Never Back Down and Fighting

Posted by Matt Rosenberg on April 20, 2009 at 1:00 am

So I was sick last week and decided to go to bed early. Ya know, lets go to bed around 930, get a good night sleep and hopefully feel like a million bux in the morning. So it was senior citizen bed time, 9:30pm, and I was channel surfing. I turned on “Never Back Down” which has been all over Starz lately. My cousin mentioned it to me a year ago, and I literally laughed in his face at the thought if subjecting myself to that garbage. The movie stars Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, Gladiator), Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, and the incredibly hot Amber Heard. Its about an underground MMA fighting world in an upscale Florida High School. Its pretty much The Karate Kid meets Rocky in a current day world. Let me say to my cousin, I am very sorry, man was I wrong.

So there I am, sick as hell, but simply unable to change the channel. I had a flashback remembering seeing the trailer for the first time, thinking that this movie looked terrible. Like, how could they really make this movie, and what in the world was Academy Award nominated actor Djimon Hounsou doing in this. But as the movie progressed, I literally could not stop watching. Each scene was better than the next, all leading up to the big fight between Faris and Gigandet. This movie was AWESOME. Good guys you cheered for, bad guys you wanted to absolutely destroy, and beautiful half-naked girls. You literally wanted to beat the sh*t out of Gigandet at some points in this movie. He played the perfect teen movie bad guy, making it that much easier to root for Rocky, I mean Faris.

hair dvd

I watched the entire movie and after it ended, I couldn’t go to sleep. I was completely jacked up, looking to either fight someone or lift some weights. So my early to bed at 930 turned into finally got to bed around 1. The movie also has inspired me to get off my lazy ass and hit the gym again. I walked into work the next day and spent my lunch watching youtube clips of the final fight. I was hooked, I still am and have been watching this movie On Demand when I get the chance. This movie is beyond entertaining: Hollywood at its best. If you don’t believe me watch this clip. Its NOT the final fight but damn its good.

This brings to me to this Friday’s premiere of “Fighting

.” It looks somewhat similar to Never Back Down and also has a great trailer.

Starring the young rising actor Channing Tatum (Step Up, Coach Carter, and in this Summer’s “G.I. Joe”) and Academy Award Nominee Terrence Howard, Fighting looks like another “lets get jacked up” movies. The premise is basically about an angry kid, Tatum, who has a short temper, meets a man, Howard, who introduces him to an underground fight ring. This time however, I will not make the mistake of blowing it off from the preview or title. The trailer looks sick, especially with the “Remember the Name” music that the NFL has used to promote pretty much every playoff game in the past 3 years. I don’t even care that it’s over played, it still pumps me up. I say to all those who said they wouldn’t get caught dead seeing Never Back Down…check it out and go see Fighting. Now you know what to expect from this type of movie, you will be extremely entertained, and it will be $12 well spent.