- Format: DVD
- Rating: PG-13
- Release Date: 5/18/10
- Run Time: 133 min
- Director: Clint Eastwood
Features include:
•MPAA Rating: PG-13
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 113 minutes
If you get caught up in the sweaty fight scenes in Never Back Down--and, despite the formulaic plot, you very likely will--it will be due to the sheer kinetic pleasure of muscular bodies in motion. Jake (Tom Cruise look-alike Sean Faris, Yours, Mine, and Ours), full of anger after his father's deat! h, starts to find a place for himself at his new Florida high school--until Ryan, the head of an underground mixed-martial arts (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), picks Jake out as a prime opponent. After being trounced by Ryan in front of everyone in school, Jake begins training under the firm, moral guidance of a martial arts master with a hidden past (Djimon Hounsou, a long way from Blood Diamond, but still bringing his essential gravitas to the screen). Basically, Never Back Down boils down to a cross between The Karate Kid and Fight Club, minus the sociopolitical commentary. The story and characters are a bundle of featherweight cliches, but that won't stop the aggressively edited fight sequences from stoking a viewer's adrenaline. Also starring Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as the very blonde love interest, who (along with an abundance of girls in bikinis--'cause, y'know, it's Florida) is there to assure everyone that thes! e handsome, chiseled boys are strictly heterosexual. --Bret! Fetzer< /I>In six years of coaching, Grant Taylor has never led his Shiloh Eagles to a winning season. After learning that he and his wife Brooke face infertility, Grant discovers that a group of fathers are secretly organizing to have him dismissed as head coach. Devastated by his circumstances, he cries out to God in desperation. When Grant receives a message from an unexpected visitor, he searches for a stronger purpose for his football team. He dares to challenge his players to believe God for the impossible on and off the field. When faced with unbelievable odds, the Eagles must step up to their greatest test of strength and courage.'Try' is the inspirational journey of three American rugby players pursuing their dream of representing their country in the world's third most popular sporting event- the Rugby World Cup.
Their story of sacrifice will inspire the most hardened of cynics as you travel with them through many ups and downs as each player strives to become a ! `USA Eagle', a group of men who play the world's toughest brand of football truly for the pure love and respect of the game.
And despite representing the world's richest country while playing one of the globe's most popular sports, most will not earn a cent while competing against fully professional sides.
Dan Payne, a former amateur wrestler who came within seconds of realizing his Olympic dream, has one final chance to complete a pact he made with his brother to make the USA Rugby team and represent his country at the highest levels of sport.
Latu Paloka is an Iraq war veteran, whose best friend died in his arms after being ambushed while on patrol. His goal is to make the national squad in honor of his fallen friend and to give the military a much needed morale boost.
Jarvis Albury, a brilliant athlete and vivacious personality who always looks to the future despite his tough past, has turned down lucrative opportunities with other ! professional sports for the chance to compete on the sport's b! iggest i nternational stage.
But just as it appears likely they will finally achieve their dream, fate deals a cruel hand and one will have to make the most difficult decision of his life.
`Try' reminds us all what true sport and sportsmanship were meant to be.
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.What does Nelson Mandela do after becoming president of South Africa? He rejects revenge, forgives oppressors who jailed him 27 years for his fight against apartheid and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place: the rugby field. Clint Eastwood (named 2009's Best Director by the National Board of Review) directs an uplifting film about a team and a people inspired to greatness. Morgan Freeman (NBR's Best Actor Award winner and Oscar nominee for this role) is Mandela, who asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the! impossible and win the World Cup. Prepare to be moved--and thrilled.After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a com! bination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their id! eologica l differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable," from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. If Damon's accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film's heart--and as a timely reminder that reconciliation is never easy, but that it will always trump revenge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
| Tweet |
0 comments: