'Never Back Down' (15) Starring Sean Faris & Amber Heard

Never Back Down is the latest in a long line of movies that attempts to capture an underground movement via some flashy visuals and thumping emo. What began with The Fast & The Furious (underground illegal car racing), and last month's Step Up 2 The Streets (underground illegal, er, dancing) now comes to the world of ‘fight clubs’.

Jake (Sean Faris) is an angry young man from Iowa, who is uprooted by his Mum to L.A. Facing a new school and a challenge for acceptance, Jake immediately begins a feud with rich kid Ryan (Cam Gigandet), which ends in Jake being severely beaten up in a fight. He discovers that Ryan is an underground MMA (Mixed Martial Arts - think UFC) fighter, and so seeks out MMA guru Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou). Will Jake settle his rivalry? Will he win the affections of the lovely, if ludicrously named, Baja (Amber Heard)?

Quite honestly, the above questions don’t really matter, because plot, substance and any kind of intelligence are substituted for big cars, big music and big action. It wears the mask of credibility by associating itself with MMA, but most of the film is just a street fight with a loose Karate Kid feel to the story. The girl getting in between the two main characters, the training montages, and the dubious mantra of 'never back down' all add up to a movie designed for the eyes and not the brain.

The cast are practically not worth mentioning. Faris is just the same as every other male lead in these types of movies (quiet, intense stare, ‘anger issues’), Heard looks good but is essentially the trophy for the winner of the final battle, and Gigandet is almost like a pantomime villain (only with 20” rims). There may be a flicker of recognition when you see them in a One Tree Hill cameo or some cheap horror movie in the future, but it’s unlikely they’ll darken mainstream cinema’s door again. Djimon Hounsou, the film’s one legitimate star, may have let his wallet rule over his head in this career move, but he does at least look as though he could do you harm, and therefore adds a pinch of believability to proceedings.

In the end, we have a film that is Fight Club, only stripped of actors, meaning, plot and originality. What remains is something that looks great, and may even be a one-off guilty pleasure one lonely Saturday night. However, Never Back Down will have little or no long-term appeal, unless you’re an angry teenage boy.