Never Break Down is your typical teenage drama with a twist of street fighting
action. With the help of a good looking crew - Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, Djimon Hounsou and Amber Heard, the movie becomes bearable even for the adult audience, while the target remains aimed at teenagers. The highlight of the movie are the training sessions of the main character Jake Tylor (played by Sean Faris) with the fighting guru Jean Roqua (played by Djimon Hounsou). It is always entertaining to watch a bunch of sweaty, ripped, high on testosterone men break it down in a gym environment. Of coarse Sean Faris and Cam Gigandet can unleash the butterflies in any girl's stomach, but they both look miserably skinny and powerless compared to Djimon Hounsou.
As far as the story goes, of coarse there is a part about shaping character, learning from your mistakes, forgiveness and acceptance, and most importantly - victory of the underdog. The most complex character is that of Jake Tylor. He is a confused young man, who had lost his father in a car accident, which he feels might have prevented and is constantly blaming himself for. All the anger from the accident has been building up inside him until he finds an outlet for it - fighting. Although he has no intention of doing so at first, he is quickly pulled into a fight with Ryan McCarthy (played by Cam Gigandet) for all the wrong reasons - a girl. And so the shaping of his character (and body) begins. He dedicates himself to learning the art of fighting and control of emotion and thus transforms from a sore looser to an unbeatable winner.
The love theme is nothing out of the ordinary - the smart yet bad-ass underdog wins the heart of the smart yet gorgeous girl, whose current boyfriend is the number one bad-ass yet not so smart street fighter. I must say, the choice of actress for the role of Baja Miller could not have been more appropriate. Amber Heard has the kind of look that is both intelligent and sexy. One can see her dating the bad guy at first but then also accept her natural transition into the life of the good guy. The love scenes in the movie deserve some credit. Although they are hardly head-spinning plot wise, the dialogs and connection between Baja and Jake are perky and fun enough to make you smile.
Overall, I would recomend this movie to anyone who has some spare time and wants to spend it in the company of a few very good looking young men, accompanied by a great choise of soundtrack music. This movie will not clog you mentally ot emotionally, but rather make you smile and think "I wish I was a teenager".