Never Back Down poster & wallpaper

Djimon Hounsou, Sean Faris, Amber Heard

Set against the action-packed world of Mixed Martial Arts, NEVER BACK DOWN is the story of Jake Tyler, a tough kid who leads with his fists, and, often, with his heart. Jake Tyler, played by Sean Far...( read more  read more... )is, is the new kid in town with a troubled past. He has recently moved to Orlando, Florida with his family who has relocated to support his younger brother's shot at a professional tennis career. Jake was a star athlete on the football team at home, but in this new city he is an outsider with a reputation for being a quick tempered brawler.

Making an attempt to fit in, at the invitation of a flirtatious classmate, Baja (Amber Heard), Jake goes to a party where he is unwittingly pulled into a fight with a bully named Ryan McDonald (Cam Gigandet). While he is defeated and humiliated in the fight, a classmate introduces himself to Jake and tells him about the sport known as Mixed Marshall Arts (MMA). He sees a star in Jake and asks that he meet with his mentor, Jean Roqua, played by Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America).

It is immediately apparent to Jake that MMA is not street fighting, but rather an art form he wants to master. Roqua will take Jake under his wing, but it is up to Jake to find the patience, discipline, willingness and reason within him to succeed. For Jake, there is much more at stake than mere victory. His decision will not just settle a score; it will define who he is.

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37% liked it

96,821 ratings

Critics

24% liked it

79 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 46 min.

Directed by: Jeff Wadlow

Release Date: March 4, 2008

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DVD Release Date: July 29, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (15,102)

  • 76Majikat
    May 4, 2009
    76Majikat
    Very typical in storyline structure to many of the 80?s Martial Arts films, in particular The Karate Kid and Bloodsport come to mind. It has all the crucial elements to make it a cheesy version of a film in this genre; the challenge, the love interest, the revenge, the training,...( read more) the Master/student relationship, mixed with the look of a modern day teen movie. The guilty pleasure of it, is that despite all the showboating and the reasons behind the storyline, parts were pretty entertaining and it was different to see a mix of Martial Arts.

    Djimon Hounsou, was possibly my biggest disappointment here, only because I feel he much worthier than this type of film, having said that, we were able to see his physical ability and his capabilities as a Martial Artist.
  • Mrbishi
    April 21, 2009
    Mrbishi
    This came with some bad reviews, I recall it been mainly done in by fans of MMA and UFC etc. However I wasnt bothered by the hype nor the critics to me this just liked it could be an entertaining martial arts movie and I wasnt wrong, well worth a watch nice simple storyline, good...( read more) fight scenes, I enjoyed it.
  • Showrogan
    April 12, 2009
    Showrogan
    And I thought they'd never make another Karate Kid movie...well ain't this a shocker!
    I wanted to piss on this movie, but admittedly with the list of classic cliches contained therein I can honestly say, I was entertained enough to give a crap :p
  • EarthlyAlien
    January 8, 2009
    EarthlyAlien
    "Never give up, never back down!"

    If there were still strings of drive-ins across that great country of yours, my American friends, there'd be a place for this bruising but brainless teen action-melodrama as the bottom half of a double bill no one would watch very closely...( read more) (though it would need to be severely trimmed from its unconscionably long 106-minute running-time - which wouldn't be difficult, as much of it is devoted to what amount to musical montages of training sessions with thumping background scores). But the drive-in is a thing of the past, alas, as are double features, and about the only place left for a film like Never Back Down is on late-hours cable, along with previous classics of the genre like Van Damme's No Retreat, No Surrender and the Best of the Best series.

    Photobucket

    Insofar as plot is concerned (to use the term loosely), the film - an obvious effort to capitalize on the current popularity of boxing-with-kickboxing bouts in the States - could just as well have been titled "The Mixed Martial Arts Kid," if it weren't for the fact that Sean Faris, the Tom Cruise lookalike - down to the same vacant smile and wooden demeanour - who plays supposed highschooler Jake Tyler, looks way too old to be called a kid (or play a highschooler).

    Jake, an Iowa teen guilt-ridden over the death of his father, whom he didn't stop from driving drunk, moves with mum (Leslie Hope) and younger brother (Wyatt Smith) to Orlando so his bro can take advantage of a tennis scholarship. But because of YouTube, Jake's reputation comes with him - he was caught on film in a notorious brawl on the football field - and the local champ in underground fight contests, arrogant Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), wants to take him on pronto and show everybody who's boss. So Ryan has his blonde bombshell of a girlfriend, Baja (!) (Amber Heard), entice Jake to a party where he lures the poor guy - via references to his father, sure to set him off - into a quick beating.

    Luckily Jake's already found an obligatory goofy sidekick named Max (Evan Peters), a wannabe fighter and brawling-enthusiast himself, who introduces his new pal to the Mr. Miyagi (or sensei) character, Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), a Brazilian instructor who runs a gym in which Jake enrolls. It turns out that Roqua has a guilt complex, too - he left Brazil after failing to prevent the murder of his brother, poisoning his relationship with his father - and he teaches Jake the skills he needs, though he doesn't want the youngster to fight out of anger. As if this weren't routine enough, Jake and Baja become an item when she regrets her role in Ryan's nastiness and breaks up with him, leading Ryan to lure Jake into another fight by - you got it - thrashing Max. It all ends in a rib-cracking melee in a parking lot (shades of Step Up though not in the rain), in which - of course - our boy snatches victory the jaws of defeat.

    This is all pure formula, of course, and as far as that goes it's actually slightly superior, from a technical perspective, to the direct-to-DVD stuff that usually fills the genre, although there are entirely too many of those Rocky-style training montages and the fight sequences (shot by Swiss DP Lukas Ettlin) go in for swooning camera-work and whiplash cuts that leave them a blur. The animated "CSI"-like "special effects" to show ribs breaking in the final bouts are a mistake, too. And though the cast can't do much to elevate the trite material, some of them - Hounsou, Hope, tyke Smith, even the blank but handsome Faris - are better than the norm in films of this ilk.

    On the other hand, Heard (who would go on to be in a much better film, Pineapple Express) is flummoxed by a part that requires her on the one hand to play a good girl but soon has her wrestling around with Jake on his bedroom floor after trying on his sparring gloves and saying - in what has to be the film's worst line among many bad ones - "Oh, they're still sweaty!" And who could play a coed named Baja, anyway? Peters' nerdy Max and Gigandet's (another 26-year-old playing 17) smirking Ryan - who, of course, turns out to have daddy issues too - aren't much better.

    But what really sinks Never Back Down is the attempt to add some depth to what's just an old-fashioned sock-and-rock-'em story with dime-store psychological clichés about guilt, self-restraint, determination and redemption. The messages they convey are completely muddled in the end, anyway - ultimately all you take from the film is the old (but nevertheless valid) "a guy's gotta do what he's gotta do" but even worse is that they too often slow things to a crawl while we have to listen to another impassioned speech or sit through one more flashback to Jake and his dead dad.

    Strangely, if you can find it in you to ignore that rubbish and a training montage or two too-many, you might have a dumb but effective and entertaining (in a "The OC"-ish sort of way) slice of Mixed Martial Arts mayhem that would fit nicely into a 4 am watch. If, though, it's a genuine interest in MMA that drives you towards this, then David Mamet's Redbelt is the flick for you.
  • Deano78
    December 23, 2008
    Deano78
    Yes this does kinda add up to The Karate Kid for the Youtube generation, with an MTV makeover. This time using MMA basically like UFC, cage fighting using any fighting style. Despite the obvious plot and seeing this type of film more than a few times, this is pretty decent. It ha...( read more)s a strong cast and the fight scenes are well shot. There is an extra on the DVD to get each of the fights in the film broken down into how they were filmed etc which is pretty good...all this and the beautiful Amber Heard!
  • MichelleasaurusRex
    November 7, 2009
    MichelleasaurusRex
    Pretty good. I really liked it. And I usually do not like fighting movies but this one was perfect. I loved it. Probably one of the best fighting movies.
  • noony313
    November 6, 2009
    noony313
    IT IS ANAIZING it will cheer u up and u willl never get bord from it i really love it
  • shinningstar3
    November 5, 2009
    shinningstar3
    ONE OF THE BESSSSTTT MOVIESSS EVER!!!<3<3<3
  • srkme87
    October 28, 2009
    srkme87
    seriously its A Awesome Movie I ever Seen Before
  • rockypj
    October 23, 2009
    rockypj
    "Never give up, never back down!" this is some hot fighting...........

View All Never Back Down Reviews

Critic Reviews

March 19, 2008
Armond White, The New York Press

Maybe it's just a genre picture, but scene after scene in Never Back Down displays vitality and wit. This is the year's first good-looking and fully enjoyable American movie. full review

March 14, 2008
Kyle Smith, New York Post

A formula flick that should have tapped out in the script stage. full review

March 13, 2008
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

You have had soup deeper than this film, and a referee should have been on hand to call foul on the acting. full review

View more Never Back Down reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • superclerk25
    August 26, 2008
    superclerk25
    This movie is nothing like Fight Club. Anyone who says it is has never seen Fight Club or didn't understand it when they did.
    This is a copy of Karate Kid pure and simple with the addition of MMA fighting. It's a simple movie about getting back at the bully that beat you up at the beginning of the flick. It's not meant to be any deeper than that. Just sit back and have fun with it and stop analyzing it to death.
  • truenorthstrongnfree
    August 5, 2008
    truenorthstrongnfree
    Are you kidding me? This steaming piece of donkey shit aimed at teenage MMA "fans" is "like Fight Club"? I just watched Fight Club again to make sure, but Fight Club is NOT about fighting. If you think Fight Club is about fighting, then you're as dense as a lead baseball cap.
  • Rossjm
    May 24, 2008
    Rossjm
    Yes, the underlying plots are different, but the whole fight plot is a plaguarism of Fight Club.
  • murtaugh
    April 10, 2008
    murtaugh
    this film is actually nothin like fight club? yeh, it has a place where people go and fight but that is it? the story line is different, everything is different, its more of an up to date karate kid, which in my eyes is a sick idea, this film was really good maybe the beginning of martial art movies again lol
  • Rossjm
    March 29, 2008
    Rossjm
    It seems to me, from description and adverts, that this is going to be a rip off of fight club.

    hell, he even has a similar name! Tyler Durden-Fight Club
    Jake Tyler-Never Back Down.

    plus iv'e heard the line "im angry all the time" in a film before. now i'm not saying this is patented to one film, but it sure does reminde me of when it was spoken in "Crash".
  • sweetpeabby
    March 28, 2008
    sweetpeabby
    yea gon 2 c it 2nite. there r sum hot guys in this one!!
  • racergoil89
    March 10, 2008
    racergoil89
    looking forward ta seeing this one! looks likes it's gonna be good! =)
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  • Who does Sean run into in Never Back Down ?  Answer »
  • Who was the teacher who taught mixed martial arts in Never Back Down ?  Answer »
  • Ryan brought up who to make Jake fight in Never Back Down ?  Answer »
  • Who was Jake's personal nemesis in Never Back Down ?  Answer »
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