Muffster

 Samantha Muffie  Movie Review ** __Never Back Down __ ** // Never back down // is a very upbeat and violent movie. In a way it is like a reality show because it is full of drama and fighting. Most of the fighting in the movie is mixed martial arts (MAA), which is an extensive system of codified practices and traditions of combat. It is a mix of karate, sambo, judo, wrestling and other traditions. I personally enjoyed the movie; however, I have seen better. The plot in the movie // Never Back Down //didn’t really keep my attention and I could predict how it was going to turn out from the beginning. However, I believe that they picked the right actors for each part. Sean Farris, who played Jake Tyler, is a short tempered and a troubled teenager. After witnessing his father’s death, his family moved from place to place due to his temper and urges to fight. They moved from Iowa to Orlando in hope for a better life there. Jake tries to keep low key at his new high school, but failed to do so once a video went around of him fighting someone on YouTube. The king of all fighters and bully, Ryan McCarthy, tricks Jake into a fight at his party. As the fight came to an end, so did Jake Tyler’s reputation. His loss was all over YouTube. “YouTube plays a major rule in // Never Back Down. //There’s a sense that everything these youngsters do is fodder for videotaping. To the extent this is true, private moments hardly exist,” said Ruthe Stein After his loss, Jake was motivated by his friend to go to study martial arts. Throughout the movie he was training under a master (Djimon Hounsou) who taught him everything he needed to know about MAA fighting. Jake learned to take his anger out at the gym and how to control his breathing. He didn’t plan on fighting in the “beat down” but when bully and classmate Ryan McCarthy challenges him, he cannot back down. The first time they got in a fight Jake lost by far. Throughout the whole movie we knew Jake was going to win the fight because the plots in all fighting movies end the same. He lost his first fight against Ryan, but after training we knew he would win the last one. “These things are not in doubt. So what is there to hold the viewer's interest? A lackluster teen romance lifted directly out of //The O.C.//? Training sequences in which Jake gradually learns how to give up his anger and channel his energy in the right way?” said Berardinelli.  If the purpose of the movie // Never Back Down //was to copy the plot from every other fighting movie and have the same climax, just with different characters, they achieved their goal. You could predict from the beginning that Jake Tyler would clearly win his last fight against Ryan McCarthy. “If, however, a movie like this is supposed to energize an audience into caring about the main character and investing something in his success, it doesn't happen,” said Berardinelli.     Works Cited:  Stein, Ruthe. "Never Back Down." //San Francisco Chronicle// 14 March 2008: E-6. Print.   Berardinelli, James. "Never Back Down." //Reel Views//. N.p., 14 March 2008. Web. 4 Feb 2011. .

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