Take Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin. One of the greatest fights in all of the UFC. That fight went to the ground maybe twice the whole fight. When watching MMA most of the viewers want to see the loser get knocked out by an amazing punch. They want to see his body become limp and fold its way to the mat.

So I think this movie did a good job of grabbing the attention of its viewers. Also, I think OI is an idiot.

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debbie
March 17, 2008 at 14:55

I am a 39 year old single mother of two teenaged boys 19 & 16, I took them to see this movie as my older son is getting involved in mixed martial arts training and we have been watching alot of mma fights together on tv and I really enjoyed this movie, obviously if you dont like mma you won't like this movie so why review it.

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