Your thoughts on Never Back Down?

Question

I was watching some clips of Never Back Down on youtube, and I was reading the comments, and it totally gave people the wrong impression of MMA. In some of the fight scenes, the fighters move way to quickly and if it were a real match they would blow their gas tank in the first round. People that are new to MMA and watch that movie will expect to see high octane, action filled every second, fights. People are also missing the technicality in the striking and groundwork. This is probably the worst one, but makes MMA look easy. They do some Judo throws, which take years to perfect, and make them look like you can learn it and in a day. I just wanna punch the writer of this movie.

Does anybody else agree?

Answer 1

I agree with you. They make MMA look way too easy. And what the h**l is up with the endurance levels of the fighters? Wish I had endurance like that.  

Answer 2

Wow! I'm surprised you guys hated it. I went to see it (because I go see all martial arts movies) with really low expectations and I came out of it impressed.

I have not seen better ground fighting choreography. They managed to make grappling look appealing and exciting to the layperson (my buddy that went with me).

I thought the story line was good, but somewhat of a copy of karate kid, but then again, Karate Kid was a great martial arts film.

I don't think it glorified MMA as streetfighting. In fact, I think it did the contrary, by having a BJJ Master show the student the right way, and to have the discipline involved.

I also thought the dynamic of the student and his mother's disapproval of MMA and having her change her mind after seeing the positive changes in her son.

At our TKD school, I have an 18 year old who saw the movie, then signed up with us the next day.

Overall, I think it was spawned by the current MMA craze and is definately not spawned by UFC haters.

James

Answer 3

i HATE that movie!!! makes a sport i love look infantile and shows it in an unrealistic light

Answer 4

By no means was this an"MMA" movie .lol...This movie was FIGHT CLUB with a few submissions.. And it was very cheesy the way they incorporated " UFC" and mentioned "Gracie or the Gracie Camp". It was an entertaining movie non the less .. just a bunch of rich kids fighting.

Answer 5

I agree, it was quite poorly made.. sure its cool i be in a garage filled with ppl who look like fighters but it really didnt show enough depth, i mean, the kid gets beat up and then withinthe school year or w/er all of a sudden hes a great fighter? :/ takes more then a few months more then a few years to be really good

Answer 6

I thought it was a good movie even though it was about MMA.

Answer 7

i bet every kid who saw this movie was like o i can get good at mma im a few weeks if i get pissed off. MMA takes years conditioning training and dedication bj penn has been doing bjj since he was born mma is not something that you can just go into

Answer 8

i personally hate never back down, it makes mma look petty and like pure violence for the fun and not the competition. it also depreciates the value of training hard and gaining skills and experience overtime. you cant become some he-man freaking heavyweight champ of the world overnight. it was just a bad release and brings shame to our sport.

Answer 9

Ridiculous story line. How he was setup at the party because the kid saw him fight on his cell phone. How stupid. Too be the best you gotta beat the best. That was so stupid. I like the training parts, but thats it.Overall a bad movie. I mean come on isnt it from the same guys who brought us the Step Up movies. I think that is enough said.

Answer 10

never back down is basically the fast and the furious of mixed martial arts. its a lame movie trying to capitalize on the popularity of mma. the only thing good about that movie is that black dude who trains the main character because he was in blood diamond and the movie was pretty cool.

unfortunately i know they are going to have a sequal to never back down and its gonna suck.

Answer 11

I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to watch it at some stage as I hear it's (unintentionally) hilarious. Sherdog reviewed this film as soon as it came out. The reviewer even said that he wanted to like it, as it was the first mma film. Even he said the film sucked.