Review of Redbelt (2008) by Cynic 7 — 24 Feb 2010

When I heard Mamet was scripting a new Ju-jitsu film I was all over it like white on rice. An Oscar nominated author writing a film involving the exciting world of MMA, what could be better? Well, apparently a lot of things.

First, let's start with the good, shall we?The Ju-Jitsu teacher Mike Terry, played by C. Ejiofor, is quite likeable, doing well along with the rest of the talented cast. Hey, I'm out of good things to say, now what? First, the action scenes are pretty terrible.

They are shot in medium close-ups leaving us no room to see the actor's bodies in action. All we see are strained faces struggling; they could have been stirring Jello for all I know. Second, ALL the characters save the lead are woefully underdeveloped & the plot is so hackneyed its an utter mess.

Mamet has either gotten really lazy at the typewriter or else producing The Unit & training in BJJ has taken up all of his time. I can take a fair amount of suspension of disbelief, we're at the movies after all, but when you have characters changing sides at the drop of a hat with no motive as to why, I get a little pissy.

And seriously, do you have to cast your boring wife, Rebecca Pigeon, in every project you do?Talk about nepotism. Finally, the film is too coincidental, predictable and unbelievable. Hey, let's start fighting in a vomitorium of a huge arena and have it not get broken up by the cops.

That's believable. Perhaps Mamet is trying to say that these big arena promoters are putting on sporting events & have left the origins & philosophy of martial arts behind in the dust, exchanging honor for money? Sure.

And maybe some of these fights are fixed just to create buzz and get people interested.Some probably are. But man, this is one lame film showing it. Mamet, your story is just plain dull. I haven't be so disappointed after a film like this in a long time.

This is a cliched piece of junk. Maybe Mamet should go back to writing for the stage.