“Never Back Down” is an ultra-sleek mixed-martial-arts teen drama, an updated “Karate Kid,” a “Fight Club” for the viral-video generation. Even though it’s as predictable as a pro- wrestling match, what it lacks in originality it makes up for in the nervous energy of youth and testosterone.
The film, shot and set in Orlando, Fla., is a straight genre piece adhering to the formula that made Ralph Macchio a star — fatherless kid with anger issues takes a beating, trains with his guru and finds acceptance, peace and revenge, even though he dare not call it “revenge” in front of his teacher.
**1/2 RATING | Martial-Arts Action
Sean Faris (“Reunion,” “Smallville”) is Jake Tyler, an Iowa high school linebacker who channels his violence into football. But say something about his late father and the boy sees red. Video of his on-field meltdown-beatdown of an opposing team becomes all the rage on the Internet.
That viral video follows him to a new school as his single mom (Leslie Hope, quite good) relocates the family to help young brother Charlie (Wyatt Smith, cute) pursue a tennis scholarship.
The new kid with the furious fists has a target painted on his back, one that the school’s top brawler, mixed- martial-arts master Ryan (Cam Gigandet, venomous) is quick to take aim at. He bullies and baits Jake with the help of the fetching Baja (Amber Heard), and then takes Jake apart in a fight.
Jake, as his nerdy sidekick (Evan Peters) points out, has “heart.” But the lad’s got no “ground game.” Boxing is old school, as dead as Louis and Marciano. Mixed martial arts, with its blend of punching, karate chopping, kicking and judo-dropping, is where it’s at. Sidekick Max hauls the Angry Young Jake to the training studio of Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), an inscrutable Brazilian from Senegal who teaches conditioning, restraint, doggedness and winning the mental game.
“You control the outcome,” he preaches, metaphorically. Will Jake listen? Or course not. He’s got to reconcile his feelings for the girl who lured him to the beating. And he has to ready himself for revenge at the “Beat Down.”
The fights are a jumpy, satisfying blur of punches, flips, holds and “tap outs” (the way a losing fighter backs down). That energy spills over into the world outside the ring as we survey a Starbucks-addled kids-with-camcorders culture of McMansions, Beemers, and “Girls in bikinis, year round!”
Sure, the message is lost in the mix — “walking away and giving up are not the same thing.” Parents may shudder at the thought that there really is a mixed martial-arts underground of kids.
But rarely has a junky genre picture come along that felt as overly familiar, yet as “here and now” as “Never Back Down.”
“Never Back Down”
PG-13 for mature thematic material involving intense sequences of fighting/violence, some sexuality, partying and language, all involving teens. 1 hour, 53 minutes. Directed by Jeffrey Wadlow. Starring Sean Faris, Djimon Hounsou, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters. Opens today at area theaters.
