NEVER BACK DOWN

From ever giving into seeing this tripe

DETAILS:
Released - 4 April 2008
Certificate - 15
Running Time - 113mins
Director - Jeff Wadlow
Screenwriter - Chris Hauty
Producers - Craig Baumgarten, David Zelon
Cinematography - Lukas Ettlin
Editing - Victor Du Bois and Debra Weinfeld Music - Michael Wandmacher
Theatrical distributor - Momentum Pictures
Country - USA
Awards - MTV movie award for best fight

SYNOPSIS:
Due to a brief loss of sanity at a high school American football game rebellious teen, Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) has to move schools for his violent and seemingly uncontrollable actions. At first his new schoolmates seem friendly enough and he instantly befriends the popular Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet). However the truth soon surfaces at a typical alcohol and stripper filled adolescent house party. Due to the evils of the internet his schoolmates know the true reason for Jake’s expulsion and force him to fight Ryan where he is beaten to a bloody pulp. Annoyed at being the joke of his new school Jake feels compelled to defeat Ryan at a local underground fighting tournament and show everyone who is really the boss. Persuading mixed martial arts veteran Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) to coach him will be successful in gaining popularity and obtaining Ryan’s girlfriend Baja Miller (Amber Heard)?..........................who cares, really?

REVIEW:
The commonly used mantra ‘never judge a book by its cover’ is one that is used in many walks of life. Although in many circumstances this is can be applicable to cinema. When looking at the poster for Never Back Down plastered all over bus stops and city centres I was right to assume that this film was the adolescent clap trap that the poster seemed to advertise. Such a desperate marketing campaign suggests the studio’s lack of faith such in a film. With a scantily dressed women in a tight fitting yellow dress accentuating her curves whilst looked upon by two handsome but expressionless young males I was right to presume this film would be the sexist nonsense that was advertised.

With so many faults to chose from it is difficult to pick somewhere to start. As a teen angst movie Never Back Down is very poor indeed, if anyone enjoyed this film they need to take a serious look at themselves. Often we like to indulge in bad films to laugh at their absurdity but Never Back Down is not even this good for so many reasons. Even the most laid back film goer will feel let down.

What Never back down was trying to achieve was a sort of Fight Club for adolescents. The main character’s name being Tyler is more than a giveaway. Instead of this being Tyler Durden’s days at school this is in fact Fight Club without any political significance, black humour, sharp dialogue, complexity or any where near as culturally observant. Apparently all ‘cool’ American adolescents should fight each other to gain respect and win over women. By constantly referencing violence on computer screens and mobile phones the filmmakers seem to think this happy slapping plugging will appeal to the youth culture of today which is quite frankly insulting. This is a very stripped down Fight Club with no talented scriptwriting, acting, cinematography or direction to the fight scenes themselves which seem to be the whole point of the movie. There are definitely some unintentional homosexual overtones as there is a constant focus on the greased up male leads rather than any real resonance.

The casting is diabolical. All these so called high school students look old enough to teach the lessons themselves. Absolutely no one is likeable with all the characters lacking any real sense of psyche. McCarthy has no apparent reason to be evil, he tries to look mean and beat innocent people up just for the sake of it. Through the various close ups of his annoyed face in no way is he intimidating or cool, Rebel without a cause he is not. On the other side, Tyler gets angry from time to time primarily due to his fathers death which is the extent of the emotional depth to this film tries to explore. I just don’t understand why Tyler can’t just find new friends than intensely train to win this idiots respect? As well as this Never Back Down is filled to the brim with clichés. You would have thought that so many years after the Rocky series the filmmakers would have better ingenuity than to show a montage of beefing up training with the 80’s written all over it. Similarly having the most popular jock in high school going out with the most beautiful girl, jeez I have never seen characters like that before!

But predictability reaches a whole new level in the final showdown between Tyler (good) and McCarthy (evil). What I want to know is why is it in these films that no matter how long or hard the good guy has been beaten up he will always suddenly find a final surge of strength to just about defeat the bad guy? However, to make up for this, despite the fact both characters have almost killed each other they are suddenly best of friends at the end. Beat people half to death and they will respect you enough to become your friend apparently.

As you can tell the plot is extremely incoherent and makes no conceivable sense. According to screenwriter Chris Hauty; all American teenagers indulge in lesbian kissing and fighting parties. The message to this film is unbelievably offensive as everyone is driven by the mentality that you must fight to get anywhere in life. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to gaily beat up some strangers in a fit of road rage. Fighting = popularity = sex especially when you are a teenager. Just by glamorizing and drawing attention to the happy slapping culture is no way of delving into it. Jeff Wadlow’s direction of the over stylised fighting scenes themselves lack any real punch, bloody realism or intensity. Various popular bands thrashing guitars in the soundtrack such as My Chemical Romance in no way adds any sort of tension. All in all never back down is just overloaded testosterone filled rubbish with an undercurrent of homosexualism.

TO SUM UP:
An offensive and morally bankrupt film which glamorises adolescent violence. Instead of having anything worthwhile to observe about its increasing significance in our culture Never Back Down just adds to it. A marital arts instruction DVD will be far more worth your while.