As its trailer suggests, Never Back Down is a movie about fighting for what you believe in, if a little cliche at parts. Going into it, I expected to see an array of coreographed fight scenes strung together by a storyline so weak that my twelve year old sister could have written it. However, with only two intense, painfully realistic looking fight scenes, the movie took on more of a Rocky feel than that the mindless violence of Fight Club (or at least what we thought Fight Club was going to be) or The Greenstreet Hooligans.

The story follows hot-head teenager Jake Taylor, played by the rookie Sean Faris, with a natural silver screen pizzaz and a striking resemblance to Tom Cruise. Jake is forced to move to a high school in Orlando, Florida with his younger brother and recently widowed mother (played by 24's Leslie Hope). While at school, Jake meets the beautiful Baja, who lures him to the hottest party around, where he finds a culture of high school students who's primary entertainment is to watch kids fight, and where the most popular man on campus is the one with the most victories under his belt. He is soon challenged by Ryan McCarthy, the king of the ring and master of mixing martial arts with brute street fighting.

After receiving the beating of a lifetime in front of the entire school and his new love interest, Tyler determines to get revenge, and seeks training from the town legend, played by Blood Diamond's Djimon Hounsou. However, the movie takes an unnexpected twist when Tyler transforms from an angry teenager with a guilty conscience and injured pride, to a man determined to stop the bullying of the campus villain.

While the story does have some unrealistic and somewhat predictable aspects, the characters possess surprisingly noble motives, and the movie portrays messages that are somewhat deep for a high school fight movie, without being overly corny. With well developed characters, talented actors, and a pretty climactic final showdown, all pulled together with a decent storyline, Never Back Down may not be nominated for any awards, but it is definitely worth seeing.