Never Back Down (2008) User Reviews

Much better than advertised

[zachary-pruckowski · 7/10 · 14 March 2008]

The advertisements for this movie do it serious injustice. I was standing in the lobby of a movie theater at a free showing, and almost didn't walk in, because the trailers and ads had me convinced it was a complete waste of time. The advertisements portray the film as being merely a vehicle for shirtless boys to beat on each other and hot girls to wear bikinis. While there is no shortage of either, the movie has a strong underlying theme and a decent plot.

At the thematic level, the movie is about accepting responsibility for your actions, controlling your emotions, and making good choices. It's as much about motivations as macho.

Yes, it is a teen-targeted movie. You've got rich kids running around in massive mansions driving expensive cars, but that's just the setting. You've got people beating the crap out of each other, but that's just a plot device. The heart of the movie is about personal growth and making choices. It's not an empty action flick or a taped brawl.

It's not the best film of the year, and it may well wind up as a late night cable movie in a few months, but it's nowhere near as bad as people expect. It's definitely worth the price of a rental, and worth the $10 to see it in theaters, if you've got no other plans. I blame the negativity largely on the advertising, which tries to sell it as "just another fight movie".

Although this has been done 1,000 times

[Dragoneyed363 · 8/10 · 5 August 2008]

. . . Never Back Down was still a really great movie that I had a lot of fun watching, and I was surprised with how much I actually ended up liking it. Of course this film is really very predictable and was basically just a rip-off version of Fight Club, The Karate Kid, and movies like that in general that was basically aimed at 16, 17, and 18 year old boys, but it was really enjoyable if you just judge it based on an actual movie and not what audience it's trying to pull in.

It did get pretty annoying and downright unbelievable at times, but I have to give this movie it's props, because the acting was done very professionally for a bunch of model-body teenage actors, and it also managed to keep me so interested and entertained through the entire film with semi adroit and crafty, motivating scenes and material matter. It gets a bit mediocre, as I have said, and some stuff just falls flat, but they handle everything they lack so well with other interesting and appealing scenes and substance, excluding the featherweight dialogue, haha.

Overall, I was so happy with the outcome of this movie, because while being cliché, and certainly not worthy of winning an Oscar or anything like that, it was really enjoyable, and I had a great time watching it. If you lower your expectations and free your mind, I bet you will too. I suggest you see it if you can appreciate it for what it is. If anything else, there is Cam Gigandet and Sean Faris shirtless.

underappreciated

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 15 May 2021]

Has the advantage of being the first film of its kind (before the franchise was dragged to the minors). It is bright, it is pretty, it is well produced and it holds the attention. A relic of a bygone era.

Entertaining, as long as you don't think too hard.

[FourNineFoxtrot · 6/10 · 8 August 2008]

Yes, it's just a revamped Karate Kid.

But with MMA, not just Karate, although I did have the occasional urge to shout "Cobra Kai!" when the bad guy came on screen.

Some cool action, basically just MMA (like in the UFC) that's been "hollywoodized" to be showy, "underground", and performed by supposed teenagers.

Djimon Hounsou is wasted on this film, but does fairly well at being the token real actor, giving it some tenuous legitimacy. On the upside, probably a more believable martial arts instructor than Pat Morita... physically, at least.

It's a great movie to just turn off your brain to, and watch lots of girls in bikinis and guys beating each other up. Pleasant, mindless T&A/Action.

"The Karate Kid" plus MMA (mixed martial arts); by-the-numbers all the way

[dee.reid · 6/10 · 14 March 2008]

Don't tap-out yet!

From reading the title "Never Back Down," you get the impression that what you're about to watch will be something pretty macho and also pretty lame - a bad combination. The claims of this being a remake of "The Karate Kid" plus "Fight Club" and mixed martial arts is not undeserved or inappropriate. What it does aim to be, is a "Karate Kid" for the MTV generation and a generation of kids who may think that MMA is the future of the martial arts.

As a casual fan of mixed martial arts, the gladiator-style spectacle of this sport goes all the way back to the Greeks, with their sport Pankration (which pretty much resembles today's MMA). The idea of cross-training and mixing techniques of different fighting styles gained popularity in the 20th century with Bruce Lee and his theories on Jeet Kune Do (which when translated from Cantonese, means "the way of the intercepting fist"). However, mixed martial arts, as we know it today in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), PRIDE and other MMA organizations, gained widespread recognition when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler Royce Gracie won UFC 1 in 1993. Since then, a revolution has been sparked in the world of full-contact fighting. (On a side, UFC president Dana White considers Bruce Lee the "father of modern mixed martial arts.")

In "Never Back Down," which seeks to promote MMA for the mainstream, Jake Tyler (Sean Faris, who looks remarkably like a young Tom Cruise) is a promising football player who is relocated with his widowed mother and younger brother from their home in Iowa to the posh surroundings of upper-class Orlando, Florida; they opt for a cramped apartment in suburbia away from the surf and bikini-clad babes. Right away, it's established that Jake's a born brawler and has a chip on his shoulder, so right away the filmmakers are attempting to remove themselves from the "Karate Kid" legacy.

Right away, he locks eyes on the pretty blonde Baja Miller (Amber Heard, uh-huh), and she invites new-kid Jake to a party later that night. At this same party, he locks heads with rich-boy Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), a champion MMA fighter who gets the upper hand on Jake and beats him to a pulp in a no-holds-barred brawl.

All hope is not lost. On his first day of school, Jake had witnessed a fight happening under the bleachers, where an outcast kid named Max (Evan Peters) was getting his butt kicked by Ryan and his goons. It just so happens that Max is being trained by the legendary MMA champ Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) and takes him under his wing. So cue the MTV soundtrack and training montage.

In terms of being a simple martial arts movie, "Never Back Down" is nothing new. Plenty of martial arts movies have been made about the bullied good guy who gets his butt kicked, learns to fight from a master, and tests out his newfound skills by getting revenge on his tormentors in the ring. The by-the-numbers script by Chris Hauty pays attention to a few of the details of modern mixed martial arts training, but doesn't really go into any real depth about it, even if some of the harsher stuff is only glossed over for the sake of trying to mainstream it. But I also guess that this Jeff Wadlow-directed vehicle has seen way too many better movies, and it's inherently self-referential toward them.

"Never Back Down," I guess, is a fun way to spend $7.75 (what I spent); at the very least, even if the plot is formulaic, it's still entertaining. The acting, writing and plot are decent, but still, the performances, acting and writing, like everything else, are by-the-numbers. Although we don't really wade grimly through worthless dialogue scenes, we do perk up for the fighting and training sequences. The best thing about these scenes is that they're authentic: what the actors are doing is so "real" you "believe" it. As brutal as they are (even for a "PG-13"-rated movie), they're fairly exciting and there isn't a whole bunch of flashy camera cutting that takes away from the intensity of the full-contact punching and kicking. The camera stays put for the most part and isn't moving all over the place. It looks like the actors are really going at it, and it looks like it hurts. So you "believe" it in a way you don't really do for a lot of martial arts movies made in America these days.

And that's what no-holds-barred is all about, right?

6/10

Models, Models everywhere.

[EXodus25X · 6/10 · 29 July 2008]

Wow, there is not one ugly person in all of Orlando, at least that's what this film wants you to believe. Do any high schools or high school students look like this, come on. What I love best is the quote on the back of the box " A little Karate Kid, a little Fight Club and a whole lot of The OC", WHAT? Is that suppose to make me buy it, please find me someone who loves all three of those, ya, no one. OK, so the film is not all bad, Djimon Hounsou is good as always, the look of the film is unique and the fight scenes are pretty darn good. Unfortunately the plot is predictable the characters are one dimensional, there is a girl cause there has to be, right and it attempts to send a message and fails horribly. I think the directors theory is fill the film with fight scenes and loud music montages and then you don't have to have character development or to much of their crappy dialogue. So I guess that helps the film instead of hurting it.

Better than you heard

[contactbrianwest · 6/10 · 30 April 2008]

It's interesting how this movie seems to be a watershed for mma. Mixed martial arts really are making the transition from underground, extreme bleeding-edge expressions of combat sport to a mainstream and accepted pastime, and that shows in the commentary about this film. Those who have a clue about mma aren't saying the same things as those who don't.

I have no patience for critics, anyway. They're worse than academics, really, and nothing they say can be trusted. You want to know if a movie sucked? Listen to the people.

This movie didn't suck. Okay, it wasn't Cool Hand Luke, but is that really what you were expecting when you saw the advance poster? It went to great lengths to make a Classical reference from the Iliad significant thematically, and how often does a "teensploitation" flick do that? It even employed a little finesse in some of the on-screen relationships, and in ways that seemed to hold a little verisimilitude, even. If the filmmakers had made Jake Tyler a gay youth fighting for free speech in the school newspapers, the critics would have loved it. All they saw was scary teen violence, so they…well, less than loved it.

Truth is that the movie isn't really glorifying violence; it's glorifying the quotidian, although it does seem to consider violence an acceptable means to an end. If you like mixed martial arts and you're not too delicate to watch stylized violence, rent it when it comes out. If you'd really rather watch 27 Dresses (you know who you are) tell your boyfriend it's chick flick time.

Why do I keep coming back to this ?

[cool_jojo_007 · 9/10 · 27 November 2021]

Honestly I don't know the answer. This has been done so many times before. Still I keep watching parts again and again if not the whole movie. My guilty pleasure.

Good movie

[borat_co · 7/10 · 21 March 2008]

I saw this movie a couple of days ago and i was really impressed! At first i thought that this would just be another brain-dead movie but it was so much more. Solid acting, good story and nice fighting scenes.

The thing i don't understand are the bad review about this movie. Sure, it isn't something new, it's basically a "Karate Kid" clone but made in the 21th century. It gives you a nice story and is a solid flick, not a prizewinner or something but considering that it gives you what it promises then it's a great movie. Don't expect Fightclub or anything like that, this is something more "simple".

The story is about Jake Tyler, a kid who just has moved to Florida. He start school but before he knows it he gets beaten silly by another kid in school who is a really skilled MMA fighter. Now Jake takes up training to fight back but realizes that revenge isn't everything and also makes new friends and a girlfriend. It's a classical story, nothing new but it still works. The plot is engaging and you really want to see Jake succeed with his training and his emotional travel. The acting is good, sometimes it can get a bit over the line but otherwise it's good. The fight in this movie are well executed. One thing that is really bad in this movie is when they show Jakes younger brother, a tennis star. He is so annoying with his "sweetness" and the fact that all the kid does is act smart by mumbling up numbers and facts about tennis.

I recommend you to see this move, it will be much better then you think!

Every film cliché ever jammed into 100 minutes

[cabdriver_casual · 3/10 · 12 April 2008]

I liked this film better when it was called the Karate Kid. Sure, there is nothing new under the sun and every film borrows something from other films that have come before it, but this is bordering on copyright infringement.

If I had to write a Karate Kid summary in 3 sentences, this is what I would write: Kid moves to a new town. Kid gets the living crap beaten out of him by the town bad boy. Kid starts some heavy duty Karate training so he can get revenge by kicking the bad boys ass while simultaneously winning the heart of the hottest girl in town.

Now, if I had to write a summary for this film in 3 sentences it would be as follows: Kid moves to a new town. Kid gets the living crap beaten out of him by the town bad boy. Kid starts some heavy duty Mixed Martial Arts training so he can get revenge by kicking the bad boys ass while simultaneously winning the heart of the hottest girl in town.

The plot is literally exactly the same. The only difference is that when it came to the soundtrack they replaced Peter Cetera with nu metal in the vein of Linkin Park and the most pivotal characters in this film were cell phones.

People have commented that the fight scenes were pretty good. I tend to disagree. They were pretty weak. Instead of watching this film just watch the Karate Kid and have a computer handy. When the fight scenes are on in the Karate Kid, just turn away and watch some UFC fights on youtube. You'll have practically the same film as Never Back Down, just much much better.

I was surprised at the lack of tits in this film. Usually a film with a script of this caliber has a heap of tits. This was obviously an oversight from the producers and I'm sure that will be fixed if they make a sequel.

I do respect the fact that they were able to jam every 80's film cliché ever into the little over 90 minutes. When writing a film review on this site you have the option of checking the "contains spoilers" box. This feature could easily be disabled for Never Back Down. It is impossible to spoil the content of this film as everybody has already seen it, at least 1000 times, just with a different title.

Will the good kid defeat the bad kid in a no holes barred fight? Who knows? Well actually everybody.

Great film, praise-worthy

[osvazas · 8/10 · 12 January 2010]

This is one more film with quite good idea. Though, there are a lot similar films that we could bracket in one group with this one. Yet, it has something outstanding. It inspires me in a way. To strive for my life-goals, never back down, no matter how hard it may be, what sort of obstacles are ahead of you.. Maybe that's the real purpose of this film? To inspire one, to be confident and persistent. At least, I was affected in this way. I presume, that this movie is suitable for those, who have a very deep and grim times, who need some sort of wake up call to evoke positive feelings to what's life.. to make one be optimistic again...

An awesome hybrid of The Karate Kid and Bloodsport.

[DarkVulcan29 · 7/10 · 23 March 2008]

Some filmmaker thought one day, since we are running out of ideas lets combine some 80's fighting films like The Karate Kid(1984), and Bloodsport(1988), and what you get is Never Back Down, The story of a teenager named Jake Tyler(Sean Faris, Best known from Yours, Mine, and Ours(2005) has just moved into a new town with mom(Leslie Hope) and younger brother(Wyatt Smith). Jake has a very big chip on his shoulder, and is estanged with his mother. One day after school, Jake is invited to a party, what he thinks is a way to make new friends, ends up turning into a UFC challenge, when Jake is lured into a fight by an antagonist named Ryan McCarthy(Cam Gigandet), although Jake puts up a pretty good fight, he is beaten down badly. In hopes to recover from this humilation, a new friend suggest a karate veteran named Jean Roqua(Djimon Hounsou). Althouh has doubts, he goes anyway. In hopes Jake will learn to exercise his mind and body. And thats all I'm gonna tell you. This film was not all bad, at times predicable, but still good. And the fight scenes were awesome, some were corny, but the rest were good. And everybody gives great performances also.

Serious Case of Deja View

[dukevega · 3/10 · 14 March 2008]

If you weren't old enough to see movies and understand them back in 1984, this may seem like a pretty good movie. If, on the other hand, you were old enough, then you will see this movie for what it is: an updated version of "Karate Kid", a much better film. Before seeing this, I looked up the movie and read the plot, and that was the first thought that ran through my head; seeing it only proved it. By the time the movie was over, I counted over 15 similarities between the two films, and yet nowhere did I see any credit given to the original writers. Shouldn't they be suing for plagiarism?

1 Poor kid is star

2 Moves out to a coastal city

3 Meets pretty girl

4 Pretty girl has jerk boyfriend

5 Jerk boyfriend is local fighting champ (2 years running no less)

6 Poor kid knows a little about fighting

7 Gets into fight with jerk boyfriend and gets beat

8 Meets up with a teacher in the same style as jerk boyfriend

9 Teacher is foreign born

10 Teacher has experienced great personal loss

11 Poor kid and girl have tiff

12 They get back together after he apologizes for being a jerk

13 While jerk boyfriend is good fighter, has bad focus

14 Poor kid and jerk boyfriend face off in tournament he is champion of

15 In the tournament, poor kid suffers a serious injury

16 Poor kid wins anyway and earns jerk boyfriend's respect

There are some other plot holes which stretch the credibility of this movie even further. The main villain is in good shape, as he walks around half the movie with no shirt on, revealing some well-defined abs. I find it awfully hard to believe that a high school kid could achieve something like that.

The other plot hole which also made me scratch my head was the death of the lead character's father. He got drunk at a bar, got behind the wheel and wrapped his car around the tree. The lead was with him and I was wondering, "What is a high school kid doing at a bar? Do they check IDs any more?"

And another thing: what are high school kids doing participating in full-contact fighting tournaments? Isn't there some kind of law against that?

The one good thing I did like about the movie was the villain. He had a whole smug attitude which came off as highly believable. But still, that isn't nearly enough to make up for this rip-off. I'm just glad this was a sneak preview so I didn't have to pay to see this.

Smarter than you might wish it were

[ammspar10 · 6/10 · 13 March 2008]

I saw the film at a screening last night, expecting a hot, angsty white kid, teen romp with lots of inappropriate violence highlighted by super slow motion spit and blood after every shot to the face. I thought I would only be able to laugh at how seriously the movie takes itself.

And thats how it happened. Kind of.

This film is a success in the way that it allows itself to play both as a true fight-movie genre, sure to satisfy the 2008 Karate Kid fans, and a over the top camp spectacle, sure to excite the drunk-in-the-theater, "Snakes on a Plane!", hollaring at the screen crowd. It throws in just enough genre references to let the audience know it knows how ridiculous the clichés are, but maintains enough composure to avoid satirizing, leaving the Wayans brothers room to make the easier "Just Another Fight Movie".

There are some uncomfortable elements in the film for sure. The way the film takes advantage of class politics (poor white boy from Iowa without a father gets taught to fight by poorer Brazilian man to fight super rich white boy) is cheap, completely subverted by MTV Cribs-like glorification of wealth-- Jake doesn't have a car, but it never becomes more than an a badge of authenticity since new friend Max seems fine with lending him his hot little convertible for the entire story.

Violence is glorified, and the warnings from Hounsou's character never to fight outside the gym play the clichéd moralistic role you'd expect until the final fight scene demands something else.

None of this should be any surprise to audiences and in a way it seems hard to critique the film for them. If the genre is fight film, you've got to play by the genre's conventions and Never Back Down definitely does.

The more intelligent parts of the film occur with Wadlow's original take on the rumor mill, again showing his ability to capture super modern technology on film (remember Cry Wolf's AIM sequences?), this time utilizing viral video and DV camcorders. The fight scenes are well choreographed and shot like a more-than-competent music video. The soundtrack is as sexy as the cast and pace of the film.

In the end this is not a film that will last, but it is also not a film made by inept or unintelligent filmmakers. They know what they are doing, and whether you wish they had done it or not, I think you will be able to appreciate it on whichever level you might choose.

Better than expected

[td_username · 7/10 · 30 April 2021]

Tell that kid to stop looking like tom cruise. Much better than I thought it was going to be.

Decent at best, but definitely not as bad as made out to be

[anjobermudez · 7/10 · 29 April 2008]

While those who say that 'Never Back Down' is somewhat a rip off 'Karate Kid' are right on the money, I chose to see it in a different way. I remembered a movie that was fresher in my memory. From what the trailer showed me, and from what watching the film actually confirmed, 'Never Back Down' is actually is in a few ways similar to 'The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift', albeit substituting fast cars and races with mixed martial arts.

Yes you heard that right.

1) OK, so you have this young stud who always seems to get himself into trouble.

2) He moves into a completely different environment. (Orlando-Tokyo)

3) He meets, and flirts with a hottie who turns out to be the dissatisfied girlfriend of the local bigshot/champion.

4) The young stud knows a little about the sport (Tyler knows a little about fighting, and Sean knows cars), and is challenged by the bigshot.

5) He loses this first confrontation badly, but afterwards, trains to be the best.

6) Eventually, he gets the girl, and he earns respect by defeating the champion.

Now despite the obviously rehashed formula, I still give this 7 stars. Why? Because it is still a pretty entertaining film. Never mind the stereotypes, cheesy lines, and the predictable turn of events. "Never Back Down" still manages to keep you watching. The action is good, and although cliché, the substance of the plot is actually quite palatable. It certainly delivers what it is supposed to deliver, nothing more, and nothing less.

So is it worth spending a few dollars to see it in the theatres? I'd say, why not? I believe the reason why this film gets such harsh reviews is because people might have been expecting a little too much. It will definitely not get any critical acclaim, or anything remotely close to such recognition, but it never aspired to do so to begin with. It was never groomed in that fashion anyway.

Just like "The Fast and the Furious", it's probably not everyone's cup of tea. Depends on your taste (both these movies dig deep into their particular genre). Some people will enjoy seeing, and talking about cars more than others. In the same way, big fans of fight movies, and Mixed Martial Arts alike(such as myself) will enjoy this film a bit more than others. However, the same rule applies here. I say, just take it as it is, and you'll find that "Never Back Down" is actually an enjoyable movie. It's nothing half as bad as it is said to be.

not bad

[mm-39 · 6/10 · 17 March 2008]

My wife and my friends did not want to see this movie last Saturday, and I wanted too. So sad! We saw a awful movie instead. On Sunday my wife and I went to the movie, and it was great. The movie had a great theme were one fights in order to have peace. The antagonist fought for the wrong reasons glory, and attention. The mix of mixed martial art, a love interest, and the kid who got over his anger is a great story. Never Back down also show why the characters act the way they do. I hope the antagonist learned some humility from his defeat. 6 out of 10. Decent Karate movie. I love those movie and the crowd which attends them even more. 6 out of 10. PS I will never grow up.

a heavily under-rated kick-arse movie, albeit its flaws...

[oli_rawlings · 9/10 · 8 April 2008]

Being a martial artist myself, i can understand why others may not feel the same way towards what i am about to say as this film is clearly aimed at a specific audience.

Never back down is a good teen-young adult film. Why is it rated so low? It contains and deals with many issues that are in our every lives. Issues of pride, of bullying, of prejudice, of commitment and above all respect. Its promotional campaign does not do it justice. If one looks below the surface, this movie has some depth to it.

Good things about it: fantastic soundtrack, good acting, great locations, professional fighting and pretty good story, albeit being a bit simple and predictable.

Bad things about it: a bit cheesy, mostly predictable, lack of character development apart from Jake (the main character) and Jean Roqua, the occasional bad technique (from my point of view) and a clear plastic feel to it due to the beautiful people.

I'm not much of a writter, all I'll say is this film is worth watching and is very empowering, particularly if you are a martial artist or have had a bad day.

overall 9/10

My Review

[joemamaohio · 7/10 · 23 July 2008]

Young, rebellious Jake Tyler (Sean Farris) and his mother and younger brother move from Iowa (or Idaho, can't remember) to Orlando so his brother can get a start in the competitive world of tennis.

The first day he draws attention from the most popular girl, Baja (Amber Heard), and a d-bag of her boyfriend Ryan (Cam Gigandet), who apparently rules the school with iron fists of fury.

Jake quickly befriends Max (Evan Peters), who introduces him to the world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Baja invites Jake to a party, where Jake is cornered by Ryan and forced to fight after Ryan insulted his father (whom passed away in a car accident that Jake holds himself responsible for). Jake gets the crap kicked out of him, and his ego is just as bruised as his body, and plans retaliation.

Max brings him to his trainer, Jean (Djimon Hounsou), who begins to work with Jake not just physically but mentally as well, helping him focus his pent up anger towards something more useful.

All of which leads to a final showdown between Jake and Ryan...I wonder who is going to win? Alright, I will be sarcastic a bit and say that the ending is none too surprising. It's a typical fight movie, but this one you really don't have someone to root for. Sure, you can support Jake, but he's pretty much a complete d-bag throughout 95% of the film, and the final small bit of the film where he suddenly becomes the un-caped crusader of the poor just doesn't make you want to root for him.

However, I will say that I found the film quite enjoyable, despite being two hours long, it didn't feel like it. And I felt that it was a complete movie, and it wasn't really lacking in anything. It wasn't the movie's fault that it had a predictable ending, 95% of sports movies have that required ending. Don't hold the ending against an otherwise practically flawless movie.

Just plain stupid

[steveorr-01599 · 2/10 · 11 April 2021]

How stupid is this? Let me count the ways.

1) Angry young man goes into "serious" martial arts dojo and is immediately disrespectful. He would have been kicked out in real life.

2) He continues to be disrespectful and breaks the rules. Still in.

3) He falls in love with the girl who set him up and is the squeeze of his nemesis. Huge cliche. I can see wanting Amber, though.

4) High school kids are allowed to maim each other in "underground" fights in a club? Sure. It's televised on social media. Cops would never show up.

5) He injures his ribs early on in tournament. Takes a lot more pounding and manages to keep going. Jake "Balboa" Tyler.

6) Forget the ribs. He is in a choke hold and right before passing out he just whips his arm backwards around the nemesis's neck and reverses the situation. Sure.

7) Mom moves family 1000 miles to get little brother into a tennis school. And he's not all that good.

8) You are not allowed to kick a man on his knees in real MMA but it's okay here.

I give this film two stars because Amber is hot and Hounsou is pretty good (except for the stupid part about his kid brother and Dad.) Otherwise, it was an unrealistic, horrid ripoff of the Karate Kid.

A new "Karate Kid"

[jhobdell · 8/10 · 19 April 2008]

Perhaps my descriptive summary is unkind to this film. I enjoyed it so much because it depicts a young man learning to deal with his emotions, rather than being ruled by his fear of them. It is quite remarkable, the strength of character he ultimately develops, and his interactions with his instructor are gratifyingly free of the childish morality one dreads in such a film, or the typical oriental platitudes that often hallmark them because of the origins of martial arts. At the root of this, I think, is the film's willingness to observe and comment on the 'problem' emotion of anger. Rather than leave it festering, or simply transform it 'as if by magic', the audience can almost see the transformation in the main character, through his physical exertion, which eventually leaves him free of its destructive role in his life. For most, if not all, these reasons, I enjoyed the film because it resonated with me quite closely, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

If nothing else, I for one will be researching the possibilities of training in mixed martial arts!

Three Reasons to watch this movie

[DrewAlexanderR1 · 6/10 · 17 June 2015]

Never Back Down reminds me of a Disney Channel Movie back in days of Brink and Johnny Tsunami. It has simple characters and doesn't really have too many surprises. That being said the movie is well written and has a classic plot. Plain and simple, it's just light hearted good watch.

Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a kid troubled by the death of his father. After moving to a new town the local tough guy (Cam Gigandet) picks him to be his latest person to beat up on. The thing to do in this town is being into UFC/MMA and participating in the low key fight club.

If you're looking for some time to kill or your looking for a simple yet enjoyable movie check this out. The three reasons to are: entertaining story, decent acting for a small movie (with a small part from Dijon Hounsou), and a good motivational message.

A Nutshell Review: Never Back Down

[DICK STEEL · 5/10 · 14 June 2008]

Donnie Yen's recent Flash Point provided action movie fans a glimpse of Mixed-Martial Arts, or MMA, where the best of breed techniques in taking down an opponent get gelled together to provide unpredictability in offensive and defensive response, coupled with the transformation of almost every part of the body into a well-oiled mechanism to dish out some serious punishment. But with Hollywood, well, you can bet your last dollar that the philosophy behind this brand of martial arts get dumbed down to 3 words - "Mix it up".

Like many movies starring teens and targeting the same demographics, Never Back Down follows a standard formula that most of such movies adopt, especially with taking things to the streets, like Fast and Furious 3, and the Step Up movies, which dealt with different subject matter like street racing, and street dance. Throw a misunderstood teen into a new environment, where he learns that his current skills (if you can call them that) pales in comparison to the boys in the big league. Add a beautiful lass to beguile the protagonist, and she'll either serve as motivation or fodder to get his butt kicked because she just so happens to the antagonist's main squeeze. So in a fight for respect / pride / to get the girl, he goes into training mode, and comes back in time for the finale with chick around arms. That's about it.

So don't go into this movie expecting a lot more. Touting itself as a new fight club, it is anything but, especially with everything cerebral removed from the plot. I also don't see how it won this year's MTV Movie Awards for best fight sequence, as most of it dwelled on grown men hugging tightly on the ground engaged in complex body grinding and twists. Action fans will be a tad disappointed with the quality of fights shown here, as this is not really MMA. I believe if you throw Donnie Yen into the mix, he would pawn everyone in the movie, even those who choreographed the supposedly deadlier moves, which boiled down to a series of boxing hooks and punches.

With the formula in place, everything else will just fall into its rightful position. Sean Faris stars as Jake Tyler, a teen with anger management and guilt issues who can't control his temper and flares up easily when his dad gets insulted. In his new school, he chances upon 2 things, an underground fight club, and hot blonde Baja Miller, who turns out to be the girl of his would-be nemesis Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), who turns out to be the biggest baddest fighter in school. Losing both the girl and his pride in one fell disgraceful swoop, he undergoes training with MMA exponent Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) whose rule is simple - you do not fight outside his gym. Expect rules to be broken, expect the two mentor-mentee to bond, expect some rationale to be provided to head to the fight we've been waiting for, and while the peer movies gave us a finale to remember, this one fizzled out with cheap moves.

But I've got to say something about the movie. Fans of Tom Cruise will definitely see shades of Cruise-like characters in Sean Faris. He's like a walking, talking Cruise clone, only that he's younger, taller and more muscular. In fact, if you take Cruise back to his teens, Never Back Down would probably be one of the movies that would fit into his budding filmography. Not that I'm gay here, but seriously, if you happen for any reason, choose to watch this movie, tell me if you agree with me. They shouldn't have billed the movie as the new fight club, they should have billed the movie as starring the next Tom Cruise. Though of course it remains to be seen if Faris can steer clear of crazy couch-jumping antics.

'The OC' meets 'Fight Club'

[GirishGowda · 7/10 · 5 June 2010]

I understand the low rating for this movie, but I thought it was better than a 6.1, probably in the high 6. I had extremely low hopes for this movie before watching it, but it was way better than expected. I am a big fan of both the TV show 'The Oc' and the awesome movie 'Fight Club', this is a combination of both, but far too less effective. I know this movie is a big cliché, but I really enjoyed it. This movie had a TV show feel to it and I liked that. Sean Faris looks like a younger version of Tom Cruise, too bad he doesn't have the same acting ability level. But it might be because of the mole, it is very distracting.

Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a senior high school footballer who has daddy issues (his father was killed in a car accident) and blows off his steam in random fights: be it on the football field or on streets. He is moving to Orlando with his mother and little brother who has got a tennis scholarship and meets Baja Miller (Amber Heard) in class. He immediately has a thing for her, but it turns out she already has a super-rich, hot boyfriend Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet). Ryan knows that Jake is a hothead who can fight really well. Being a good fighter himself and also the tough guy at school, he challenges him and kicks his butt, humiliating Jake in front of everybody. Jake's only friend Max Cooperman (Evan Peters) tells him about Jean (Djimon Hounsou), a professional who teaches Jake to control his anger while fighting a fight.

You know rich kids just create unnecessary drama to make themselves feel important. That is what I have learned in my experience. They show it in this and it is very boring in real life, but the movie is enjoyable. The fights were really awesome and that is probably the reason anybody could watch this. I like Cam Gigandet, he was probably born to play the role of bad guys. With his good looks and acting skill, he could easily play the lead role, but he still plays the bad guy very convincingly. I actually hated him for killing off Marissa in 'The OC'. The film succeeds because of him and he has a real story. I don't have any complaints about the script, except it was too predictable. That was not necessarily a bad thing as the director has tried his best to make this an entertaining watch. Baja Miller is simply a prop for Ryan and Jake, she has no character development (she leaves one hot guy for another hot guy). The background music was good and the locations were superb.

7/10

Nothing new here

[ctomvelu1 · 6/10 · 23 July 2009]

A teen is new in town, goes to high school and ends up having to fight bare-fisted. He finds a guy who helps him improve his fighting technique before the big showdown with the school bully. And that's about all she wrote for this low-budget teen drama, which liberally borrows from THE KARATE KID, THREE O'CLOCK HIGH and even FIGHT CLUB. Sean Farris, who you may recognize from several other youth-oriented flicks, plays the new kid in town and Dimoin. Hounsou is his trainer. If nothing else, Farris is a solid young actor who is likely to go on to better things. Honsou, who has appeared in much better films, appears to be slumming here. Hey, it's a paycheck!