![]() A good and loyal friend to his co-lead Brody James (Josh Barnett), a famous fighter who is in the Rocky IV excess stage of his fighting career, Case brings the discipline and loyalty James desperately needs. Walker is the kind of hero Bruce Lee would have been proud to see on screen. He’s the archetypal wandering hero brought to life by a proudly Black man, which is not something to take lightly in today’s cinematic landscape where talent of color work so hard to get the roles they so rightly deserve and which so often go to white males. While I’m at it, I’d just like to add that it’s wonderful to see an onscreen hero like Case Walker, an African American man who is the best at what he does, who teaches others, who is humble and honest. The film follows all the conventions of a typical fight film, but those very elements become convention because of how satisfying they can be when done right. A cinematic fantasy that is equal parts wholesome and brutal, captured on a minimal budget, but with the eye of a talented fight choreographer and cinematographer. By abandoning a lot of the structure of the previous films and simply tacking on the Never Back Down franchise name, White is given an opportunity to display some of the themes and philosophies that really make him tick as a person. That may sound like hyperbole when talking about a DTV martial arts film, but I’m prone to shining a light on this underappreciated niche of cinema. As writer/director/star/unbelievable physical specimen, Michael Jai White further cements his bona fides and really treads a path very few get to walk. With Never Back Down 3, White not only returns to the director’s chair, but also serves as a writer alongside Chris Hauty, who also penned the previous two. There also seems to have been an adherence to the structure of the original film which held it back quite a bit. ![]() I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of that film, but the addition of real world MMA fighters to the cast was probably the sales pitch for the film, and it hamstrung the acting. He’s a noble warrior type who trains and coaches another cast beefy whiper snappers to victory. Miyagi, and the legal troubles are not his fault. Even so, his Case Walker character took a bit of a backseat as a trainer with a troubled legal history. ![]() With the second film, White took over directing duties and starred in the film. The mall metal accompanying the trailer kind of says it all. Sold as an EXTREME version of The Karate Kid set in some kind of high school underground MMA ring, Djimon Honsou and Amber Heard support a cast of douchey looking white kids duking it out. White’s presence was my inroad to the franchise, and based on the trailer for the first film I stand by my disinterest in it. Never Back Down: No Surrender: Never Stop Never Stoppingīut in all seriousness, I love Michael Jai White and this third entry in the redundantly titled fight film franchise is the best that I’ve seen (meaning the better of the two White entries). ![]()
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