A lot better than I was expecting. Some pretty good fight scenes that were somewhat realistic. The soundtrack was very good that went really well with the flow of the movie. This movie will not win any awards but it was enjoyable so give it a...
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A lot better than I was expecting. Some pretty good fight scenes that were somewhat realistic. The soundtrack was very good that went really well with the flow of the movie. This movie will not win any awards but it was enjoyable so give it a watch. The only thing I wasn't to big on was the ending that to me was kinda anti-climatic.

If you combined "The Karate Kid" with "Fight Club," then threw in a dash of "The O.C." and "You Got Served," then beat it with a stick until it was really stupid, you'd have something twice as smart as...
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If you combined "The Karate Kid" with "Fight Club," then threw in a dash of "The O.C." and "You Got Served," then beat it with a stick until it was really stupid, you'd have something twice as smart as "Never Back Down." The very height of teen-oriented idiocy, this wrong-headed ode to violence is aimed at two particular niches: vapid girls who want to watch sweaty, shirtless young men fight each other; and meathead guys who believe macho douchebaggery is the answer to all life's problems (and who also, incidentally, want to watch sweaty, shirtless young men fight each other).

Our Daniel-san is the brooding, hotheaded Jake Tyler (Sean Faris), a young-Tom-Cruise-looking high schooler who has just moved with his beleaguered mother (Leslie Hope) and idolizing little brother (Wyatt Smith) from Iowa to Florida. A couple half-hearted references are made to the local kids' wealth versus the Tyler family's poverty, I guess to remind us that Jake is supposed to be an "outsider" despite being bright, athletic, and startlingly handsome.

His new school has an underground fight club, and the number one rule of this fight club is to tell everyone about it. The local kids have passed up part-timing at Disney World to brawl for fun on the lawns of their palatial estates, not a cop or parent in sight. Led by top fighter Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), whose prowess makes him even more important on campus than the football or basketball players, the fighters call it "brawling." It's more than just throwing punches: It's full-on, no-holds-barred, Ultimate Fighting Championship stuff, known officially as "mixed martial arts."

Ryan sees a YouTube video of Jake getting into a fight after a football game at his old school, and for some reason this means Ryan must force Jake to fight him. To that end, Ryan has his girlfriend, Baja (Amber Heard), flirt with Jake and invite him to a house party. Thus lured in to the dragon's lair, Jake initially resists brawling with Ryan, even though Ryan is friendly about it. "I saw the clip, and you can bang, dude!" he says, with as much vague homoeroticism as everything else in the movie (i.e., a lot of it). Unmoved, Jake won't fight until finally Ryan taunts him into it, whereupon he totally kicks Jake's butt.

After that humiliation, Jake's new sidekick, Max (Evan Peters) -- kind of dorky and much less handsome, as mandated by Movie Sidekick bylaws -- tells Jake about a mixed-martial-arts training facility run by Mr. Miyagi, who is strangely using the pseudonym Jean Roqua and being played by Djimon Hounsou. Jake goes there to learn how to brawl better so he can get revenge on Ryan. Despite being a novice at the mixed combat style, he demands to be put in the advanced class, and for some reason Roqua agrees to his demands.

I find myself using the phrase "for some reason" a lot as I try to explain what happens in this movie. For some reason Jake's mother gets angry when she learns Jake is training with Roqua, even though this is healthy, disciplined fighting, not the fisticuffs he used to get into regularly in Iowa. Of course, the lack of a single character worth caring for makes the theatrical experience even more excruciating. A faceless collection of older actors trying to pass themselves off as impossibly-sculpted teenagers (not a pimple in the room), “Down� radiates unpleasantness. Jake’s whining and baffling disrespect to his mother is a good example; a character strangely presented as a blathering harpy when, in fact, she’s the only person in the script who offers an accurate sense of responsibility. Why demonize her? Because the screenplay was written in crayon, and any taste of reality to crawl into “Down� would then force the film to put forth actual effort. For some reason Baja -- now actually growing fond of Jake -- is really mad that Jake won't accept her apology for setting him up at the party, like somehow HE'S the jerk here. For some reason the finale has a nightclub willing to host a major brawl tournament, even though such an event would be a huge insurance liability (and probably illegal besides).

Oh, yeah. The finale. The big brawl tournament is called The Beatdown, and it's super-secret and no one knows when or where it's taking place until they get a text message 24 hours in advance ... and then it turns out to be at this very popular club where hundreds of people are dancing anyway. So I guess stealth wasn't really a key component after all.

By this time, Jake has realized that he doesn't need to fight Ryan to feel good about himself, and that it wouldn't solve anything anyway. Thank goodness that feeling passes! Instead, he lets Ryan goad him into fighting again, even indicating he's aware he's being manipulated but dismissing it when Baja calls him on it. "Walking away and giving up are not the same thing," she says. "Good," he replies. "Because I'm not doing either one." But if he's not doing either one, then why is it "good" that they're not the same thing? Their differentness is irrelevant in that case. He should have said, "That's fine, but I'm not doing either one anyway." Proper syntax is important, Jake.

The screenplay (by Chris Hauty, whose only other IMDb credit was 12 years ago) is written in such a way as to maximize its impact on horny, volatile 18-year-old boys. The characters call each other "bro" and "dude" almost exclusively and taunt each other with sexual euphemisms like "f@ggot," "b*tch," and the multiple-entendre "let's get it on." Director Jeff Wadlow ("Cry_Wolf") fills the party scenes with boobful girls, at one point showing a couple of them making out in a hot tub pretty much just so guys in the audience will hoot.

I guess we're into spoiler territory here, but I want to tell you what the film's message is. The film's message is that sometimes -- heck, MOST of the time -- fighting is the answer. You might think it would be unwise for Jake to fight Ryan again. You might think it will only lead to more escalation, that if Jake beats Ryan it will make Ryan want to come back and beat Jake, and back and forth like that forever. But that is WRONG, amigos. The fact is, if you respond to your notoriously unstable arch-rival's tauntings by beating the crap out of him in front of the whole town, AND you steal his girlfriend -- well, after that he'll never try to fight you again. The next day at school he'll nod and smile at you, because now he RESPECTS you.

See? Aren't you glad you fought him? You settled it once and for all! Good thing you ignored Mr. Miyagi and your mother and your girlfriend and everything else you ever learned. Never back down, bro!

The trailer wasn't that good and sadly the same goes 4 the film. The fighting scenes were really the best parts of the film. The main character's personality wasn't built really well , but his moves kinda made up 4 that :)

Nothing special at all about this film basic cheesy writing predictable till the very end and the fight scense arent anything to rave about at all worth a look if on HBO or something like that

i would say that this movie describe what is happing really in universities so .
and i really like it .
cuz i like what is happing

Karate Kid meets Fight Club is probably the best description of this movie. The script is pretty standard and the attempts at a deeper layer and more background fail completely. Even though I don't like these fighting movies, this one was...
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Karate Kid meets Fight Club is probably the best description of this movie. The script is pretty standard and the attempts at a deeper layer and more background fail completely. Even though I don't like these fighting movies, this one was watchable because I felt both Sean Faris and Cam Gigandet did a good job. Despite a less than brilliant script, they managed to portray some raw emotion and intensity that made this, if not entertaining, than at least, more than OK. All in all, this is worth watching because of a good cast. All actors involved did their best with the script and you can't fault them for that!!

Never Back Down has to be the silliest and most contrived story about "misunderstood" teens since possibly John Tucker Must Die. This cast is made up of basically good looking people that are well built but have no actual talent. Sean...
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Never Back Down has to be the silliest and most contrived story about "misunderstood" teens since possibly John Tucker Must Die. This cast is made up of basically good looking people that are well built but have no actual talent. Sean Faris, who looks as though they cast him coming out of the doors from an Abercrombie shoot, plays Jake Tyler, a depressed and angry young man who feels guilty over the death of his father. This kid constantly fights and gets arrested, and his widowed mother just can't take it anymore. When Jake's little brother Charlie gets a scholarship to a tennis academy in Florida, his mom doesn't hesitate to accept the offer. In his new school, Jake is almost automatically popular after the student body sees him fighting at his old school. It seems the only way to get popular in that school is to pound on someone's face until they're practically dead. After seeing the video, one of the students challenges Jake to a brawl. Ryan, played by Cam Gigandet, brutally beats Jake and makes remarks about his late father. In anger Jake continues to fight but is then knocked unconscious. Desperate for revenge, he enlists the help of Mr. Miaki, oops I mean Jean Roqua, a mixed martial arts veteran, played by Djimon Hounsou. He becomes even more violent, in the end he beats Ryan practically dead and guess what, the next day he's the most popular kid in the entire blood thirsty school. I tell you this in complete honesty, sitting through this I actually started to wonder if this was made by twelve year olds on crack. Midway through the movie, I thought "okay, it's really cheesy but maybe I can have fun with it" but it doesn't even work as a so -bad-it's-entertaining type film. Not only is the movie ridiculous on so many different levels, it's incredibly violent and unpleasant to watch. Watching young students beaten to a pulp isn't entertaining to me and I really don't think it would satisfy many others. The movie is like some teen knock off of Fight Club, a movie which I was never a big fan of but did somewhat enjoy, but this is just barbaric. I have just about had it with these popularity teen movies where adults pretty much don't exist and even when they do they are always clueless extras in the film. In one scene the sadistic bully's father even comes in and supports this idea to fight with no end. Then in the same scene there is like a ten second back story where we're suddenly suppose to sympathize with this crazy kid because his dad slaps and that's like what you see in all these kind of bully films, where they have a bad home life. So, if I haven't made my self clear yet, no, I'm not recommending this silly garbage to anyone, because it is simply too violent for kids and way to ridiculous for adults.

Never Back Down has to be the silliest and most contrived story about "misunderstood" teens since possibly John Tucker Must Die. This cast is made up of basically good looking people that are well built but have no actual talent. Sean...
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Never Back Down has to be the silliest and most contrived story about "misunderstood" teens since possibly John Tucker Must Die. This cast is made up of basically good looking people that are well built but have no actual talent. Sean Faris, who looks as though they cast him coming out of the doors from an Abercrombie shoot, plays Jake Tyler, a depressed and angry young man who feels guilty over the death of his father. This kid constantly fights and gets arrested, and his widowed mother just can't take it anymore. When Jake's little brother Charlie gets a scholarship to a tennis academy in Florida, his mom doesn't hesitate to accept the offer. In his new school, Jake is almost automatically popular after the student body sees him fighting at his old school. It seems the only way to get popular in that school is to pound on someone's face until they're practically dead. After seeing the video, one of the students challenges Jake to a brawl. Ryan, played by Cam Gigandet, brutally beats Jake and makes remarks about his late father. In anger Jake continues to fight but is then knocked unconscious. Desperate for revenge, he enlists the help of Mr. Miaki, oops I mean Jean Roqua, a mixed martial arts veteran, played by Djimon Hounsou. He becomes even more violent, in the end he beats Ryan practically dead and guess what, the next day he's the most popular kid in the entire blood thirsty school. I tell you this in complete honesty, sitting through this I actually started to wonder if this was made by twelve year olds on crack. Midway through the movie, I thought "okay, it's really cheesy but maybe I can have fun with it" but it doesn't even work as a so -bad-it's-entertaining type film. Not only is the movie ridiculous on so many different levels, it's incredibly violent and unpleasant to watch. Watching young students beaten to a pulp isn't entertaining to me and I really don't think it would satisfy many others. The movie is like some teen knock off of Fight Club, a movie which I was never a big fan of but did somewhat enjoy, but this is just barbaric. I have just about had it with these popularity teen movies where adults pretty much don't exist and even when they do they are always clueless extras in the film. In one scene the sadistic bully's father even comes in and supports this idea to fight with no end. Then in the same scene there is like a ten second back story where we're suddenly suppose to sympathize with this crazy kid because his dad slaps and that's like what you see in all these kind of bully films, where they have a bad home life. So, if I haven't made my self clear yet, no, I'm not recommending this silly garbage to anyone, because it is simply too violent for kids and way to ridiculous for adults.

Rich kid fight club. That pretty much sums it up. If you think mindless violence makes a movie great then this movie is for you. But if you want an original movie that will leave you with a feeling that you didnt waste an hour and half of your...
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Rich kid fight club. That pretty much sums it up. If you think mindless violence makes a movie great then this movie is for you. But if you want an original movie that will leave you with a feeling that you didnt waste an hour and half of your life.... then go see cloverfield :P