Salient

Never Back Down

By Matthew Proctor | 28 Apr, 2008

This movie suffers from serious questions as to what it wants to be. Is it a sports film? I hope not. Because that was the reason I went to see this, and the sport of mixed martial arts spends far too much time in the background. Is it a date film? Lord, I hope not. Because the characters are all so banal it’s ridiculous. The one character with any redeeming qualities is the lead’s little brother Charlie, and even then it’s only because he’s malleable. Every other character is stereotyped to the point of absurdity.

So perhaps it’s a traditional teenager coming-of-age film? It’d better not be. Okay, dude gets beaten up by the school bully, and then he trains hard and beats up the bully. At some point he will teach his trainer something very touching about being human. Whoopdeedoo. But why is the bully introduced as such a genuine guy? Why is the hero so unapproachable? The everyman was invented for a reason dudes. And most importantly, why is the ‘outcast best friend’ so fucking unlikeable? I wanted to smack this guy in the face.

The final point: social commentary should not be attempted in movies of this kind. Yes yes, rich kids get bored. I get it.

So that’s it. Bad, bad, movie. Don’t see it.