“Never Back Down”
2008
***½ out of ****
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Cast: Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet


It should be no secret by now that I am a very cynical man, and a very angry man can only boil himself to a point that he can only take so much until he explodes. By that very description of me, a weakness in film that I have is films that centers on the world of fighting. “Fight Club” is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I have no regrets. That movie is a fucking classic. I won’t go nearly as far as saying that “Never Back Down” is a classic, but it will be a guilty pleasure of mine for many of years to come.

The movie isn’t perfect. Once you look at the star rating, you’ll think I’m crazy, but really, I’m not. I’m not looking for the plot in “Never Back Down.” If I was looking for a plot, I would have given the film a BOMB rating and discard it in my memory. I’m not looking for the acting. If I was looking for some good acting, I would walk into “Funny Games” next door that is only playing twice throughout the day. And I’m not even looking for some good music. Hell, even I was looking for some good music, I’d give it a negative asterisk, because this film’s soundtrack is as MTV (Mainstream-TV) as it can get.

I wanted to see some nice fight sequences. I wanted to learn some moves. I wanted to be entertained. And so I was. That is why I’m giving it what I’m giving it. If you don’t like the rating I gave it, eat my ass.

Football player Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) moves from Iowa to Orlando, Florida with his brother (Wyatt Smith) and mother (Leslie Hope). Tyler has been grieving over his father’s death for a long time now, and once he builds up the anger inside of him, he kicks ass. Before he moves from Iowa, Tyler kicks some ass at a football game by laying out five of the football players… all by himself. Someone puts the clip on YouTube, and once he comes to Orlando, everyone already knows who he is. They have all seen the video, especially Baja (Amber Heard, and she’s American, if you really wanted to know). Baja invites Tyler to a party, where he meets Baja’s boyfriend Ryan (Cam Gigandet). Ryan is a mixed martial artist with a powerful kick.

What Tyler doesn’t know is that Baja set him up. Ryan asked her to invite him so Ryan can fight Tyler in their underground fighting group. Tyler gets his ass kicked, and wakes up in his head with a swollen eye. His friend, Max, (Evan Peters) introduces him to Jean Roqua, (Djimon Hounsou) a teacher of mixed martial arts every day of the year. Tyler prepares to learn the moves that Ryan used on him and how to reverse them, so on the night of The Beatdown (a martial arts event), Tyler can meet Ryan for the final time and will give him the ass kicking that he deserves.

“Never Back Down” is surprisingly entertaining, for the sole reason that the fight sequences are brilliantly choreographed and looked realistic. There is never a false representation of the violent sport. The fight scenes look like that they would kick your ass and for the entire film I accepted the fact that they would kick my ass. It’s going to make me angry when these fight scenes are going to soon be forgotten within these next few years (but don’t worry, I’ll forget it also).

There is not a doubt in my mind that many people will compare this film to “Step Up 2 The Streets,” as people have been doing it since, uhh, I guess the film’s release. But I won’t. Not because it is disrespectful comparing a film like “Never Back Down” to “Step Up 2,” but because I simply didn’t see it. Supposedly, the film’s final battle is a lot like the final battle in “Step Up 2.” I’m not going to spoil the ending to “Never Back Down,” because it’s very predictable and you can see it coming while you’re watching the trailer, but the final battle, nonetheless, is intense.

The biggest problem that I had with “Never Back Down” is the music. I can understand this, because it has to attract some type of artist, but it is basically all of the same exact music that you listen to on MTV. There are montages where songs sung by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and My Chemical Romance are used. The montages are fun to watch, but the songs didn’t impress me. Surprisingly, the only song that actually impressed me was the usage of Kanye West’s “Stronger,” and I fucking hate that song.

Djimon Hounsou does an impressive job, but being that he is the only “professional” here, he needs more of a role. He’s great in it and brings a lot of emotion and heart to the role, but he’s only a supportive character. I wanted more of him. But that’s not that big of a deal, because the film can hold its own in the hands of the main character played by Sean Faris. He’s impressive for some guy that I never heard of before, and this may be his way in breaking into the mainstream.

“Never Back Down” isn’t flawless. It’s not even great. But I like it, and I’m sure many other people will too if they give it a shot. Along with “Never Back Down,” I saw “Horton Hears a Who,” and I don’t think I really need to make mention of what film you should see over the Easter break, do I?

Horton Hears a Who

"Horton Hears a Who" is about an imaginative elephant who hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Suspecting there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community which thinks he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to help.

Never Back Down

"Never Back Down" is the story of Jake Tyler, a tough kid who leads with his fists, and, often, with his heart. Jake Tyler is the new kid in town with a troubled past. He has recently moved to Orlando, Florida with his family who has relocated to support his younger brother's shot at a professional tennis career. Jake was a star athlete on the football team at home, but in this new city he is an outsider with a reputation for being a quick tempered brawler. Making an attempt to fit in, at the invitation of a flirtatious classmate, Baja, Jake goes to a party where he is unwittingly pulled into a fight with a bully named Ryan McCarthy. While he is defeated and humiliated in the fight, a classmate introduces himself to Jake and tells him about the sport known as Mixed Martial Arts. He sees a star in Jake and asks that he meet with his mentor, Jean Roqua. It is immediately apparent to Jake that MMA is not street fighting, but rather an art form he wants to master. Roqua will take Jake under his wing, but it is up to Jake to find the patience, discipline, willingness and reason within him to succeed. For Jake, there is much more at stake than mere victory. His decision will not just settle a score; it will define who he is.

Doomsday

In the action-packed new thriller from writer/director Neil Marshall ("The Descent"), authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes. The literal walling-off works for three decades – until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

Funny Games

In this provocative and brutal thriller from director Michael Haneke, a vacationing family gets an unexpected visit from two deeply disturbed young men. Their idyllic holiday turns nightmarish as they are subjected to unimaginable terrors and struggle to stay alive.