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I’m so out of touch anymore that I had no idea they have Kumite-style fights in high school nowadays, those crazy kids.

If you’re a young teen and have never seen a martial arts film, or watch a lot of the UFC or MMA tournament stuff, Jeff Wadlow’s Never Back Down will be like manna from heaven to you, but if you’re like me and were hoping for something that isn’t a straight-up cliché or directly lifted from another film, you will be sorely let down.

Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a guy with a chip on his shoulder, having lost his father in a drunk-driving accident; this is an easy way for those around him to goad him into a fight, as we see at a football game in which he starts a brawl involving both teams.  This happens on the eve of the family move to Orlando, where his younger brother is to attend a special tennis school and is video taped by a fan in the stands.

Jake meets and flirts with Baja (?) Miller (Amber Heard) in class, and later happens upon what he thinks is a bullying incident, but when he breaks it up is chastised by both the ‘victim’ Max (Evan Peters) and the guy who organized the fight, Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet) as the event is ‘sanctioned’.  Max takes notice of his fighting skills, and tries to involve him in the Mixed Martial Arts he trains in, but Jake refuses.  Max then goes on to spread news of Jakes football brawl around school, giving him something of an unwanted reputation.

Baja invites him to a party, which just so happens to take place at her boyfriend Ryan’s house, the palatial teen-filled party that only seems to exist in movies of this sort, and Jake is ambushed into a fight by Ryan, who again goads him into it by bringing up his father’s death.  Brutally beaten, Max helps Jake home, and returns the next day to reiterate the offer of training at the 365 Combat Club with his instructor, Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), an offer which Jake accepts for obvious reasons of revenge.

Jake proves his ability to keep up with the intense training circuits they run through, so Rocha agrees to train him, even opening up his gym before business hours to allow him more time to learn the ropes.  Cue training montage.  Baja apologizes about what happened, he blows this off, and another altercation between him and Ryan later that day as Baja breaks up with him sends Jake to the gym boiling with rage.  Rocha sends him home, and on the way he gets into a brawl with three obnoxious guys in a car behind them, which Max dutifully video-tapes and posts to the web, helpful friend that he is.

The video makes the rounds and Jake is challenged by Ryan to participate in The Beatdown, an underground fight tournament.  Roqua discovers that Jake has fought outside the gym, which is against his rules and throws him out, refusing to train him, which lasts about, oh, about fifteen minutes until he and Roqua bond and exchange personal traumas from their respective pasts and he’s back in training.  Jake comes to the realization that he can be the bigger man and step away from the rivalry, but nothing is ever that simple in a movie, now is it?

Never Back Down isn’t a terrible film, I mean hell, the cocksure teens and bad rap/rawk soundtrack seem to be the way things are going in today’s marketplace, but this isn’t a good film either.  Everything is telegraphed from a mile away, and if you’ve seen any film of this sort, you kinda know where it’s going form the opening credits.  Some of the martial arts is interesting to watch, though I personally like more of a straight up martial arts film instead of the grappling and wrestling that seems to be involved in the mixed martial arts genre.

The two disc version of Never Back Down contains both the theatrical and unrated ‘Beat Down’ editions of the film, the main difference being the addition of extra punches or soundwork to imply greater violence in the film.  There’s an audio commentary with director Jeff Wadlow, star Sean Faris and screenwriter Chris Hauty, as well as a handful of deleted scenes introduced by Wadlow.

The second disc of bonus features includes Mix It Up: Bringing MMA To The Big Screen, and an hour long feature called Blow By Blow: Breaking Down The Fights which features commentary by director Wadlow and his director of photography and stunt coordinator as they go through how each scene was filmed or choreographed.  Also included are three other shorts, most of the material seemingly cobbled from the Mix It Up feature; I suspect these were produced as short webisodes promoting the film.

This is a film directed at a very distinct market, and as I’m not a huge fan of the MMA world, an agro teen male, or a girl with a crush on either of the admittedly hunky male leads, this film was a bit lost on me.  It’s not a bad way to spend some time, but it doesn’t attempt anything original either.

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