Wednesday 19 Jun
 
 

The Last Exorcism Part II

Unlike many moviegoers, 17-year-old farm girl Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell, The Day) has no memory of the events of The Last Exorcism, a found-footage smash of three years prior. The Last Exorcism Part II finds her taking steps to build life anew, beginning in a boarding house for troubled girls, where the deeply devout Nell is exposed to such heretofore corrupting influences as lipstick and rock music and YouTube and cotton candy.
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

The ABCs of Death

Suspense novelist Jeffery Deaver once praised the short-story format, writing that the minimal time investment on the part of the reader allows the writer to get away with endings he or she cannot in the long form. In other words, the writer can be meaner, more devious. He's absolutely right, and the theory applies wholesale to The ABCs of Death, more or less a horror anthology depicting "26 ways to die."
06/19/2013 | Comments 0

Ninja III: The Domination

Don't ask why Ninja III: The Domination begins with a ninja assault on a municipal golf course. Just be grateful it does. You also may wonder why its sex scene employs a can of V8: Don't question it. Just lie back and enjoy it.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Lifeforce

Tobe Hooper got a raw deal. The director of horror hits The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist didn't deserve to be sent to movie jail for 1985's Lifeforce. It's a well-crafted, well-intentioned work that was mismarketed and misunderstood, losing a bundle of money and soon sending Hooper into the lands of episodic television and direct-to-video features.
06/14/2013 | Comments 0

Dead Souls

With Dead Souls, we can prove something about the Chiller cable network's original features that Remains could not: Source material is not to blame for their pervasive generic nature — it's the economy, stupid.
06/11/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Action · Never Back Down
Action

Never Back Down


None March 20th, 2008

never-back-down
ground mixed martial arts fight club by Ryan (Cam Gigandet, "The O.C.") the local MMA champ and sociopath. After Ryan beats him up for fun, Jake seeks an exotic, older man named Jean Roque (Djimon Hounsou) to teach him the mythical path to ass-kicking enlightenment.

 

Roque takes the impetuous Jake under his proverbial wing, and after a series of montages Jake is ready to reclaim his honor and the love of Baja (Amber Heard, "Hidden Palms"), the bad guy's ex-girlfriend with a heart of gold. If this all seems familiar, it is.

 

It's the exact plot of "The Karate Kid," updated for young America's growing fascination with MMA and cell phone cameras. Remakes are nothing new, but "Never Back Down," while it has good-looking actors and a "Friday Night Lights"-style look and pace, never captures the underdog heart the of its predecessor, and winds up just an exercise in slow-motion face kicking. PG-13

 

"”Mike Robertson

 
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