Never Back Down Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 03.17.2008

Never stop yelling clichés!!!

Never Back Down

Directed By: Jeff Wadlow
Written By: Chris Hauty
Runtime: 106 minutes
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving intense sequences of fighting/violence, some sexuality, partying and language -- all involving teens.

Jake Tyler - Sean Faris
Jean Roqua - Djimon Hounsou
Ryan McCarthy - Cam Gigandet
Baja Miller - Amber Heard
Max Cooperman - Evan Peters
Margot Tyler - Leslie Hope
Charlie Tyler - Wyatt Smith

Actually, Never Back Down, was not absolutely horrible and degenerate. However, it's still a majorly ridiculous, predictable, and convoluted film. In the movie, Jake Tyler (Fellow Houstonian, Faris) is an agitated, slightly rebellious youth. Jake is agitated because his dad died in an accident while driving drunk, and Jake was in the passenger seat. Jake takes out a lot of aggression on the football field, where he's a powerful tackler. But then he gets into fights whenever someone tries to push a nerve. His mother, Margot (Hope, formerly Mrs. Teri Bauer of TV's 24), struggles to keep it together after the family moves from Iowa to bright, sunny Orlando, FL since Jake's tennis prodigy little brother, Charlie (Smith), earned a scholarship at a prestigious school.

Jake feels intimidated by the snobby rich types in Florida, but he's quickly befriended by an annoying as hell schmuck by the name of Max Cooperman (Peters), whom Jake earlier saw "brawling" with some other students. There's a character like Max in every movie like this, when a new kid moves to a new rich town, and finds a new, "funny" best friend. Except Max is not funny with his running commentary on everything the movie already depicts. And then there's the ultra-rich, uber-bully, badass punk who owns the school, Ryan McCarthy (Gigandet). Ryan dates Baja (Heard previously in Friday Night Lights), the girl that Jake was making cow eyes with when he first arrived. Ryan is also the toughest martial arts badass of all Orlando area high school districts. See cheesy 1990's B-movie, Showdown, starring Billy Blanks. Both films contain virtually the exact same plot.

For some reason, Max and apparently the rest of the school googles Jake and views videos of him sacking all the players during football, complete with the cracks about Jake's dad, despite the game at the beginning of the movie taking place in the soaking rain. Apparently, this makes Jake a worthy opponent for Ryan. At a house party, Ryan and Max introduce Jake to their little underground mixed martial arts circuit. So Ryan royally whoops Jake, and makes him humble as the Sheik would say. That only ticks off Jake more, so Jake wants to go back and whoop Ryan in the rematch! Max offers Jake an opportunity to train under Jean Roqua (Hounsou, the only name actor in the movie, probably wanted a quick paycheck), a former Brazilian MMA pro who now lives in his gym. Roqua forbids his students from ever fighting outside the gym or they are gone -- despite the fact that Max constantly participates in such -- not to mention filming videos of the fights and putting them all over the internet and YouTube. This apparently makes Roqua and the rest of his students ignorant hermits who are not aware of any of it. Roqua, impressed with Jake's tenacity and physical drive, decides to be his new Mr. Miyagi. Oh yeah, a Karate Kid reference, I went there.

Jake continues to train and improve at MMA, but still can not get over his personal issues and the death of his father. Not to mention the fact that Jake is still ticked at Baja for baiting him into going to Ryan's party, and Ryan kicking his ass . . . even though his good buddy Max basically baited Jake as well. Jake takes out his aggression on some upperclass dudes in a hummer for no apparent reason. Even more ridiculous, the video Max tapes of the illegal beating and assault makes Jake the talk of YouTube and the school. And apparently, Jake never even goes to jail for almost killing several people and damaging private property with tons of witnesses around. Orlando is supposed to be a peaceful, family city!

The major issue with the movie is the underground, fight club MMA bullshit. Isn't this the image that pro-MMA has been trying to avoid and decry for years? How do these moronic kids get away with the fights that are heavily broadcasted and blogged on the internet? Not to mention the ridiculous injuries, assault, and possible death that could arise from the fights. The most disappointing thing about the movie is that nothing is mentioned about professional or legitimate MMA or martial arts except for some of the training. However, the training in the film does not even use head gear required in legitimate MMA for sparring matches. Ultimately, Ryan and Jake meet in a big parking lot brawl on concrete and all over cars. How they don't end up with shattered discs and broken necks is really ridiculous, but oh well.

The actual fight scenes are not shot too terribly, even with the hand-held photography and constant slow motion. There are constant shots of people filming everything with mini-camcorders or cell phone cameras and posting everything on YouTube and other user-submitted vid sites. Basically, the fights look decent aside from being in open crowds without rings.

The cast is a mixed bag. The youngsters demonstrate some visible potential, but the "romantic" scenes between Jake and Baja are just a notch above semi-intolerable. Baja tries way too hard to be dramatic and comes off as insincere when she's supposed to be sincere. However, Baja does look hot in all her tight outfits, and she's over 21 guys so oogle away. Hounsou is decent and tries, but he's not working with the best material.

This is the sophomore feature for director, Jeff Wadlow, who made his feature debut with the low-budget, cheesy horror movie, Cry_Wolf. If you ever decide to watch Cry_Wolf, you can see Wadlow's attraction to all the fancy, new, high technology he continues to show off in Never Back Down. Beneath all the predictable silliness and stupidity, the film contains a somewhat decent plot or idea about a person finding an emotional center and balance in his life through physical training and martial arts. A martial art is called a discipline for a reason. In Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Batou does not train and weight lift for the physical activity. He trains to center himself mentally. That is a powerful theme. For the movie, this theme is ultimately lost in the third act's rather convoluted delivery of the message, "you have to fight in order to stop fighting". OK yeah, that definitely didn't work out so well here.

The 411: You'll probably forget about the film a week after you see it, but as far as a cheap matinée goes, you can do a lot worse than Never Back Down. Hopefully Redbelt will be a better movie involving MMA. As for Never Back Down, screw the punk rich kids and their little wannabe MMA fight clubs. And screw the movie for not utilizing a premise involving legitimate and competitive pro-MMA.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]