Redbelt

The reviews on this site so far cannot be written by anyone who doesn't work for the production company of this movie. It was so incredibly bad; I can't even begin to explain it. I saw it a Theatre in Toronto last night, people were laughing out loud and booing the ending. Do not, despite the rating of this movie, ever see this movie. I've lost an hour and a half of my life to this movie, please don't do the same. I usually use this as a reference for movies, and it's never let me down. But this time it did big time, right now this movie is sitting at a 7.5 and there's absolutely it ranks that high. When this movie comes out on video watch it and see. But never pay the price of movie theatre admission to watch this.

For years now I've believed that Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of the most underrated actors around. For those looking for proof, go no further than Redbelt. He delivers one of the most commanding performances of the decade in this film that brings a man down to his complete boiling point and shows the true virtue of having honor. David Mamet's script is something to swoon over. The writing, as always, is crisp, powerful and well-educated. However for once, the brilliance in his script comes more from the plot than the dialogue. Yes, the dialogue is phenomenal, but there's something in the way that every little scene comes together near the end and results in a huge turning point in the film that amazes me. Early on in the film, attorney Laura Black (Emily Mortimer) stumbles into Mike Terry's (Ejiofor) jiu-jitsu gym and accidentally fires a police officer's gun through a window. She pays to have it fixed and this establishes a bond between her and Terry that grows throughout the film. Ejiofor and Mortimer bounce very well off of each other, each giving an astounding performance. Later that night, Terry goes to his brother-in-law's (Rodrigo Santoro) bar to ask for a loan. His wife (Alice Braga) and him are quickly running out of money and they're hoping for some help to pay the rent. When he's leaving the bar, he sees actor Chet Frank (Tim Allen) getting into a brawl with some guys. Terry steps in and takes the men down, saving Frank. This bond establishes a friendship between Terry and Frank that brings him into a wealthy world full of corruption and dishonor which uses him and his wife up for all they're worth and then throws them out. As an act of gratitude the day after Terry saves Frank, he receives a watch in the mail. To show his appreciation to the police officer for not pressing charges on the attorney who fired a round near him, Terry gives the officer the watch. Now, none of these scenes are made to be epic in any way. They appear as well-written filler throughout the story of Mike being thrown into this world of corruption, but they end up being much more than that. Chet Frank's agent (Joe Mantegna) steals Terry's training regime and sells it to some producers of a mixed martial arts tournament who are looking for a new hook. Black serves as Terry's attorney as they go to sue the producers for stealing his idea, and everything looks like it's going to finally turn in Terry's favor until the opposing attorney reveals that he knows about Black firing the round at the police officer in Terry's gym and all three of them can go to jail if they don't back off. This so magnificently shows the genius in Mamet's writing. Small scenes that appear almost insignificant early on turn into something much greater late in the film. Redbelt is a true success and features a bounty of phenomenal performances. Tim Allen is surprisingly excellent in his first serious role. It's a shame that he disappears halfway through, but it's necessary in terms of story. Mortimer shines, as always, in a role that has an immense amount of depth beneath the surface. The true driving force of the film, though, is Chiwetel Ejiofor. A commanding, stoic force that shows calmness in the first two acts and erupts in the finale. The action is compelling, the performances are extraordinary and the writing is beyond crisp. Redbelt perfectly demonstrates the power of having honor in your body and your mind with a final scene that defines the word 'rewarding'.

just watched this last night. the dialogues are a joke. the whole crowd in the cinema was laughing its arse off at the pseudophilosophic trash that just kept on coming. the plot just jumps into a story that just isn't one. as for the fight scenes, the director obviously tried to create an immediate sense of the fight by using close up camera work and a blurry effect. admittedly jiu jitsu probably isn't easy to portray as epically as say taekwondo or karate. but even the supposedly epic showdown at the end had more of a drunk bar fight. and the moral of the story? you can redeem yourself and make all that has gone wrong good again if you only beat one corrupt guy to a pulp. what a waste of time!

For a fan of MMA like myself, I've been really drooling for a good MMA flick. To satisfy my MMA urges I've put myself through cheesy Bas Rutten flicks (The Eliminator and even The Vault), amazing documentaries (The Smashing Machine), and even rare Japanese flicks (Nagurimono). So this has been a long time coming. A well-made flick, with a well-known director and accomplished actors, this has to be good, right? Well, no, not really. But luck be true, REDBELT was a very good film. The story follows a thoughtful Jiu Jitsu instructor who ends up running into some good luck. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long, and in order to set things right, he will need to cross examine himself and the people around him. Respect, honor, greed, back-stabbing and gratitude rule this film, turning it into an intriguing, emotional and entertaining movie. With fantastic acting by most, smart, realistic writing, and some emotional scenes, REDBELT delivers an especially big wallop on the intimate side. Though, with hyper editing and jerky camera-work used for the MMA scenes, the movie tends not to work as well as I would have liked. For a knowledgeable MMA fan, you'll pick up on all the moves, but for someone who doesn't know about MMA and it's techniques, it may seem like a mess. However, the film is definitely not a mess. Yeah, the ending was a tad too unbelievable, and though the movie shines through it's writing and realistic situations, some scenes felt a little sappy. But the end of the ending was fantastic. Red Belt doesn't fail at being an action flick; it just succeeds more so at being an entertaining drama with an MMA theme. This is an easy movie to recommend, since it's easily recommendable to all people who believe in having good morals. The movie would have been perfect if El Guapo was in it. ;)

I saw this movie and was very pleasantly surprised. I really liked this movie. Although at first I didn't know why. After all, the script, as narrative, is full of holes. Big holes. Without going into details, the initial scene with shot fired has been accurately described as full of holes as swiss cheese. Yet this scene is a key part of the movie, referenced again and again. This is not good. The title, pictures, and promos were all fundamentally misleading. I went expecting a martial arts film. But it turns out to be a drama. If you are looking for martial arts action, you'll come away very, very disappointed. This too is not good. The final sequence is utterly incredible. This has been pointed out again and again. This is a basic plot failure. And this too is not good. And yet ... and yet I came away really, really feeling good about this movie I had just seen. Why? Well, first, if you view the script not as a narrative, but as a sequence of loosely connected scenes designed to evoke one emotion or thought or the other ... like tableaux vivants, or what TS Eliot called objective correlatives ... well, it works. For example, we have a main character stripped of everything in a series of narratively impossible scenes; and yet the emotions involved in "losing everything" are conveyed powerfully and evocatively. Likewise the ending redemptive sequence is narratively incredible; but emotionally very, very satisfying. This is all to the good. The characters, acting, and characterizations were all excellent. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry was superb. And the Mike Terry character is simply a delight, likable, appealing, interesting. Tim Allen was successfully cast against type. Ricky Jay's Marty Brown the sports promoter is utterly slimy and yet I couldn't take my eyes off of him. After every scene, I felt like running to the restroom to wash my hands and face and ears. He is sliminess personified. But all the characters were well drawn whether likable or disgusting. All to the good. The cinematography and scenes were well drawn and well depicted. There were some really gripping, evocative shots I especially like: such as the Tim Allen character in dark profile. All to the good. All in all, I'd say if you like emotion and objective correlatives, I think you'll like this movie. Don't go looking for martial arts, and don't go looking for a sound narrative; but if you want good, solid punch, you've come to the right place.

"Never stop fighting 'til the fight is done." Mamet's Untouchables. From Jackie Chan gymnastics to Crouching Tiger fantasy and all martial arts in between, if you are watching to witness bloody realism, then go to snuff movies because most mainstream filmmakers would wish you to see the metaphor in the mayhem rather than the shock in the schlock. David Mamet's Redbelt is more than a Jiu-Jitsu competition for the highest belt; in the best tradition of complicated fight films, this competition is for the principled soul of academy owner/instructor Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the fight representing a challenge to his long-standing Samurai principle that "a competition is not a fight." Mamet's love affair with crisp crude language (See Spartan and Glengarry Glen Ross for starters) is in this film still a staccato rhythm mixed with minimal dialogue emphasizing the great issues such as authenticity and honesty rather than expletives. Mike is unwittingly thrown into the maelstrom of a con, which he should be able to evade according to his mantra that there is always an escape. The academy needs cash; Terry is maneuvered by slick operatives to fight for $50, 000, contrary to his belief in the authenticity of a real fight and the sham of competition. What happens next is minor for the outcome but major for seeing the corruption of those around the fighter. It's all a house of cards, to pick the title of one of Mamet's challenging films. The playwright, director is constantly facing his heroes with con games that threaten their sense of right in an essentially chaotic universe. Redbelt may be one of Mamet's less dense films, but it still reflects a filmmaker dedicated to unearthing the ambiguity through the metaphors of gritty, violent daily life, in which principle will not always defeat betrayal. I am thankful this film is neither the fantasy of so many Asian martial arts films these days, nor is it the inane romance of Never Back Down. "It is what it is," as today's tough guys might say, and that's a violent concept just right in the age of Iraq and presidential politics.

source: Redbelt

What I know of Mamet is that he is a superb creative person, in both visual and verbal media. His contributions to the stage are legendary. Not to mention his rich personal life. So if you're a Mamet fan or a student of cinema or of dialogue or of acting or of martial arts, see REDBELT (one word). If not don't bother. In the New York Times Mamet wrote about the great Takashi Shimura in Kurosawa's masterpiece (one of many), SEVEN SAMURAI. He wrote of the inevitable sadness in his and in any fighter's face. And by implication, of his goal of capturing that sadness in his movie (written and directed). What he got instead was actors whose faces showed no emotion. Not inner sadness masking the emotion they had trained themselves not to feel--which would require superb acting. But just no expression. The exception was Emily Mortimer who put life and harmony and rhythm on the screen for this movie, but only when she was on screen. And Mamet stalwart Joe Mantegna, whose work of late has been average, does very fine work, renewing my interest in watching CRIMINAL MINDS on TV just to watch him work. MametMantegnaMortimer. Hmmmm? Then there was the fact that, it seemed to me, characters did things that may or may not have had anything to do with the characters themselves, just to move the story or plot or scene forward. That's a writer cheating the viewer as if anything at all can happen, then we have deluded ourselves into thinking we know anything about any of the characters. I have no idea what was behind the pawned watch subplot. But I suspect it was this: And this may be more important than anything I have said above-- It may be that Mamet sees such cynical ugliness and dirtiness in Hollywood and in professional fighting (both part of the same set of ethics) that no plot point is needed to simply tell us, Hey, those are bad people. But if cynicism is what he wants to promote, how's this: I cynically suspect Mamet wrote this story so he could meet some favorite boxers and hang out inside the boxing and martial arts scene. If so, hope he got it out of his system. He's too great a creative person to remember with this chazzerei.

******NOTE: Just as a forewarning, this MAY have a spoiler in it, but I'm trying to be as vague as possible. I saw this movie in a classroom setting, where we watch the film, digest, and discuss a week later. The class had mixed feelings about it...more disliking it than liking it. I understand that David Mamet is a very talented man, and he does a good job of bringing across the central theme of the movie, from beginning to end. The characters were very nuanced individuals and very entertaining ... confusingly engrossing, if you will. Chiwetel Ejiofor turns in a great performance, and Mamet captures intensity on the screen very, very well. However, the movie has a very pivotal turning point towards the end. Mamet does a great job of winding a story seamlessly into a huge culmination of tension towards the end, and at the conclusion..I was stunned. I was laughing, almost in tears, at how *bad* the ending was. Maybe I don't get the genre, maybe I don't understand some of the context that was unspoken throughout the film...but the ending was a very disappointing crown to what could have been an amazing film.

I believe David Mamet did a great job with this film. He managed to show a true art and soul of a real martial artist. This film is not about training, action and competition. It is more about a life of a man who has to challenge his own ideals and manage the turmoil that he is going through. This film is also refreshing due to its Brazilian touch. :-) Casting is great with only one exception - Rodrigo Santoro: I personally don't think he was the right choice for the role he played. Maybe he wasn't "dangerous" enough, don't know, but just didn't fit in right. Otherwise the script is well written and message delivered. May not be the greatest movie, but definitely deserves to be watched.