American Film Review Never Back Down

Jake Tyler never goes looking for trouble, but it always seems to find him. Since the break-up of his parents marriage, it's everywhere he turns. Freshly transplanted from a sleepy Iowa town to the heat and flash of new-money Orlando, Florida, Jake seems headed for even more rocky terrain as he is pulled into an underground fighting league — a kind of fight club for teens. With the help of his new group of friends — a fight and life-savvy coach, a free-thinking and adventurous girlfriend, and a scrawny but charming best friend — Jake manages to rise above the chaos around him. But just as he's beginning to feel like he's in control, his world is turned upside down once again by an unrelenting campaign to get him back in the ring. From Jeff Wadlow, director of the stylish teen thriller "Cry Wolf" and winner of the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival for his short film "The Tower of Babble," comes this ripped-from-the-headlines story, in the tradition of such inspirational classics as "The Karate Kid," "Rocky" and "The Fast and the Furious."