Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fast flowing mixed martial arts flick with a really energetic and wholesome story, 31 Aug 2008
If you take the martial arts classics of "Karate Kid" and "No Retreat No Surrender" and add some Beverly Hills / Fight Club ingredients - the outcome would be this movie. A fast flowing, punch, block, submit and kick, quick thinking adrenaline rush movie.
In my opinion there aren't enough of these movies. The majority of recent martial arts movies have overpaid Hollywood actors or an abundance of high wire CGI effect ridden pieces, that look good and are excellent films in their own right - but it's so nice to see a movie that looks really good, contains some excellent choreographed fight scenes and has some upcoming stars.
The story sees Jake Tyler (Faris), American football all-star who has anger issues in consequence to the death of his father. He moves house with his family and joins a new school where his past American football exploits are discovered and he's tricked into a martial arts fight contest with Ryan McCarthy (Gigandet). It's a high-flyer world of huge mansions, flashy cars, and gorgeous girls but Tyler seeks refuge and support in a local martial arts club run by Jean Roqua (Hounsou) and begins to train to become the best he can be.
Beyond the adrenaline rush of training, sparring and learning techniques this movie touches on the emotional side of blame and disappointment, pride and friendship and more than anything - determination.
Excellent mixed martial arts movie, that has an awe-inspiring soundtrack and definitely, when it comes to the fighting sequences, this hits the mark.
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9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A++++++++++++ , 18 Aug 2008
This film is fantastic, full of action and top quality martial arts.... The acting is brilliant, well worth watching........ The music in this film is also top quality, this is a modern day version of the Karate Kid, i highly recommened this film!!!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Never Back Down, 29 Jan 2009
Before I sat down to watch this, my brother had already pushed my expectations higher than previous by suggesting that NBD probably wasn't my kind of flick. I must admit, though, it wasn't quite as cut and dried as I thought it was going to be.
The positives - Aesthetically, Never Back Down is not too far short of making my self-image crumble. With abs tighter than your boss with a pay rise, and all the ridiculous notion that everyone in (Florida?) is actually supermodel material, was quite easy to get drawn into, in a guilty pleasure sense. The fight scenes were also generic, but, exciting. The acting was, for the most part, really, really good. I hope to see more of the leading lads especially in the future.
The negatives - These are the detracting factors of this movie. They are; the plot; in short, it's a bit of a mess. I don't know if I've missed the philosophy train, or anything, but I found it to be a bit confusing; it seemed to relate to the situation as one would the British position during the second world war, which was a little, well, Hollywood. The character development was montaged and odd, I managed to scrape bits of information from the DVD extras though. This movie, because it is so attractive, could also be quite dangerous. I can already see pre-pubescent boys the Western world over trash talking and rib-smashing each other; all for your viewing pleasure on you tube.
Never Back Down really is a movie that makes you wonder if it's worth rating. Not because it's generic, regurgitated, messy and irresponsible; but because with things like melancholy lyrics at the happy ending of the movie, you wonder if this is really just a piece of throw-away entertainment, and if they even cared about what they were doing, or just having a bit of a laugh. Not intended for the glaring eye of the middle-aged critics, but for the pants of the average thirteen year-old boy with girls to win and rivals to best, Never Back Down seems pretty much like, well, the Karate Kid 2008 actually.
Switch off your brain, ignore the moral dilemmas, stack up on sugar and you've got one hell of a thrill-ride; enjoy.
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