Do Not See "Never Back Down"

by Luke Thomas on Mar 5, 2008 12:55 PM EST in News Comment 10 comments

If you had thoughts of seeing this cinematic disaster, please put a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger at your earliest convenience. The movie has, at best, a tangential relationship to the sport as we understand it. The genesis of the storyline and the author's grotesque ignorance of the sport is all the evidence you need. To wit:

How did the idea for the Never Back Down come about?
My son was a sophomore at Santa Monica High School a few years back and they had some fights there where a lot of the kids gathered around and took out their cell phones too shoot clips of these fights. My son came home and told me about it and we took a look on MySpace. I started to think it was a pretty interesting phenomenon and did a little more research and found out that across the country, in some high schools, there were actually organized fight clubs aping the movie Fight Club itself. I thought this was an opportunity for a movie to imitate life imitating a movie.

Fight Club without the anti-consumerist message.
Well, they are kids.

Did you find this phenomenon shocking in any way?
Shocked would be too strong a word. I was fascinated by it. I wanted to do something with Mixed Martial Arts and this was a way to do it where kids weren't consuming the product, they're creating the product.

Is there a difference between Ultimate Fighting and MMA?
No. MMA is employed in Ultimate Fighting. Ultimate Fighting is sort of a loose term as well. UFC has co-opted that term but I think it just means "all in". No rules; anything goes.

Besides Fight Club, the other movie that comes to mind when watching Never Back Down is The Karate Kid. Did you ever have that meeting when you said, "This is Fight Club meets the Karate Kid"?
I didn't sell the movie as a pitch. I wrote the script and then sold it, so thankfully I didn't have to go in and say "It's Karate Kid meets the UFC". I actually hadn't seen The Karate Kid, I read the synopsis and got the idea of it. When writing the film and all the changes the script went through up to production, it was more, "How can we make this not like Karate Kid? How do we avoid that?"

You saw nothing metaphysical about this story?
No. I don't think so. I don't think who are involved in MMA necessarily bring any metaphysical component to the dance. I think it's more about physical excellence and discipline.

This is horrendous on levels both obvious (the "ultimate fighting" vs. MMA breakdown) and subtle ("Well, they are kids") that one has no idea where to begin. When Dana White references people coming out of the woodworks to see if they can rub two nickels together to make money off of this sport, one has to think the folks involved with this movie rank somewhere near the top of the list.

0 recs | Comment 10 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

It's "The Fast and the Furious Fighter."

Of course it will be horrible. That's the appeal, really. It's this year's "Snakes on a Plane," except that without Samuel L. Jackson and Keenan what's-his-name from SNL, the movie should have no chance, zero, of being good.

And by being as bad as I suspect it will be, it will transcend awful cinema and wrap back around to greatness.

Also: Well, the movie is being advertised on this website.

by Brett Jones on Mar 5, 2008 1:35 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

"Also: Well, the movie is being advertised on this website."

Ugh, no, it's not. Those are Google ads, not anything from anyone involved with the motion picture or studio. I suppose I could turn off image ads on my Google ads settings and cost the site money (image ads give me a lot more clicks), or I just could leave them up there and set the record straight about how I feel about the movie.

by Luke Thomas on Mar 5, 2008 1:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

It could send a mixed message to some, regardless of who is responsible for the ads.

I have no problem with you telling folks not to see the movie.

by Brett Jones on Mar 5, 2008 3:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

But did anyone think the movie would be anything more?
I, along with anyone I've talked to about it, felt it was quite transparently the Drumline/You Got Served/Fast and the Furious/Bring It On of mma. It's made for and directed towards kids for purely superficial entertainment. The subject can be transposed with high school band, dancing, car racing, cheer leading, etc as the irrelevant medium to move the plot.
I agree it's a terrible derivative of mma done by someone just trying to make a buck, but at the same time I don't see where the damage is truly being done. 90% of the audience will be <18 and only there to see a "sweet fighting movie", the other 10% are only there as chaperones or hoping to see some choreographed quantum jiujitsu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXqzdlbSXhI).
I just can't see how anyone who is actually into mma is going to be fooled into watching this movie.

by Simco on Mar 5, 2008 1:44 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

I agree that there isn't much damage to the sport to be done by such a movie. That isn't necessarily a big concern of mine. I'd shit on this movie even if I wasn't a MMA blogger.

But I don't know, guys, when I was a teen I distinctly remember avoiding movies like this. I didn't have the best taste in the world, but isn't shit like this designed for the unwashed masses? Unwashed, functionally literate or worse masses?

by Luke Thomas on Mar 5, 2008 1:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

Never underestimate the piss poor taste and ongoing dumbing down of North American teens.

by AJB on Mar 5, 2008 2:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

For those who think this can't hurt the sport...just remember how street racing started to get much more out of control after the release of the fast and the furious. This movie will lead to some kids starting their own little "fight club" (aping the MMA of the movie rather than the pure brawling of the NOT ABOUT FIGHTING MOVIE Fight Club) and in today's culture everyone records everything.

News stations love to do their "look what we found on YouTube. EVERYONE is doing this now! Every kid in america is taking part in no rules fighting!" I don't think it really sets the sport back much...but it could result in more of the same old anti-mma media stories.

by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2008 4:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

Kids have been doing this bullshit for quite some time now. Remember summer/fall-ish of last year when all the news stations did exactly what you said: report of 'fight videos' they found on Youtube.

I just don't understand why this tool of a director had to tie MMA to it.

by Gong on Mar 5, 2008 7:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Do Not See "Never Back Down"

Exactly what I said. They now can tie MMA to it. Now instead of wild brawling fight clubs they're "Ultimate fight clubs" like in the popular film 'Never Back Down'

by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2008 7:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs