Just finished watching “Never Back Down”… gwwwaaaaaad… It’s High School Musical meets Bloodsport. I was however, captivated quite enough to stick around and watch it. It really is jaw dropping to me to see how played out some of these movies are. What I can’t figure out is if they know they are played out cliches and they are just assuming you know and will go with it – so they don’t need to develop any relationships – or if it is truly the pop machine we thinking people are so weary of stripping quality movies (at least original or classics – like Blood Sport) of their scenes and characters and watering them down and mashing them together. My fear is the latter as I my self have fallen victim to lazy writing when I’ve been stuck and turned to what is essentially parody of other scenes.
There are stolen plot points from Bloodsport, stolen “trainer” and montage sequences from Rocky, plenty of underdeveloped love story, and WAY bad cliché parent problems for the 30yr old playing 18. By the way, this is highschool, and the badguy has won the big fighting tournament 2 years in a row… uh… really? A 16 year old tapped out a whole field of competitors in the world of underground fighting? The acting is pretty good all around, they seem to work with what they have. There is some directing problems with the film that make me think this guy must have come from TV. Like lifetime. Ex: in the final scene Jake walks with his friend (who was put in the hospital and nearly died – which was the final straw in Jake facing this guy and getting into the tournament) by the badguy in the parkinglot outside of school. Jake nods with a slight smile – not like “I own you” – no, like, “we are cool now. It’s almost like we are brothers because we both cage fight.” The badguy gives him the same smile and nod – all is well.
Even though he tried to kill your friend and manipulated you into getting into a brawl tournament. Even though he talk all that trash about your dead father. Even though he fought dirty. He knocked you out once. When he found out your ribs were cracked he went after your ribs (which could kill you by the way). Despite all that, it’s cool. Because you aren’t the King of the Brawl (or whatever they called it) anymore. Also, the music scored to this had absolutely zero business in it. Most of the music actually didn’t fit the scene, forget the lyrics even matching the tone of the film.
But mostly my issues come back to the writing. Forced. Forced. Forced. Cliché after cliché.
Despite all this, there are quality fight scenes in this film. And so I kept watching, and I even gripped the arm of the chair tightly during one scene. What can I say, I’m a sucker for the fight scene. Other bright spots were the actors. I found them all to be cast really well. And I found myself wanting more screen time for Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator, Blood Diamond, Push) because he was genuinely magnificent. I think this might be due in fact, to a quality editor. In his scenes they cut to him as he listened to the other actors. And he is amazing at listening to the other characters in the scenes. It brought the attention to the affect of the character in the story, rather than the character him/herself. So when he speaks it has real impact. Not to mention the superpowers of a simple accent and how it hides any tonal inflection that would otherwise cause us to call any other actor bad, and for quality actors such as Hounsou, it elevates his abilities to us because it’s “exotic”.
Another piece I didn't mind was a little trick first popularized in "Romeo Must Die". In that film it came out of nowhere but here it makes total sense. The special effect takes us inside the body during a particularly hard hit. It took away the need for exposition of how dangerous it would be to continue getting hit in the ribs. So when the hit happens, we suddenly see the ex-ray view of the impact of the hit. I think this did a great job of building the tension, keeping the fight edgy, and it was suttle enough, and used enough to fit into the style and context of the film.
I've got to note that this little piece of film grammer most definitely owes so much of its impact to David O. Russel's "Three Kings" which took us inside the body during a gunshot. The smallest setup in this film introduced us to the danger of a single bullet. It raised the stakes of what a gun signifies when pulled (something we've desensitised ourselves to from all the acion films).
So like the special effect, taking from a better source and using it effectively the film, I would say, is also an effect exercise in pop action movies. Though I wouldn't pull it off the shelf to watch it again, and I certainly wouldn't stay up until 2am to watch it again, I would pay attention if I were surfing channels and ran across it during a fight scene.
WHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTT???? I just read that the final fight won a "Best Fight" MTV award in 2008. You may find it perplexing that I'm surprised - nay - upset - by this news after what you just read from me. But I looked at the list of nominees and though they didn't sound all that great at first (Jumper, Spiderman 3, Rush Hour 3), the final nominee was the one of the best fight scenes ever captured on film, "Bourne Ultimatum". And now I turn my nose up at you... MTV voters... imbeciles.
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