11/10/2022 0 Comments Never back down movies![]() ![]() The characters don’t fare much better Jake is presented as a complex figure but basically amounts to a muscled-up mannequin with a Marty McFly “chicken” reaction to bringing up his dad. It’s like if someone released a new NFL Street game with even less self-awareness, and every potential stirring of emotional engagement is swiftly drowned by a seemingly non-stop onslaught of nu-metal. I recognize that 2008 was a different time, but I don’t think there’s a point in history where two shirtless high schoolers pummeling each other to My Chemical Romance’s “Teenagers” could be presented with a straight face. Let’s start with the soundtrack, which is practically song-for-song what I’d use were I to make a movie parodying the Tapout “FACE THE PAIN” culture. ![]() Now, the bad, meaning pretty much everything else. Though the overall fight choreography isn’t anything special, I will give credit where it’s due. It’s also the first martial arts movie I’ve ever seen really acknowledge how debilitating leg kicks can be as someone who does so love watching thighs get mulched, that gets it a couple points in my book. Lots of low-percentage entries into submissions, plenty of Superman punches, spinning sh*t, etcetera. The good: the many teenage fistfights do feature genuine MMA moves, albeit with a greater preference for the eye-catching than the functional. You can probably guess the general progression from there. ![]() Jake is press-ganged into a fight with Ryan through the interference of obvious future love interest Baja Miller (Heard) and, though he initially refuses, Ryan presses the “dead dad” button to goad him into what becomes a one-sided beating.ĭays later, Max convinces Jake to train with MMA coach Jean Roqua (Hounsou) to ultimately avenge himself at “The Beatdown”, an underground tournament that McCarthy has won twice. Jake does, however, willingly go to a party at BMOC Ryan McCarthy’s (Cam Gigandet) extremely large house.Īs it turns out, half the partygoers are outside doing MMA on each other. Local bro Max (Peters) tries to rope Jake into the sport after the footage of Jake’s brawl goes viral, only to be turned down. MMA is to Jake’s new school as college football is to any SEC university, only moreso somehow. The game proves to be his last, as he moves to Orlando alongside his mother and tennis-prodigy brother. Iowa high school football player Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) starts an on-field brawl by decking the opposing player who taunted him over the death of his father. ![]()
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