"Being a man doesn't come Easy" -Never Back Down Movie Review

"Being a man doesn't come Easy" -Never Back Down

(No Spoilers- Trailer and Xtra-Clips at the bottom:  Never Back Down Training WEpisode and Amber Heard interview)

Never Back Down is about a high school male Sean Faris (Reunion, Smallville) named Jake Tyler who has personal problems: his father, while drunk, drove into a tree and killed himself. Jake was in the car and survived. Jake knew his dad was drunk, but didn't make any attempt to stop him before he drove. (This all happens before the movie begins.)

Jake is conflicted because not only does he blame himself, but his mother (Leslie Hope, quite good) seems to hold it against him too. And as time passes he becomes a problem teen, whose problems his mother dramatically recites as a growing pattern of statistics.

The family, Jake, his mother and a younger brother (Wyatt Smith, cute) move from Ohio to Florida so that the younger brother can study tennis.



Jake discovers that at the new high school there is an under-ground fight club. The catch is that the top fighters don't just box. If they did, Jake might have had a chance. "Boxing is old school, as dead as Louis and Marciano."




The movie revolves around two major themes: Everybody has their own fight, and never back down. How do you do this? According to the movie by facing your demons and overcoming bullies.

The movie has been compared to Karate Kid and Fight Club. It is not anything like the twisted plotline of Fight Club (the movie is in a class all it's own), but there is a fight club and one of the actors Ryan (Cam Gigandet) does look and act a bit like the ripped Brad Pitt from that movie.

It is much more mature and violent than Karate kid, but it does have a mentor teaching a guy discipline. The actor Djimon Hounsou ( read more about this actor here) plays Brazilian from Senegal who teaches conditioning, restraint, doggedness, and winning the mental game. I thought he was great.

The dialogue is flip and hip, the fight scenes are well `clipped'. I have been told that they don't exhibit the best fighting- but how they are filmed I thought, made them intense. See the training the actors went through in video at bottom of post.)

Amber Heard on top of Sean Faris

There is a romance sub plot , and a `what you do for your friends' angle. There is the `now-ness' of instant communication via youtube like videos. And though the movie is predictable in it's outcome - what makes it fresh is how the character of Jake really comes to understand his need for controlling his temper and anger, even if sometimes, the only thing a bully understands is a beat-down.



You Can Watch The Entire Movie On-Line right now
for $2.99 through Amazon Streaming Videoes  Click Here
   


Never Back Down Training Webisode


Amber Heard interview

Djimon Hounsou

DJIMON HOUNSOU Date of Birth: April 24, 1964

Born in the small village of Cotenou, in Benin, Africa, Djimon Hounsou fell in love with movies when he was a boy, going to the local theater every Wednesday to watch American westerns. The youngest of five children, he was sent by his parents to live with his oldest brother in Lyons, France to attend school there when he was 13, but he ran away and lived on the streets of Paris. For several years he was homeless, sleeping under bridges, searching garbage cans for food, begging for money and washing in a public fountain near the Pompidou Centre. He doesn?t like to talk about that time, but says, "I thought I could make my dreams come true in Paris but things always seemed to work against me."

That is, until he was discovered by French fashion designer Thierry Muglar. Muglar was looking for a complete unknown to be his new model and happened to see some photos that had been taken of Hounsou. The young man not only went on to become a top male model in Paris, but wound up travelling the world for various modelling jobs. His career took a turn in 1989 when Madonna saw him modelling in Los Angeles and asked him to be in her Express Yourself video. Although he didn?t need to speak English for the shoot, Hounsou realized that it would be a good idea to master the language if he wanted to move on to films and television work. Watching The Learning Channel, A&E and The Discovery Channel helped him to expand his vocabulary.

In the meantime, Hounsou appeared in more music videos for artists such as Steve Winwood, Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. In 1990, he landed his first television role as a nightclub doorman on the television series Beverley Hills 90210. By 1996, he had only landed a few minor roles in small budget films when he suddenly got a call from Steven Spielberg. It turned out that the director had seen Hounsou?s videos and wanted him to audition for a role in his new film, Amistad (1997). Hounsou won the role of Joseph Cinqué, the leader of a slave revolt. The part was his big breakthrough, earning him a Golden Globe nomination.

In 1999, he landed a recurring role on the hit TV series E.R., playing Mobalage Ikabo in six episodes. His next big role in a feature film came when he played Juba in Gladiator (2000), starring Russell Crowe. Hounsou had no trouble finding work after that. In 2001 his command of French came in handy when he played a supporting role in the French film Le Boulet (2002). In The Four Feathers (2002), he played Abou Fatma, who helps Heath Ledger make it through the desert to rescue his friends. He also appeared in the western-themed film Muraya (2002), starring Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis. In 2004, his career heated up when he received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a man with AIDS who is befriended by two young girls in In America (2003).



His second nomination came just a few years later, for his critically-acclaimed performance in Blood Diamond (2006). Hounsou lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography:

Push (2008)
Never Back Down (2008)
Eragon (2006)
Blood Diamond (2006)
The Island (2005)
Beauty Shop (2005)
Constantine (2005)
Blueberry (2004)
In America (2003)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)
Biker Boyz (2003)
Muraya (2002)
The Four Feathers (2002)
Le Boulet (2002)
Gladiator (2000)
Deep Rising (1998)
The Small Hours (1997)
Ill Gotten Gains (1997)
Amistad (1997)
Stargate (1994)
Unlawful Entry (1992)
Without You I?m Nothing (1990)

Heath Ledger's Batman Movie Trailer

Heath Ledger's performance as Joker Makes Dramatic Entrance As "Batman: The Dark Knight" Is Unveiled.

(Trailer at bottom of post)

LAS VEGAS — This time out, there's no vat of chemicals to explain how Batman's greatest enemy came to be the twisted sociopath known as the Joker.



Heath Ledger's Joker springs full-blown in this summer's "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" that was previewed for theater owners Thursday with a clip showing the new movie's opening sequence.

Unlike 1989's "Batman," in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson's Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, "The Dark Knight" starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.



"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger," Ledger's depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery.

In an interview at ShoWest, a theater-owners convention where distributor Warner Bros. showed off footage of "The Dark Knight" and the rest of its summer lineup, director Christopher Nolan said it was almost inevitable that the sequel would pit Christian Bale's Batman against the Joker.

"The psychopathic clown, that's an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape," Nolan said. "It's just a wonderful visual relationship, and it's a terrifying image."

Long before Ledger's death of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, the marketing of the movie had focused on the villain's rise to power and his creepy appearance.

There had been speculation among critics and fans that the studio and filmmakers might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger's death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.

"I think he'd be very pleased to see we're just moving ahead as is," Nolan said. "If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see. He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form."

"The Dark Knight" is due in theaters July 18.

The last time producer Charles Roven saw Ledger was when he showed the actor the very footage that was screened at ShoWest.

Fans have been buzzing over the anarchic style Ledger brings to the role in the movie's trailer, but the actor himself was utterly taken by what he saw of himself on screen, Roven said.

"He was just blown away by his own performance," Roven said. "He said, `Can I see it again?' So he was really, really thrilled."



Bale _ reprising his role as the wealthy Bruce Wayne, who moonlights as the emotionally tormented crimefighter _ said he watched the footage Thursday with a heaviness of heart over Ledger. But Bale said he hopes the movie will serve as a testament.

"I hope that this can be seen as a celebration of his work," Bale said. "He did a phenomenal job. It was a real joy working with the man. It was a joy knowing him, as well. I liked him a great deal, and I liked also how seriously he took his work."

MIchelle Williams And Others Break Silence Over Heath Ledger



People and Us Weekly both have excerpts of an April Interview magazine piece on Heath Ledger. In it, ex-fiancee Michelle Williams breaks her silence for the first time, as does ex Naomi Watts.

Some of what Williams said:

"I think the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was...


"You can pick it up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine," she adds. "But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was...

"For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia," she says. "He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning -- always turning."




Williams -- who has a daughter, Matilda, 2, with Ledger -- adds, "He had a talent for everything that he put his mind to. He didn't know limits."

And others:



• Naomi Watts: "He was a huge, obsessive, chess freak - and very, very good at it."



• Ellen DeGeneres: "He didn't try to be something that he wasn't. And I appreciated that."


• Phillip Seymour Hoffman: "Whenever Heath talked about something he liked, he did it in the way that any fan would. He wasn't somebody trying to cover up his excitement about something, or someone."