Chicken Soup reviews the movie, "Never Back Down"

Karate Kid was a bad movie with a bad message. Never Back Down was ten times worse and sent the same message on steroids. Remember kids...every petty disagreement must be escalated until at least one person is injured or killed or you won't be a man.

Sean Faris plays Jake Tyler, a quick tempered high school football player who likes to hurt people. Someone shot a video of him beating another player during a game and posted it on the internet. His mother moves the family from Iowa to Florida in order to give Jake's younger brother a shot at a professional tennis career. Jake must now fit in with an entirely new group of students who know almost nothing about him...almost nothing. About all his new fellow students know about him is based upon the video of him fighting. In one memorable scene Jake is strolling down the hallway while an endless parade of hot looking girls give him sultry looks as they watch the video on their cellphones.

The message here is that pretty girls won't give you a second look unless you're a violent sociopath.

Speaking of pretty girls...Amber Heard plays Baja Miller, a thoroughly hateworthy steroid whore who flirtatiously invites Jake the steroid Tyler to a "party" and hands him a small piece of paper with the address on it. Jake goes to the "party" which is set on the grounds of what looks like a mansion. Cam Gigandet plays Ryan McCarthy, the school fighting champion and all around sociopath. Ryan shows Jake around the estate where teenagers are landing what the military would describe as killing blows on other teenagers, seemingly without causing much harm. Then Ryan leads Jake into a room and tells him that he has to fight. This is where Jake learns that he's been set up by Baja Miller who turns out to be Ryan's girlfriend. Baja Miller belongs to the demographic group I describe as "female sociopaths" in my Chicken Soup with the Bully Enablers post. A circle of teenagers closes around them and Jake the steroid Tyler is beaten badly enough to put any ordinary human in the ICU for a long time. Apparently Jake is no ordinary human. The next scene shows Jake waking up with a black eye and a bruised face and his younger brother asking him what the other guy looks like. Amazingly his injuries appear to heal with astounding swiftness.

Yeah, right.

Jake is introduced to an MMA trainer who agrees to train him if he avoids fighting outside of the gym. Jake agrees but ends up taking on three guys who jump out of a manly Humvee and thoroughly defeating them.

What a man.

When the video of that fight hits the internet one teenaged member of the student body can be heard exclaiming, "I heard one of them might die."

What a man.

Oddly, no member of the law enforcement community seems remotely interested in what's going on in their community. In fact there's a stunning absense of adult involvement anywhere in the movie.

I'll wrap this up.

Baja the airhead Miller, suddenly figures out that Ryan "is only happy when he's hurting someone." Apparently she wasn't clued in earlier in their relationship by his choice of hobbies. By the end of the movie Jake the steroid finally proves his worthiness as a man by beating Ryan the sociopath in a fight. Then Baja the steroid whore chooses the new reigning sociopath to be her boyfriend.

Aside from reinforcing the mysogynist's belief that all women are soulless whores who devote their youth to servicing the most violent males they can find, this movie sends the same bad message found in Karate Kid. If you're being victimized by a violent bully, the answer is to become a more highly skilled fighter and then...and only then will you be respected.

Why don't we just close down our prison system and fire all of our law enforcement personnel and declare America to be a jungle where the smallest, weakest, least violent males are as unworthy of life as a Jew at a Klan rally.

As always...domestic terrorists can sleep soundly.

Chicken Soup with Thomas Junta...

A couple of co-workers were discussing the behavior of some of the parents in their local children's hockey league the other day. Words like "jerk" and "moron" were used. Needless to say this reminded me of Thomas Junta of Reading, Massachusetts.

Back on July 5, 2000 Thomas Junta (270 pounds of pure manliness) sat on top of 165 pound Michael Costin and beat him to death at an ice rink after a children's hockey practice. Does it get any more manly than that? Apparently Junta was angry about the way Costin was coaching or refereeing his 10 year old son's game and complained about it. Costin then allegedly attacked Junta after he came back into the building looking for his son, a scenario that suggests a complete lack of sense on Costin's part. And to be fair here, Costin appears to have been something of a violent moron himself. This time he paid with his life. Junta was eventually convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter and sentenced to 6 to 10 years. He ended up serving about 8 years and was released on August 27, 2010.

This might be just another routine story about a run-of-the-mill sociopath with a sperm count except for the bizarre interpretation of the crime described in Wikipedia. Obviously the Wkipedia article wasn't produced by a journalist. The writer emphasizes the claim that Junta (270 pounds of pure manliness) was only defending himself against an attack by 165 pound Thomas Costin, something he could have easily done by giving Costin a good shove. He/she then implies that Costin was somehow unworthy or weak or otherwise not qualified to be called a man by stating that his injuries "were nothing more than the result of three punches." Obviously Costin was unworthy of life due to his inability to take a few punches and learn his lesson. I suspect that a close relative wrote it.

I've repeatedly emphasized my belief that bullies and most other violent criminals are the product of criminally incompetent parents so I wasn't surprised to learn that Thomas Junta's son, Quintas Junta was arrested for staging an armed home invasion. Then Quintas Junta was found dead, presumably from a drug overdose. I wasn't surprised by the behavior of Michael Costin's son either. Apparently he likes to abuse his girlfriend and according to this article he spent a little time with his own kind for it.

After reading a variety of articles (Google "Thomas Junta.") it looks like all parties involved have criminal records and long histories of abusive behavior. This story is about an unremarkable collection of violent meatheads but I was a bit disturbed by the opinions of a few close acquaintances. Three male and one female acquaintance of mine expressed surprise and disappointment with the fact that Thomas Junta was going to actually serve prison time. All four of them expressed the opinion (separately) that it was just a fight and that junta should go free. One of the males justified what Junta did with a shrug of his shoulders and the partial statement, "once the adrenaline starts flowing...you know..." I haven't been in contact with three of these people in years, but adrenaline man was convicted of a double homicide a few years back and won't be leaving prison until he's dead. I'm starting to wonder what went on in the house next door all those years ago.

This weblog is mostly about the public's tendency to favor violent males and rationalize that the victim somehow brought it on himself. Unlike most of the other sociopaths who've graced this weblog, Junta did not appear to have much of a following outside of his family. It was the fact that four people whom I'd previously thought of as mentally stable and reasonably civilized all wanted to see a 270 sociopath go free that reinforced my low opinion of humanity in general and reminded me of The Rule of Most:

"Most people can be relied upon to behave in a manner that is Mostly civilized Most of the time. But, you can reasonably expect anyone to turn on you at any time for the pettiest of reasons."

Domestic Terrorists aren't insane. They simply understand that people are really dumb, violent animals at heart, only slightly more civilized than chimpanzees.

Chicken Soup answers a question...

After reading through this weblog, an acquaintance of mine asked why I hate America so much. I wasn't aware that I was leaving that impression on readers so I'll try to clear things up.

A long time ago I read a memorable quote in a newspaper. A woman who managed to escape the Soviet Union and settle in the United States remarked that she didn't worry about the American government punishing her for expressing an opinion. She worried about what her neighbors would do. Her observation of American culture stayed with me for a long time.

I don't hate America or the American form of government. I firmly believe that America is a good step along the way to civilizing our species. What I hate is the overwhelming tendency of Americans to praise and reward violent criminals and blame their behavior on the victims. If you're under the opinion that you've never rewarded criminals or blamed victims, read this and then read about this gem of the American Family and decide for yourself.