
Never Back Down

Never Back Down is a 2008 American martial arts film directed by Jeff Wadlow and starring Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, and Djimon Hounsou. The movie was released on March 14, 2008. The film is about a frustrated and conflicted teenager who arrives at a new high school to discover an underground fight club.
Plot.
Jake Tyler has recently moved from Iowa to Orlando, Florida with his mother, Margret, and younger brother, Charlie. His father died in a drunk-driving car crash accident, which is the subject of taunting from other classmates. He has a rising reputation with the students of his new school due to an internet video of him when he was a football player at his previous school, fighting with an opponent player. Jake is invited by classmate Baja Miller to a party where he is unwillingly pulled into a fight with the MMA champion at the school, Ryan McCarthy, who is also Baja's boyfriend. Ryan easily defeats Jake, and video of the event circulates and leaves Jake humiliated. 
A classmate, Max Cooperman, introduces Jake to MMA and gets him connected to Jean Roqua. Jake trains under Roqua and has difficult doing so due to his anger towards his incident with Ryan. Baja breaks up with Ryan due to having no remorse for his fight with Jake, which he takes negatively. Baja also tries to make amends with Jake by apoligizing for her role in the fight between him and ryan but Jake refuses to forgive her. One day after practice, Jake deposes a group of men during a road rage brawl. Max films the video, which circulates around the school and raises Jake's social status; this agitates Ryan enough to challenge Jake to compete in the Beatdown, an underground fighting tournament of which Ryan is the reigning champion. Roqua put Jake under more rigorous training for the Beatdown. Jake is initially reluctant to compete at the event, but his mind is changed after Max is hospitalized from being severely assaulted by Ryan. 
Jake arrives at the tournament and both Ryan and he make their way through each fight, each emerging victorious. Jake makes it to the semifinals in spite of an injury he received in the previous match. Baja arrives to not only support him, but to tell him that she understands why he insists on fighting: so that he would never have to do it again. After learning that Ryan was disqualified in his semifinal match due to an illegal eye gouge, Jake forfeits, seeing no reason to continue. While he and Baja attempt to leave, Ryan confronts him and the two finally fight outside in the parking lot. Jake is still limited by his injury, and Ryan at first gains the upper hand, applying a choke on Jake. However Jake escapes and knocks out Ryan using one of the first combinations Roqua taught him. Eventually, Jake wins the respect of his fellow students, including Ryan; and Roqua, who is originally from Brazil and went through a self-induced exile due to a conflict with his father involving the death of his brother, closes the gym to go to the country to reconcile.
Production.
The fighter actors went through three months of MMA training before filming began in Orlando, Florida.
Reception.
Box office.
"Never Back Down" debuted in 2,729 theaters at #3 with $8,603,195 in the opening weekend. After 2 weeks in cinemas, it garnered $18,890,093; and after one month the movie earned $37,676,991 worldwide.
The film closed on June 5, 2008, after 84 days at the North American box office with $41,627,431 worldwide against a budget of $20 million.
Critical response.
On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 84 critics. The site's consensus states: "Though not without its pleasures, "Never Back Down" faithfully adheres to every imaginable fight movie cliché". On Metacritic the film has a score of 39% based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Gregory Kirschling of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a D, calling it "dopey. And with its emphasis on stupid violence, xylophone abs, and getting yourself on YouTube, it's yet another product that makes you feel bad about today's youth culture." Michael Phillips of "Chicago Tribune" gave the film two out of four stars, saying, "[i]t's a little "Karate Kid", a smidge of "Fight Club" (with none of the ironic ambivalence toward violence that David Fincher brought to that story), a lot of "The O.C." (evil boy Gigandet played an evil boy on that series), and presto: probable hit".
Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review "I laughed so much at the litany of clichés that I finally had to admit I was entertained from start to finish by this cheesy knock-off."
Movie historian Leonard Maltin cited the picture as "...Wildly improbable and cliched, yet entertaining -- especially for fans of this genre. Cam Gigandet can glare with the best of them...All in all, the film "Showdown" tried to be." 
Home media.
The DVD was released on July 29, 2008, and has so far sold 990,405 units, bringing in $18,495,324 in revenue. This does not include Blu-ray sales.
An unrated version called the "Extended Beat Down Edition", featuring nudity and more blood, was released on DVD on July 29, 2008.
Sequels.
A 2011 sequel entitled "Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown" was released with Evan Peters reprising his role as Max Cooperman. Directed by Michael Jai White – who makes his directorial debut and also has top billing in the film, the film stars Alex Meraz, Jillian Murray, MMA fighters Todd Duffee, Lyoto Machida, Scott Epstein and Australian actor-singer Dean Geyer.
A second sequel, titled "Never Back Down: No Surrender", again directed by White, who also reprises his role as Case Walker. The film also stars Josh Barnett, Gillian Waters, Steven Quardos, Nathan Jones and Esai Morales.
Soundtrack.
The trance track played, when Ryan and his dad argue, is called "Estuera – Tales From The South (Jonas Steur's Flow Revision)", it did not feature on the soundtrack. It's from the album – Tiesto