Movie Review: Never Back Down (2008, Jeff Wadlow)

* * * *

Cast: Sean Farris, Djimon Honsou, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters
Screenplay: Chris Hauty
110 minutes / Color

Teen movies are well…teen movies. And never back down is a typical teen movie, with sort of a punch. As much as I enjoy lowly rated teen movies to entertain me, I really thought the movie was quite fun to watch. Despite all the character and story holes, the movie came together and gave us an underrated film that brought us into the world of underground fighting.

Starting out in small town football game, lead character Jake Tyler (Sean Farris) makes himself infamous with on-court rambles and fighting that makes his outrageous mother feel that Jake is good for nothing and responsible for her husband’s death.

When the mom gets a promotion and moves her family to the sunny streets of Miami, Jake finds it difficult to survive in his new high school with the likes of the popular students such as Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet) and his beautiful girlfriend Baja Miller (Amber Heard).

When one night, Jake gets lured into a beating by Ryan that he wasn’t aware of, he seeks for a Martial Arts coach that can train both his body and soul in how to defend himself. He finds the perfect person, Coach Jean Roqua, a Brazilian. But Jean has one condition; he can’t use what he taught him in the gym.

When Ryan finds out that Jake is buffing up, he decides to take his violent sport to another level and challenges him in an annual Fight Night. But after a refusal, he lures in Jake’s only friend Max (Evan Peters) and beats him up terribly.

Going against his mother’s conditions, his Coaches rules, Jake goes for it and goes through the fight of his life. But with one more jolt of strength, the love of Baja (she was in love with him and not Ryan after all, because he was a “bad guy”) and wisdom from the coach, Jake beats Ryan and wins back his respect.

Sounds cliché huh? Well it is. As I said, a teen movie is a teen movie. And nothing more. But apparently, this one is quite enjoyable. It wasn’t the direction or screenplay and especially the performances, but there was something about the movie that made it interesting and fun to watch with a close group of friends.

Sean Farris hasn’t traveled the acting road for long, but with a little more twists and turns; when the right performance comes (and not trash like “Sleepover” (2004)), he will make his mark in Hollywood. He has the talent, he just needs to horn it better.

Djimon’s performance was something to enjoy. Not “Blood Diamond” (2006) or “Amistad” (1997) but great to put on a resume. I mean, it’s not always that nice to see serious movies all the way. We need variety and Djimon gives us that this time. He was good and was the best performance in the film.

The rest of the actors weren’t so “good”, as I like to say. They were only as nice as the broken up sports car Max drove. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but somewhere close...

Lastly, I must say that I enjoy glamorous teen movies. As the country and media (teen media, that is) gets more into TV’s latest teen sensation “Gossip Girl”, I think anything like this (glamour and looks) hits the silver screen, its something the masses will watch. Good to know, “Never Back Down” was one of the first.

All in all, it was a fair bargain. “Never Back Down” was far from bad and far from good. But mixed elements and a fun storyline gives us something to enjoy and get away from the heavy season of movies we had just a while back. I had fun.