Never see this.

Rating: 3/10 (30 May 2009)

NEVER BACK DOWN is a disgrace. A brutal teen movie that is deliberately made to show handsome 20 somethings (posing as as teens) beating each other in teeth gritting bleeding fistfights as pretty girls cheer and ogle in glee. It is absolutely reprehensible in the way it is made: a cobbled-together story basically about the popular brutality of teens in school as some popcorn movie thrill. Like a perverts FIGHT CLUB this film is made by adults who should know better than to simply use revenge and social decay as an excuse to show fit and healthy guys and their bimbo girlfriends gleefully enjoying bashings. This sickening and frustrating formulaic high school flick wastes the talents and looks of everyone involved. Sean Faris as your hero Tyler is some Tom Cruise look-a-like with someone called Cam Gigandet as his Brad Pitt style nemesis; so obvious is the casting in this image that immediately the films contrivances become obvious. Hammy dialogue as drama, lame arguments between his Mom, misunderstandings that cause you to roll your eyes and moan, and some Karate Kid style gym antics with mentor Dijmon Hounsou just add to the irritation in their half baked imitative style of other better films. NEVER BACK DOWN was a bomb in Australia and it even failed during the school holidays as bright healthy happy Aussie teens ignored it and had fun at the beach instead. This is the fist-fight-porn version of the disgusting NAKED MILE: American PIE. NEVER BACK DOWN fails on every level. If all this is not enough to put you off, then please let me also advise you it is filmed by handy-cam, with idiotic closeups and wobbly picture. Terrible and offensive in every way. A contrived exploitive vicious mess. Even our hero's nerd pal is there and cops a beating to ensure the climax is about revenge.... This disgusting degenerative and derivative film is directed by someone who wants you to enjoy teenagers bashing each other, and the film as a production actually fosters the social blight of kids filming schoolyard fights for YouTube.