IF the classic '80s fairy-tale The Karate Kid sparred with cult 90s hit Fight Club, the bloodied, bruised pulp that emerges from the melee would be Never Back Down, a homoerotic tale of bare-knuckle brawling guys, bikini-clad girls and broken families.

High school American football player Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) moves from rural Iowa to sun-kissed Orlando with his mother Margot (Leslie Hope) and impressionable younger brother.

Jake blames himself for the death of his father in a drink driving crash, taking out his rage and despair by brawling with rival players on the field.

He quickly falls under the spell of one particular blonde classmate, Baja (Amber Heard).

"Like Mexico?" wonders Jake.

"Like my parents smoked too much weed."

Unfortunately, Baja is the sexy plaything of resident fight club king Ryan (Cam Gigandet) and he goads Jake into a skirmish at a party, where the new boy takes a beating.

School geek Max (Evan Peters) is impressed with Jake's bravado and introduces the newcomer to gym owner and martial arts mentor Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), who moulds Jake into a fine-tuned killing machine.

Never Back Down is all brawn and no brains, underscoring the rivalry between Jake and Ryan with a limp, contrived and unsatisfying romantic subplot.

Faris looks like a young Tom Cruise, and he rises to the physical demands of the role almost as well as Gigandet as the nostril-flaring, glowering bad guy.

However, Faris struggles to convey Jake's all-consuming grief, burdened with a poorly written confession scene when his character relives the worst night of his life: "My dad, he was tanked, he was wasted, he wanted to drive, I let him."

Heard is window dressing while two-time Oscar nominee Hounsou brings gravitas to a thankless role as the mentor.

"Your son is a very good fighter," he tells Margot proudly.

"Something that every mother yearns to hear," she quips. How droll.

  • See it at the Odeon and Empire.