Never Back Down

Now I have never been one to get thoroughly excited at the prospect of watching men or women get together to kill each other with their bare hands. So you will understand the reason behind my poor rating of Never Back Down. But it has never ceased to surprise me that the rest of the world seems to think otherwise. Why as I am writing this review, we have the Super Fight League or something of that sort starting in Mumbai right? So there are very few of the likes of me.

Now in sharp contrast, I love movies that have to do with boxing or wrestling or Jackie chan kung fu. Its just the inane fighting and beating up people that gets to me. Unless you are talking about The Fight Club where there is a darker story behind it. And it is made by a classy director called David Fincher. I can say with complete confidence that Jeff Wadlow comes nowhere remotely close. And before you start getting ideas, neither do Sean Farris or Cam Gigandet come anywhere close to Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. Never Back Down in short is a badly made movie about mixed martial arts.

Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) has an anger management problem. For someone who is not even 20 years old he is quite a handful. Been to jail some 6 times for outbursts that could have been controlled. Hates his father for having left his mother alone with him and a tennis prodigy younger brother. And obviously he isn’t too pleased with the city hopping that his mother forces them to do. Nevertheless, all this hopping gets him to Orlando where he bumps into Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet). Jake’s brawling video has gone viral and Ryan is keen that they get together for some really hardcore fighting. That’s because Ryan and co have a small fight club of their own. Jake wants to have nothing with it but cannot avoid thanks to his short fuse. He eventually starts mastering his anger when he meets coach Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) a MMA professional who teaches him to control his instincts and focus energies on quality fighting.

The only semblance of acting comes from the committed Hounsou. The rest of the cast is pedestrian at best. I have already spoken about the direction so there is nothing much to add there. Background score – average. Story – barely there. Editing – barely there again. Narration – yawn. Add to this some boring love story thrown in with women in different stages of undress and you start to believe quite soon that the only thing that can keep you engaged in this movie are probably the half naked women and nothing else.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that Never Back Down already has a sequel? Also written by Chris Hauty who hasn’t left much of an impression on me at least. 4 on 10. Much more if you like inane fighting.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi697893145/