Movie Review: Never Back Down

I watched this teenage fighting movie recently. This movie showcases how teenagers in the US are addicted to youtube and mobile video devices. The movie features illegal fights, teen rivalry in high schools, Multi media messaging and how videos are propagated among school kids in the US.

The movie starts off with a high-school football (American of course) game. One of the star players Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) of the winning team is taunted about his father by a disgruntled opposing player. Short-fused Jake gets into a fight and beats him up, this brawl is captured by spectators on mobile phones and uploaded to YouTube.

Quite expectedly Jake gets benched, but he is not worried because he transferring to a different school. Along with his younger brother Charlie (Wyatt Henry Smith) and widowed mom, Jake moves to Orlando, Florida where the latter has received a tennis scholarship. Jake's penchant for fighting and getting into trouble, upsets his mom (Leslie Hope).

At school, Jake attracts the attention of an attractive girl, Amber, and thinks he is set. But there is more in store for him, the boy friend of the girl who has seen his football brawl on youtube invites him for a party and challenges him for a fight. Inevitably Jake ends up broken and with a black eye. Jake feels let down by the girl who is having feelings for him and ends up becoming angry and frustrated.

One of Jakes class mates takes him to 365 Combat Club in which he starts training in Mixed Martial Arts. Finally after some twists and urns, Jake ends up it n the Beatdown, a free no holds barred illegal fight. There he gets even with the senior and earns the respect of all school.

While the plot is quite mediocre, the execution and story telling is very effective. The photography is excellent and of course the girls are easy on the eyes. I'd probably suggest watching it once, that too only if you are a big fan of free style fighting.