movie forecast: never back down

editor's note: for a detailed explanation of a movie forecast, click here

with the recent of rash of mind-numbing movies like 10,000 bc [or as i like to call it, the tale of bob marley] and dumbsday doomsday, at first glance the djimon hounsou vehicle, never back down, seems to fall into that category. sure, it's an obvious attempt to capitalize on the recent popularity in mixed martial arts [mma] and the historically reliable angst in male teenagers. but what gives never back down an edge over the aforementioned movies is its unknown potential for unintentional comedy. between djimon hounsou acting as a mma trainer and the horribly unrealistic fight scenes and generally bad acting by generally bad actors, the humor may be limitless. this element can elevate this picture to a higher level in the same way that it made the fast and the furious¹ one of the most rewatchable movies in history.

one of the movies that never back down is being [incorrectly] compared to is fight club, which i don't understand since the those two movies have nothing in common except for fighting within a contained circle. a more fitting juxtaposition would be fight club being [correctly] compared to its predecessor, lionheart.² anyway, never back down is more like step up [or step up 2: the streets], except that it has arm bars instead of pas de chats. comparisons aside, hopefully there is enough unintentional comedy, otherwise it really won't have that much to offer. [well, not much except for people kicking punching bags so hard that they unbelievably slide across the room. i suppose that can happen if they are attached to some sort of track on the ceiling as opposed to being attached at a pivot, in which case there's no point in using that type of punching bag.]

prognosis : 7/10

¹ nobody can tell me that any scene with paul walker and/or vin diesel isn't the most entertaining thing ever.
² with one of the most memorable scenes in cinema, jean-claude van damme taught everyone that fighting another man in an empty pool may be the most dangerous [and enjoyable] thing ever.