User reviews

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".

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.

. . . 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Clearly, this is not the work of the Coen Brothers, but if all you want is a good way to spend an afternoon with a friend, this movie is great.

Allow me to first say: I really did enjoy this movie. Honest, I did.

But the truth is, for all its muscle-flexing and roundhouse-kicking, this movie is just unbelievably silly. If you can find a high-school with that many future models and kids as psychopathic as Ryan McCarthy, please contact me and I'll delete this.

I can completely understand how intense it would seem if I was Jake "Unbelievably Stereotypical High School Drama Name" Tyler (which I guess the completely ridiculous name of "Baja" is supposed to compensate for), but there are several parts where you just have to wonder how realistic it is for one guy, even if he is a trained fighter, to take on four reasonably sizable dudes.

That said, if you can put realism to one side long enough to enjoy the incredibly brutal fight scenes and surprisingly engaging storyline, this movie is really fun. You won't learn a valuable lesson, but you'll want to start a backyard MMA club when you get home (even though the film doesn't really present an accurate depiction of real-life mixed martial arts).

Overall, this movie is really fun and enjoyable. Great for a $4 matinée.

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.

It's a bit cheesy here and there I'll admit it, but it's cool man it's a movie that you wish happened to you when YOU were in highschool. The cone back is awesome.

This movie epitomizes the year 2008, pulling up directions on Mapquest, Soulja boy blaring in the background, and recording fights on a flip phone. Every movie cliché was thrown into this movie and quite honestly I was into it all.

Let's just start with my personal debate: Was the the most cliché' or second most cliché movie ever. And I really can't think of one that takes the cake from it. I started thinking that this might have been the worst 8 bucks I have ever spent near the beginning with the tedious overplayed high school drama, but didn't start all out laughing at how bad this movie was until the supporting male friend figure shot off the line "But you can do what I could never do" "What's that?" the protagonist replies. To which the former replies "Achieve greatness." And I am totally serious. That's really in that movie.

In Short: Cons: Woefull Acting. Tedious Cliché-y dialogue and inter-personals. Pros: Good fighting and the female lead is really hot. And thats it.

This was actually a pretty entertaining film, with a okay plot and some good fight scenes. I actually enjoyed this movie and when the credits started it was time well spent. I mean it's no Oscar worthy movie and it doesn't have a great story, which is why some reviewers might bash on this film. But I am just going to judge this movie on enjoyment, and it's entertaining for a movie about a bunch of teens fighting. The protagonist played by Sean Faris, is a guy that tries to learn martial arts for the love of the sport after getting a taste of it, instead of self defence although he does get bullied by the character played by that one guy from that one teen show. Amber Heard is also in this and she is fine as always, although not much of an actress. Sure a lot of it is immature, but it's still fun. And the goal is to show how no matter how difficult an obstacle is in your way, be persistent and never back down while being entertaining at the same time. This was a lot better than I thought it would be, although it will get bashed on by a lot of critics that don't enjoy a entertaining movie and judges it by other factors or just jump the bandwagon of other reviewers.

7.4/10