Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40822 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-22
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

DVD Description
For the first time ever the world's top MMA Fighters join forces for their big screen debut in a high octane action epic delving into a blood-thirsty underworld of Mixed Martial Arts. When a sexy promoter lures MMA World Champion, Diego Carter (Echavarria) into the illegal world of underground cage fighting, he quickly realises that he is embroiled in a violent grapple for survival as the fight is taken outside of the octagon and the stakes rise ever higher. Whether he chooses to fight for money, glory or sheer blood lust, one thing is for certain: NEVER SHOW MERCY, NEVER SUBMIT, NEVER SURRENDER!

Synopsis
This intense, bare-knuckle brawler tells the tale of Diego Carter (Hector Echavarria), a legitimate mixed-martial-arts champion who is unwittingly led into a brutal circuit of underground fighting. Fully capable and all too aware of the fact that the only way out is to play by the corrupt promoters' rules, Diego embarks on a mission to destroy his opponents one by one, lest he be destroyed. Gritty and action-packed, NEVER SURRENDER features a cast full of real-life MMA fighters, including George St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Quinton Jackson, Heath Herring, and Anderson Silva.

Customer Reviews

An injustice to MMA
The big challenge for MMA films is that MMA as a sport is, to coin the UFC's slogan, `as real as it gets' and therefore raising the bar for fight scenes - you always expect movies to offer something a little more special than reality - is very difficult. Unfortunately, Never Surrender doesn't even match real MMA fights for brutality or style. Fight choreography is poor, with punches clearly not connecting; you would expect real fighters to not mind taking a tap for the sake of a movie. Anybody who saw Sanchez vs Guida on the UFC TUF finale knows how awesome real MMA fights are and these, quite frankly, don't even come close.

The biggest problem with this movie is the main `star'. What do you do if you are an awesome martial artist but shoddy actor in need of a job? You write your own script and produce and direct it yourself, oh, and make sure you write in lots of hot scenes with beautiful woman! At least that's what seems to have worked for Hector Echavarria, who plays a professional MMA fighter lured into the underworld of MMA where there are apparently no rules, yet everybody wears 4oz gloves and there is surprisingly little blood. Echavarria is a genuine martial artist and has held many titles in kickboxing, Karate and Kung Fu. He has trained Rampage Jackson and BJ Penn along with many other MMA stars of past and present, so it is no surprise that he was able to attract them to this project. It is just unfortunate that this pedigree did not translate into the film and instead we ended up with a movie mongrel.

Christian `The Sandman' Naylor, JVCD's nemesis in the movie Death Warrant, puts in a decent and somewhat typical performance as the evil `Seifer' who organises the underground fights. And surprisingly, despite what other viewers have written, the UFC fighter's aren't that bad actors, they are simply let down by poor fight choreography.

This film may have been okay were it made in the early eighties but the expectations of fight movies today are much higher. I like to feel the adrenaline flow when I watch fight movies and if i'm not jumping around the living room kicking and punching by the end then something is wrong; to say I was firmly slumped on the sofa during this one is an understatement. As much as I hate to admit it, the best MMA film remains the teeny bopper hit: Never Back Down, with Indie movie `Red Belt' a close second, though I await the forthcoming `Fighting' with anticipation. This DVD could have been saved somewhat by some decent extra features but surprisingly there aren't any.

Awful MMA Film
As a fan of the UFC and Martial arts in general I feel I have to warn anyone else who may consider buying ths film.

The plot is, well pretty much non-existant, though to be fair, I dont think anyone ever would have expected otherwise and as such that isnt my main problem with this film.

First off, look at the cover - Quinton "Rampage" Jackson takes up the most of it - wheras in the film I believe he has 2 lines. The same can be said for other UFC martial artists, GSP, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and really the only one with a more stand out role being Heath Herring (who is surprisingly a better actor than the lead role is - not hard in all honesty). The fact that the UFC fighters is what they are trying to sell this film on alone speaks many volumes.

I really cannot stress how bad this film is, and I have seen a hell of a lot of bad films in my time! If you like this film, you clearly have absolutely no appreciation of the sport of MMA and if you are an MMA fan then *please* avoid this like the plague! It is this that makes this a bad film more than anything else - the terrible portreyal of the "fighters" and is just a horrendous ambassador for the sport!

Oh - The awful characters/story/attempt to sell on the strenght of the UFC stars(lets face it - cameo roles) etc asside - the fight scenes are about as convincing as the sex scenes of which there are that many - the film is basically a moderate porn flick.

Just a complete waste of time, so dont waste yours, or your cash on this!

Come Back Van Damme
I never understand why I get sucked into buying these DVDs. Always hoping there might be someone coming along to offer a good action movie. Wrong again. This was the most wasteful offering ever. On all counts. Terrible acting, dialog, canned music. The so-called "fight scenes" must have been arranged by the Chuckle Brothers. Pathetic hardly covers it. Van Damme at least made his fights look good. These were awful.

Hector Echavarria - the whole disaster is down to him. Producer, writer, director, and an actor with less range than a DAB Digital radio. This whole mess was nothing more than a vanity project so he could flash his ultra white teeth and pose for the camera. And let's not forget his desperate need to get his kit off every ten minutes to have the saddest sex scenes ever put on film. I felt sorry for the poor girls who had keep getting their clothes off for his cheesy "sex" scenes. I bet they were glad to get back to their dressing rooms and try to forget what they had just had to perfom.

Some movies give the business a bad name. This botched, lame offering is so low on the scale it makes B movies look good. Let's just hope Never Surrender 2 comes along because if it does I'll be the first to stick my arms in the air and quit.