Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: UN
Release Date: 29-JUL-2008
Media Type: DVD If you get caught up in the sweaty fight scenes in Never Back Down–and, despite the formulaic plot, you very likely will–it will be due to the sheer kinetic pleasure of muscular bodies in motion. Jake (Tom Cruise look-alike Sean Faris, Yours, Mine, and Ours), full of anger after his father’s death, starts to find a place for himself at his new Florida high school–until Ryan, the head of an underground mixed-martial arts (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), picks Jake out as a prime opponent. After being trounced by Ryan in front of everyone in school, Jake begins training under the firm, moral guidance of a martial arts master with a hidden past (Djimon Hounsou, a long way from Blood Diamond, but still bringing his essential gravitas to the screen). Basically, Never Back Down boils down to a cross between The Karate Kid and Fight Club, minus the sociopolitical commentary. The story and characters are a bundle of featherweight cliches, but that won’t stop the aggressively edited fight sequences from stoking a viewer’s adrenaline. Also starring Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as the very blonde love interest, who (along with an abundance of girls in bikinis–’cause, y’know, it’s Florida) is there to assure everyone that these handsome, chiseled boys are strictly heterosexual. –Bret Fetzer
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April 11, 2010
#1
A movie about white trash people living in the ghettos is intended for just that. I couldn’t understand how this even relates to anything in the real world. Then again, I’ve never been to the ghettos of America. Save your money, interested buyers. That’s the least you can do.
April 11, 2010
#2
enjoy ufc so i thought this would be good. many films geared at the teen age demographic make you roll your eyes and/or laugh out loud, when it’s not meant to be funny. this film does both. the title of my review says it all. not that the acting was necessarily that bad but the premise itself is so contrived, it was hard to sit through. i NEVER walk out on a film. i almost did on this one. PLEASE save your $$ and wait until your buddy’s buddy’s buddy burns a copy for you when the flick comes out on dvd and when your laundry, homework and all errands have been taken care of. THEN watch it. you’ll want the 2 hrs of your life back. i know i did.
April 11, 2010
#3
would not no anything about movie due to never geting it, i recommend amazon to everyone
April 11, 2010
#4
I don’t think I’ll ever understand movies like this. I’ve never seen the point of boxing or fighting except for one man to prove dominance over another. And honestly, nobody cares who’s more masculine. You don’t have to be at the top of the masculinity food chain to have a good life, and that’s the message this movie doesn’t send.
“Never Back Down” entices a wide female audience with lots of buff shirtless guys beating each other up. “Never Back down” also entices a large male audience with a story of the underdog rising to the top by beating the life out of people. And unfortunately neither draw makes for a good film. The entire point of this movie is that the underdog cannot and will not have a happy, peaceful life until he can beat the resident school bully. This is not the kind of message that needs to be sent to teenagers. While I may have only just left my teenage years, I do not believe that violence is the answer to all our problems and therefore think this movie was a horrible idea from start to finish. I’ve never wanted to throw the remote at my television set any more than when I watched this film.
If you’re big on boxing and men being each other up, yes you’ll like this movie. And I know there’s a big enough audience out there that will appreciate this film. But I honestly don’t see the point in anything the main character does in this film, and therefore cannot recommend it to anyone else.
April 11, 2010
#5
A disgrace to mixed martial arts. Basically what it does is take karate kid and fast and the furious, add in anything in pop culture that would be considered the in thing, add in horrible acting, and you have a movie designed to just make a quick buck. Movie is complete garbage. Avoid it at all costs.