Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 139
Fresh: 94 | Rotten: 45
Mamet's mixed marital arts morality play weaves between action and intellect but doesn't always hit its target.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 10
Mamet's mixed marital arts morality play weaves between action and intellect but doesn't always hit its target.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 21,134
Tim Allen and Chiwetel Ejiofor co-star in writer/director David Mamet's martial arts drama Redbelt. Ejiofor plays Mike Terry, a jujitsu master who co-runs a very modest martial arts studio in Los Angeles with his bossy wife, Sondra (Alice Braga). Mike demonstrates an unwavering commitment to his craft and draws a cadre of defiantly loyal pupils including Joe (Max Martini), an LAPD cop. All told, it appears that he has chosen a peaceful and conflict-free path in life. The dedicated martial
Apr 7, 2008 Wide
Aug 26, 2008
$2.3M
Sony Pictures Classics
All Critics (143) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (98) | Rotten (46) | DVD (10)
What is memorable is the film's portrait of a man of honor in a sleazy world, possibly a metaphor for the struggle of the artist to stay honorable in a world of backbiting, betrayal and hunger for easy money.
The glue that holds it together is Ejiofor's muscular performance as a man whose principles may be about to feel the brass knuckles of reality.
Mamet's love for the sport comes through in every frame.
It's neither uninteresting nor unentertaining, but the plot is as threadbare as an old carpet and Mamet's narrative contortions will leave many viewers scratching their heads.
Ejiofor, a marvelously focused actor whose range and intensity are given a faintly inscrutable edge here, holds the center of the screen.
Redbelt ranks as one of Mamet's lesser efforts as writer and director.
It's always fun to watch the Mamet stock company springing a trap on an unwary victim.
What threatened to be David Mamet's most vainglorious misfire since perpetually casting his wife instead turned into samurai noir -an eloquently profane, profanely eloquent eulogy for the purity of martial arts discipline in the face of profit.
A Kickboxer installment that got too big for its breeches
Redbelt seems like a rush job that relies too much on the quick fix. I'm very willing to suspend my disbelief, but Redbelt becomes outlandish.
This Mametian thriller is worth watching for a terrific performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor, but it's hard to engage with the story and it loses its way in the final act.
The detail and clear devotion he has for the sport may actually have the effect of distancing the rest of audience from his film.
Redbelt, his latest, is a curious one, a movie that hints at greatness only to retreat, unpardonably, into genre convention.
The Mamet rhythms are pleasingly in place: the repetition-rich dialogue, the head-butting close-ups as men go ego to ego.
Exuding inner calm, Ejiofor is great. But he's badly let down by director David Mamet, whose contrived script goes to unbelievable lengths to weaken Mike's resolve.
Not prime, grade-A Mamet, but this meaty martial-arts movie offers heavyweight performances and a deliciously juicy set-up. Things get scrappy in the last act, but you'll want to see how it all unravels.
After the arguably awful "Spartan", writer/director David Mamet delivered this. It could be called a genre picture but if you know Mamet, you'll know he doesn't really follow conventions. Mixed-martial-arts instructor Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has money problems. He could earn $50,000 in a competition, but honour
August 18, 2011Super Reviewer
A Mamet work that is not made in the rhythm of dialogue. It's a melodrama and when the movie does exposition, it's like a joke on melodramas, past and present ( -- it reminded me of the "Wally Beery wrestling picture" the studio boss wanted Barton Fink to write). But when the movie does silences and implications,
March 19, 2011Super Reviewer
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