Review of Never Back Down (2008) by Paul J — 24 Aug 2009

A classic exercise in A to B plotting with cliches galore but I guess that what makes it so successful as a late night popcorn-muncher - the zero amount of brainpower required to follow - useful when you have far more important things to be thinking about such as how they've managed to clone a young Tom Cruise and repackage him as Sean Faris! The film also boasts another of those Hollywood high schools as seen through the eyes of Hugh Hefner where it's less a high school, more a modelling agency.

I really don't have a lot to say about it which isn't taking the piss - it's just one cliche and/or stereotype after another following a generic join-the-dots plot, but that doesn't make it bad.

It's the cinematic equivalent of junk food - watch, enjoy, forget.