'Never Back Down': Lean, uncomplicated familiar story
"Never Back Down" purports to examine the "underground" phenomenon of mixed martial arts. Underground? This is an industry that generates something like a billion dollars in annual revenue, has constant TV exposure, and has probably eclipsed boxing among young people as the most popular form of sanctioned butt-kicking.
"Never Back Down" purports to examine the "underground" phenomenon of mixed martial arts.
Underground? This is an industry that generates something like a billion dollars in annual revenue, has constant TV exposure, and has probably eclipsed boxing among young people as the most popular form of sanctioned butt-kicking.
"Never Back Down," though, is set in MMA's YouTube back alley - it's about high school kids who fight each other, video the skirmishes and post the whuppins on the Internet.
"Never Back Down" focuses on one such kid, a guilt-stricken, hothead football player (his temper is linked to the guilt he feels over his dad's death) who leaves the Midwest for Florida as his mom seeks to provide opportunities for his tennis prodigy kid brother.
Though Jake (Sean Faris) has renounced violence and quit football, his videotaped, on-field outbursts have made him an Internet celebrity. His reputation attracts the attention of the school's resident MMA sadist and show-off, who wants to buff his own fearsome rep by kicking the new kid's butt.
This touches off a sort of prolonged "Billy Jack"-type narrative during which avowed pacifist Jake is repeatedly baited and beaten by his evil nemesis, until he is forced to prove just how wrong violence is by beating the violent guy to a pulp.
In the meantime, he trains with MMA guru (Djimon Hounsou), who promises to make Jake the most fearsome MMA competitor in the world so long as he pledges NEVER TO FIGHT OUTSIDE THE GYM.
OK. For you youngsters who haven't seen this movie 74,000 times, "never fight outside the gym" actually means never fight outside the gym until the third act, when the villain goes after your best friend.
"Never Back Down" isn't afraid to borrow, and sometimes it borrows from good movies, like "Fight Club." It spends an unusual amount of time fleshing out its putative villain, a leering, blond Aryan (Cam Gigandet) whose dad is an MMA Great Santini on steroids, quite literally. He's got his own father problems, in other words, making him a peculiar mirror image of Jake, but with better abs.
"Never Back Down," like its characters, is very lean and not too complicated. It might pass the time for a younger, target audience seeing this oft-told story for the first time. *
Produced by Craig Baumgarten, David Zelon, directed by Jeff Wadlow.