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Never Back Down
Directed by
Jeff Wadlow
PG-13
2008
1h 53m
Drama
,
Action
,
and more
6.5
20%
34%
Watch Free
A frustrated and conflicted teenager arrives at a new high school to discover an underground fight club, and meets a classmate who begins to coerce him into fighting.
More
Cast of Never Back Down
Sean Faris
Jake Tyler
Amber Heard
Baja Miller
Cam Gigandet
Ryan McCarthy
Djimon Hounsou
Jean Roqua
Evan Peters
Max Cooperman
Leslie Hope
Margot Tyler
Wyatt Smith
Charlie Tyler
Neil Brown Jr.
Aaron
Lauren Leech
Jenny
Tilky Jones
Eric
Steven Crowley
Ben
Tom Nowicki
Mr. Lloyd
Chele André
Max's Girl
Affion Crockett
Beatdown DJ
Chris Lindsay
Beat Down Referee
David Zelon
Ryan's Dad
Jonathan Eusebio
Dak Ho
Jocelyn Binder
Hot Tub Chick
Deon Stein
Hot Tub Chick
Milissa Sears
Baja's Friend (uncredited)
Andy Ussach
Man at Coffee Shop (uncredited)
David W. Scott
Loading Dock Worker (uncredited)
Marnie Van der Burgt
Tennis Spectator (uncredited)
Wolfgang Weber
Club Fighter (uncredited)
Aaron Pushkar
Fight Club Instigator (uncredited)
Nadine Avola
Bikini Party Girl (uncredited)
Jayson Talbert
Party Guest (uncredited)
Elissa Kapneck
Party Girl (uncredited)
Joanne Spracklen
Party Girl (uncredited)
Randi Krasny
Party Girl (uncredited)
Stacy Westbrook
Bikini Babe (uncredited)
Joyce Kirkconnell
Sexy Girl (uncredited)
Alyx Libby
Hot Tub Chick (uncredited)
Stephen Pflug
Club Guy (uncredited)
Kristin Popelka
Girl in Crowd (uncredited)
Bjorn Jiskoot Jr.
Student (uncredited)
Jasmine Burke
Student (uncredited)
Vanessa Vega Rivera
Student (uncredited)
Never Back Down Ratings & Reviews
Davis Gordon
March 30, 2025
I love it.
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
While the character of Jake isn't an emotionally taxing one, Faris has his moments, especially in a low-key scene in which he attempts to explain why his character is full of rage.
Entertainment Weekly
Gregory Kirschling
Movie is 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.
Ebert & Roeper
Richard Roeper
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.
Boxoffice Magazine
Tim Cogshell
Pretty much all of Never Back Down is shot like an episode of Punk'd, with a soundtrack from an MTV2 playlist. Which is all perfectly appropriate and kinda fun.
UGO
Keith Uhlich
As Tennessee Williams so often intimated, there's always something to prove down south - typically one's homoerotically-charged sense of manhood.
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
It's a little Karate Kid, a smidge of Fight Club...a lot of The O.C. (evil boy Gigandet played an evil boy on that series), and presto: probable hit.
Seattle Times
Tom Keogh
Towering above all is Hounsou, whose performance grants Never Back Down a measure of dignity.
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
The fights are parceled out at intervals during the last half, all leading to a climactic battle. But it's hard to build suspense when you know it is coming and you know who will win.
New York Times
Jeannette Catsoulis
Never Back Down offers extreme fighting as the modern-day alternative to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
New York Post
Kyle Smith
A formula flick that should have tapped out in the script stage.
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
By the time ever-noble, ever-watchable Djimon Hounsou shows up to teach earnest young Jake honor and roundhouse kicks, the power-rock and smashmouth idiocy become like a fever dream, sweaty and hard to shake off.
The Deadbolt
Brian Tallerico
Definitely better than a swift kick to the head, but it's just about as subtle.
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Jeff Wadlow directed this exploitation flick, which seems designed for students on spring break.
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
The movie is just a cheesy, preposterous, semi-eroticized way of yelling, 'Fight! Fight!,' when two people go at it in the school cafeteria.
Arizona Republic
Randy Cordova
With its thin characters and derivative plot, the finished product seems more like a marketing concept than an actual film.
Beliefnet
Nell Minow
Fetishised footage of taut, muscular young men grappling with and pounding on each other. All I could think was, "Oh, go ahead. Back down. We'll all be happier."
The Hollywood Reporter
Stephen Farber
At its core Never Back Down is just another teen exploitation movie, but middle-age viewers who wander into the theater might get the same giddy rush as the kids.
Variety
John Anderson
The human body can't do or withstand the things this movie claims it can, and one can only hope that pic's probable success doesn't trigger a dramatic rise in schoolyard body-slams, arm locks and chokeholds.
AV Club
Scott Tobias
In the future, movies this derivative will be made by robots.
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