The fallout of Amber Heard’s very public deformation trail with former husband Johnny Depp ended with both stars “out of favor” in Hollywood. While Depp has been chipping away at rebuilding his career, Heard decided to shift her focus away from the industry to a quiet life in Spain, with her children. However, while Heard may have left behind making movies for now, one of her old flicks is grabbing attention on Tubi almost two decades after its original release.
Never Back Down is a 2008 MMA-themed action movie that teamed up Heard with Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, Djimon Hounsou, and Evan Peters that is finding a new audience on Tubi and getting a second chance at attracting people who have completely forgotten the movie even exists – or possibly a few who wanted to forget it exists.
Never Back Down plays a little like this. The synopsis reads, “Jake (Sean Faris) moves to Orlando, Fla., with his mother (Leslie Hope) and brother (Wyatt Smith). He feels like an outsider in his new school and frequently lets his temper flare out of control. But Jake wants to fit in, and he decides to go to a party with his classmate Baja (Amber Heard). There, Jake is pushed into a fight and humiliated. Another classmate (Evan Peters) sees what happened, and encourages Jake to visit martial arts trainer Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou).”
For the most part, the film was a moderate financial success, bringing in around $41 million from its $20 million budget, even though it only managed to open at number three in the charts. However, its reviews were, and still are, brutal, especially from critics. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer for Never Back Down sits at 21%, and audiences only scored it a little higher, at 34% – neither a ringing endorsement and probably why most people don’t remember it.
Is ‘Never Back Down’ Worth Watching on Tubi?
If you have time to kill, then Never Back Down will fill two hours, and as it is free on Tubi, then there couldn’t be a better time to check it out. On the other hand, if you are someone who decides their viewing pleasures based on the opinions of others, then you may be better off looking elsewhere for your next movie.
Never Back Down mainly fails for being a completely generic fight movie that, as per RT’s consensus, “faithfully adheres to every imaginable fight movie cliché.” This might not be a bad thing if you are not looking for something to tax the brain. Some called it “The Karate Kid with MMA and fanservice,” while others don’t quite understand the bad reviews and note that “if you properly set your expectations, this is actually a fun, exciting fighting movie.” If you would rather listen to flip side of the argument, then The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw went even more brutal than any of the fights in the movie with his review that called it “a naïve and truly obnoxious movie about the world of MMA.”
In the end, the movie’s appearance on the Tubi chart isn’t really that much of a surprise. The platform is continuously switching its content, and often delivers plenty of movies that have been lost to time – both good and bad. Never Back Down may not be the best movie, but it is free to stream, and that is sometimes as good a reason to watch it than any.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2008
- Runtime
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115 minutes
- Director
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Jeff Wadlow
- Writers
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Chris Hauty
- Producers
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Craig Baumgarten
