Never Back Down

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Never Back Down" (Summit Entertainment), which showcases the no-holds-barred fighting technique known as mixed martial arts, amounts to little more than a pointless celebration of violent machismo.

When his recently widowed mother, Margot (Leslie Hope), moves the family from Iowa to Florida so that her younger son, Charlie (Wyatt Smith), can attend a prestigious tennis academy, older brother Jake (Sean Faris) has difficulty adjusting to his new high school. But the short-fused football player becomes a hero after an amateur video of an on-field fight he won back in Iowa begins to circulate.

Jake attends a decadent party (featuring beer-chugging games and two girls in a hot tub kissing each other) at the invitation of classmate Baja (Amber Heard), with whom he's smitten. There he's trapped into fighting with Baja's smirking, obnoxious boyfriend, Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), who beats him into unconsciousness. But Jake's enthusiastic new pal Max (Evan Peters), out to help him get revenge, introduces him to fight coach Jean (Djimon Hounsou).

Jean agrees to train Jake, but warns him that any student who uses his skills to fight outside the gym can never return. As Ryan persists in making trouble for him, the newly adept Jake must choose between settling the score and obeying the rules.

Director Jeff Wadlow's film, as scripted by Chris Hauty, contains several high-sounding phrases of the "fight now so you won't have to fight in the future" variety, and even invokes imagery from Homer's "Iliad" to assure us of its peaceable intentions. None of this can disguise the fact that "Never Back Down" glamorizes brutal physical combat.

Characters in the film cheer as arms are distended and ribs cracked in what amounts to a nonlethal form of gladiator games. Those committed to humane, Judeo-Christian values will likely prefer to turn elsewhere for entertainment.

The film contains bloody fighting, a brief scene of same-sex kissing, underage drinking and frequent crude and crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops