Don't tap-out yet!From reading the title "Never Back Down," you get the impression that what you're about to watch will be something pretty macho and also pretty lame - a bad combination. The claims of this being a remake of "The Karate Kid" plus "Fight Club" and mixed martial arts is not undeserved or inappropriate. What it does aim to be, is a "Karate Kid" for the MTV generation and a generation of kids who may think that MMA is the future of the martial arts.As a casual fan of mixed martial arts, the gladiator-style spectacle of this sport goes all the way back to the Greeks, with their sport Pankration (which pretty much resembles today's MMA). The idea of cross-training and mixing techniques of different fighting styles gained popularity in the 20th century with Bruce Lee and his theories on Jeet Kune Do (which when translated from Cantonese, means "the way of the intercepting fist"). However, mixed martial arts, as we know it today in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), PRIDE and other MMA organizations, gained widespread recognition when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler Royce Gracie won UFC 1 in 1993. Since then, a revolution has been sparked in the world of full-contact fighting. (On a side, UFC president Dana White considers Bruce Lee the "father of modern mixed martial arts.")In "Never Back Down," which seeks to promote MMA for the mainstream, Jake Tyler (Sean Faris, who looks remarkably like a young Tom Cruise) is a promising football player who is relocated with his widowed mother and younger brother from their home in Iowa to the posh surroundings of upper-class Orlando, Florida; they opt for a cramped apartment in suburbia away from the surf and bikini-clad babes. Right away, it's established that Jake's a born brawler and has a chip on his shoulder, so right away the filmmakers are attempting to remove themselves from the "Karate Kid" legacy.Right away, he locks eyes on the pretty blonde Baja Miller (Amber Heard, uh-huh), and she invites new-kid Jake to a party later that night. At this same party, he locks heads with rich-boy Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), a champion MMA fighter who gets the upper hand on Jake and beats him to a pulp in a no-holds-barred brawl.All hope is not lost. On his first day of school, Jake had witnessed a fight happening under the bleachers, where an outcast kid named Max (Evan Peters) was getting his butt kicked by Ryan and his goons. It just so happens that Max is being trained by the legendary MMA champ Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) and takes him under his wing. So cue the MTV soundtrack and training montage.In terms of being a simple martial arts movie, "Never Back Down" is nothing new. Plenty of martial arts movies have been made about the bullied good guy who gets his butt kicked, learns to fight from a master, and tests out his newfound skills by getting revenge on his tormentors in the ring. The by-the-numbers script by Chris Hauty pays attention to a few of the details of modern mixed martial arts training, but doesn't really go into any real depth about it, even if some of the harsher stuff is only glossed over for the sake of trying to mainstream it. But I also guess that this Jeff Wadlow-directed vehicle has seen way too many better movies, and it's inherently self-referential toward them."Never Back Down," I guess, is a fun way to spend $7.75 (what I spent); at the very least, even if the plot is formulaic, it's still entertaining. The acting, writing and plot are decent, but still, the performances, acting and writing, like everything else, are by-the-numbers. Although we don't really wade grimly through worthless dialogue scenes, we do perk up for the fighting and training sequences. The best thing about these scenes is that they're authentic: what the actors are doing is so "real" you "believe" it. As brutal as they are (even for a "PG-13"-rated movie), they're fairly exciting and there isn't a whole bunch of flashy camera cutting that takes away from the intensity of the full-contact punching and kicking. The camera stays put for the most part and isn't moving all over the place. It looks like the actors are really going at it, and it looks like it hurts. So you "believe" it in a way you don't really do for a lot of martial arts movies made in America these days.And that's what no-holds-barred is all about, right?6/10
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What a nice surprise. Michael Jai White did excellent work. He managed to refrain from unnecessary Hollywood-overkill and instead just told a story that flows nicely and rewards the viewer with some spectacular fight scenes. It's actually a bit understated. A rare thing to find these days. I'll give you an example. During the finale of Hard Target 2 all I could think of was: My God, does the shooting never stop? What could have just been a gritty survivalist martial arts movie, had to be made into an over-the-top action vehicle. But it didn't look like the production crew had the money or experience to pull their ideas off. It just ends up looking disappointing. Thankfully, Michael Jai White had no illusions about his project. Not everything about this movie was top notch. But it just seemed to work for me. I got exactly what I needed. And maybe you will too. I hope MJW will be involved in many more good projects like this one.
Never Back Down: No Surrender (also known as Never Back Down 3 and The Fighters 3: No Surrender) is a 2016 martial arts film, directed by Michael Jai White, written by Chris Hauty and Jai White, produced by Craig Baumgarten and starring Jai White, Josh Barnett, Gillian White, Steven Quardos, Nathan Jones and Esai Morales. It is the sequel to Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown, and was released on DVD on June 7, 2016. In No Surrender, which picks up two years after the events of the second film, the former MMA champion Case Walker is on the comeback trail to become champion once again.
When Case has his date with Myca, Matty watches the two together and decides to use it against Case when it comes to Brody. Brody has been slowing down his training and Vega, in an effort to make the fight a success, recommends that Brody use steroids from his supplier to help him better himself. Matty tells Brody of Myca and Case, in which their date ends abruptly when Myca brings up Case's time in prison, making him feel very uncomfortable. When Brody offers to spar with Case, the session gets out of hand as Brody goes too far, hitting Case in the head, to which he retaliates in a way he never expected. Despite apologizing to Brody, their friendship seems to have ended. That is until Case notices Brody using steroids. After training one night, Case and Brody go out to eat. It is then when Brody realizes his mistakes and apologizes. He vows to Case he will do things the right way and even tells Case that Myca would be a good woman for him. Brody and Case work together to begin training for the fight along with Matty, who thanks to an intervention from Brody, agrees to work with Case in training Brody for the title fight. However, viral footage of Case beating up the racist policemen from two years prior has grabbed the attention of many, thus causing Vega to realize that Brody may not be the one worthy of the fight against Braga.
In addition to the consumer roll out of the update Microsoft is also fulfilling the promise it made at the launch of Windows Phone 8 to make updates available to developers ahead of the formal consumer release. From tomorrow, it will be possible for developers and other power users to download Windows Phone 8 Update 3, through the Windows Phone Preview Program for Developers. The program, which is intended to allows developers to easily test their apps on the version of the platform, is only open to registered developers (those with a Dev Center account, an App Studio account, or a dev unlocked phone).
These free updates for users of ZoomText 2018 and Fusion 2018 can be downloaded and installed over top of previous ZoomText 2018 and Fusion 2018 installations. You can also use the auto update feature which will alert you to the update on the next restart of ZoomText or Fusion.
Moving down, you will find the Recent row. This will contain a mix of content and applications you have recently opened. Beneath Recent, you will find the Your Apps and Channels row. This will list a combination of the apps you have downloaded and the channels you have subscribed to. There are shortcuts to download the most popular third-party apps preloaded in this list including Netflix and Sling TV. Note that a See All option appears at the end of this row of items, which will launch a grid of all of your apps and channels.
The Apps tab allows you to download apps for your device, though be aware, since these are developed by third parties, they may not be accessible using VoiceView. The main addition to the Apps tab is a set of three sub-tabs called Featured, Games, and Categories. The Featured and Games tabs are similar to the rows of suggested content you would find in other main tabs while the Categories tab lists a series of app categories that will launch a separate page of apps when activated. Note that the first row under the Featured and Games tabs do not speak their titles with VoiceView but are carousels of cycling items similar to the first row under the Home tab.
Selecting an app will launch a details screen where you can download it, read information about the app, and see reviews from others. Note that the details screen for an app is accessible but has incorrect row labels e.g., the Reviews row is titled "Trailers and Screenshots".
One setup screen that presented some confusion was the page that recommended default apps. TalkBack spoke the apps as I arrowed around the screen, but would not indicate if an app was checked or unchecked. The only way to determine if any changes were made was to move to the button labeled "Install three apps," which would change based on the number that was selected. Alternatively, one can choose to skip this screen entirely and download apps later. 2ff7e9595c
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