Another excellent work by David Mamet
Added 10/25/2009
A quick note, primarily just sticking in another 5-star review for this film.
This is a great movie. It is certainly not for everyone- if you are looking for a fighting movie or a martial arts movie you should just forget it. There is some fighting and of course the movie deals very much with the idea of "the warrior", but it is encased in so much dialog and drama that someone looking for a good action flick is really going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, that's what's keeping this movie from getting a higher rating from customers on Amazon--this is a serious and very intellectual film that is not going to appeal to your average popcorn-in-hand viewer, and some of those are giving bad reviews to this film that is quite simply too much for them to appreciate.
There are so many wonderful aspects to this movie, but I'll just mention a few. The lead actor, Mr. Ejiofor is absolutely mesmerizing. Every supporting role is wonderful. The dialog, as usual for Mr. Mamet, cracks like a whip, and the entire movie is filled with an incredible tension and energy. Don't miss the extras. There's an illuminating interview with Mr. Mamet as well as quite a few other excellent pieces.
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Mamet does it again
Added 10/11/2009
You can't really lose with my 3 DAVID'S RULE: Almost any film by Cronenberg, Lynch and Mamet
is competent at a minimum and brilliant at its best. Redbelt is actually one of my favourite
Mamet films because it uses less convention and more novelty in acting, editing and script.
Thankfully, Mamet dispenses with his crisp overlapping dialogue (this is, fortunately, not
one of Mamet's Pinteresque scripts; you can actually follow the dialogue). Chiwetel Ejiofor
is wonderful in this film; possibly his best performance to date. Robert Elswit is the
Cinematographer (need I say more ?) so the visual aspect of the film is first-rate.
All-in-all a very good film.
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"If you want my way, prepare for poverty"
Added 10/8/2009
[...]
It is striking to me in the movie how we see the themes of poverty, greed and honour covered. This was not a movie in praise of MMA or Jiu Jitsu. In fact I saw it as a bucket of cold water thrown into the face of modern day competitive MMA -- That's right Dana White. Mr. White, a former boxing promoter is the Marty Brown in this movie... a modern day Don King. I remember going to Dojos in the 80's. Martial Arts were 50% about self defense, 25% about exercise/working out and 25% about self control, honour, reflection, and spiritual equillibrium. Now it seems most of them have lost the last 25% (with the possible exception of Aikido). This 25% has been replaced with Sport/Money.
Its reflective of the nation as a whole. What's interesting about the movie is that Mike Terry's character seems dead broke, but he's got a strong spirit, more so than the wealthy businessmen in the movie who are desperate for money more than he is. What happened in this country to the Marine motto: "Death before Dishonour"? Ever since Clinton said "I lied to you" on national TV in the late 90's, no one trusts the government, nor our elected officials any more. So much corruption -- Abramahoff, Ney, Stevens, Delay, Blagojevich, Spitzer, Clinton, Libbey, Cheney, etc etc... You can tell in the movie that Terry's character had no taste for borrowing money .. as his wife did from the loan shark.
The corruptibility of money.. another theme. Why is it that we all chase it so badly nowadays. Maybe the elder generation can answer better. My hunch is that since the US Dollar was forced under Nixon to abandon the Gold Standard in the 70's, we have seen so much devaluation, that everyone is terrified of running out of cash. We are all hustling like mad men to make a buck and stay afloat. Look at Gold and Oil.. they tell the story well. I know, the story really goes back to 1913 with the start of the Fed.
This movie also speaks to many who follow MMA regarding why certain styles are not seen in MMA. "Oh if that guy is so good why doesn't he get in the ring". As Terry's character states, its because there are too many rules. Gloves, restarts from the bottom/clinch, time/rounds, all the 30 or so Unified Rules. Its all designed to 1) protect the fighters so they can fulfill their 6 fight 2 yr contracts and 2) create an exciting match! I am happy to see that some of the Martial Arts legends were able to get roles and make some money in this movie. Unlike alot of the other critics, who bash the movie, what do you expect for $7-10m budget? That's peanuts for today's $70m budget films (what Stalone's The Expendables is targeting).
Other observations? I actually liked the ending. There's always an escape. Yes, we know this. As Hadrat Ali (AS) stated: "No problem can withstand the onslaught of sustained thought." Mike Terry understood this as an incremental process of "improving the position". Of not giving up.
I didn't like the death of the blond cop - Max Martini's character, but it speaks an ode to another theme of the movie most people probably didn't get: Reverence and Respect. Respect for the leader, the teacher, yes, the Sensei. Yes, it goes to the fact in the internet era where most people think they can get a Phd from Apple's iTunes U, that real knowledge is passed down from teacher to student, live and in person. Joe Collins had this reverence for Mike Terry. Terry had it for the Professor, enough to go back in in the stadium and risk his life to expose the fraud.
Its usually reserved for people who have excellent scruples and principles -- not just from the Pulpit or the lectern, but in daily life. THIS REQUIRES SACRIFICE. JFK, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Paul Wellstone, these people are martyrs for a reason. The movie reminds me a bit in this respect of ending in the "The Mission". Mike was one of those people in the movie. My point is that today we seem bereft of public leaders who also share this quality - willing to take a bullet for the Cause. This is why the movie had a long wind up to the finale.. character development for Mike Terry. You know a man from his words and his actions. That takes time to witness.
Hopefully America can return to an era espoused in the 2007 Documentary, "In the Shadow of the Moon" where we parade around the world after having landed on the Moon and the foreign crowds yell to the American Astronauts, "We did it!". An era when the whole world looked up to the USA, instead of fearing our 30,000lb MOP bombs that ABC news just started to predict we may use against Iran. We must turn this Ship now before we end up like the Romans. Go to the Collesium in Rome and look at the wall to see the passing of the Roman Empire. You can judge a nation by the way in which it entertains itself. MMA is rapidly growing in popularity. I wonder what this means for us.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Worst movie ever made
Added 9/8/2009
This movie was horribly pretentious and the weird doubling of lines made me gag. For instance, "I want to win a belt." Then suddenly the character would say it again for no reason, "I want to win a belt." It was even more fun when the line included cussing,and so the actor would repeat swearing, which was not necessary. The plot line actually made no sense, and it was really disjointed. For example, one minute we're in a seedy bar, and the next there's a girl at the dojo who wants to take martial arts (sort of). I hope this guy doesn't make films anymore, it was the biggest piece of junk I've ever seen, and I really wanted to like it. It was funny to watch the featurettes to see all the actors praise the writer, when it was horrible writing. The Santa Claus made more sense.
BTW, from a teacher who teaches grappling, BJJ, and filipino martial arts. A lot of the fight scenes are actually Filipino Martial Arts - the ground fighting is BJJ. The weapon fights are all FMA.
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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I had higher expectations for this film!
Added 7/31/2009
A Jui Jitsu trainer, who is living by high principles, gets involved with a gang who are also in the business of Fighting Tournaments. He gets himself into problems when he runs out of cash, his wife is indebted to a loan shark, and one of his troubled students committs suicide. Together with his attorney, whom he kind of helped overcome her phsychological disorder, try to sue the gang for stealing one of his ideas and promoting it into their tournaments. When he realizes he can't defeat them by law, he decides to join their tournament to make money and settle his debts.
The movie is cool in the sense that it displays a lot of Jui Jitsu techniques in action! We see lots of Karate movies, but never a Jui Jitsu one. This film also features Randy Couture, who is a MMA legend.
It was a bit slow and unexciting many times though. I dunno why, but I think the sound effects and the way it got directed could have been the reason. Also, I would have enjoyed it much more if he had played a hero who used his Jui Jitsu to fight crime or whatever, but not to enter an MMA tournament, in which he eventually never fights in it! I also didn't like how this movie gave an idea that MMA tournaments are fixed. They are as Real As It Gets!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Another excellent work by David Mamet
Added 10/25/2009
A quick note, primarily just sticking in another 5-star review for this film.
This is a great movie. It is certainly not for everyone- if you are looking for a fighting movie or a martial arts movie you should just forget it. There is some fighting and of course the movie deals very much with the idea of "the warrior", but it is encased in so much dialog and drama that someone looking for a good action flick is really going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, that's what's keeping this movie from getting a higher rating from customers on Amazon--this is a serious and very intellectual film that is not going to appeal to your average popcorn-in-hand viewer, and some of those are giving bad reviews to this film that is quite simply too much for them to appreciate.
There are so many wonderful aspects to this movie, but I'll just mention a few. The lead actor, Mr. Ejiofor is absolutely mesmerizing. Every supporting role is wonderful. The dialog, as usual for Mr. Mamet, cracks like a whip, and the entire movie is filled with an incredible tension and energy. Don't miss the extras. There's an illuminating interview with Mr. Mamet as well as quite a few other excellent pieces.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Mamet does it again
Added 10/11/2009
You can't really lose with my 3 DAVID'S RULE: Almost any film by Cronenberg, Lynch and Mamet
is competent at a minimum and brilliant at its best. Redbelt is actually one of my favourite
Mamet films because it uses less convention and more novelty in acting, editing and script.
Thankfully, Mamet dispenses with his crisp overlapping dialogue (this is, fortunately, not
one of Mamet's Pinteresque scripts; you can actually follow the dialogue). Chiwetel Ejiofor
is wonderful in this film; possibly his best performance to date. Robert Elswit is the
Cinematographer (need I say more ?) so the visual aspect of the film is first-rate.
All-in-all a very good film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"If you want my way, prepare for poverty"
Added 10/8/2009
[...]
It is striking to me in the movie how we see the themes of poverty, greed and honour covered. This was not a movie in praise of MMA or Jiu Jitsu. In fact I saw it as a bucket of cold water thrown into the face of modern day competitive MMA -- That's right Dana White. Mr. White, a former boxing promoter is the Marty Brown in this movie... a modern day Don King. I remember going to Dojos in the 80's. Martial Arts were 50% about self defense, 25% about exercise/working out and 25% about self control, honour, reflection, and spiritual equillibrium. Now it seems most of them have lost the last 25% (with the possible exception of Aikido). This 25% has been replaced with Sport/Money.
Its reflective of the nation as a whole. What's interesting about the movie is that Mike Terry's character seems dead broke, but he's got a strong spirit, more so than the wealthy businessmen in the movie who are desperate for money more than he is. What happened in this country to the Marine motto: "Death before Dishonour"? Ever since Clinton said "I lied to you" on national TV in the late 90's, no one trusts the government, nor our elected officials any more. So much corruption -- Abramahoff, Ney, Stevens, Delay, Blagojevich, Spitzer, Clinton, Libbey, Cheney, etc etc... You can tell in the movie that Terry's character had no taste for borrowing money .. as his wife did from the loan shark.
The corruptibility of money.. another theme. Why is it that we all chase it so badly nowadays. Maybe the elder generation can answer better. My hunch is that since the US Dollar was forced under Nixon to abandon the Gold Standard in the 70's, we have seen so much devaluation, that everyone is terrified of running out of cash. We are all hustling like mad men to make a buck and stay afloat. Look at Gold and Oil.. they tell the story well. I know, the story really goes back to 1913 with the start of the Fed.
This movie also speaks to many who follow MMA regarding why certain styles are not seen in MMA. "Oh if that guy is so good why doesn't he get in the ring". As Terry's character states, its because there are too many rules. Gloves, restarts from the bottom/clinch, time/rounds, all the 30 or so Unified Rules. Its all designed to 1) protect the fighters so they can fulfill their 6 fight 2 yr contracts and 2) create an exciting match! I am happy to see that some of the Martial Arts legends were able to get roles and make some money in this movie. Unlike alot of the other critics, who bash the movie, what do you expect for $7-10m budget? That's peanuts for today's $70m budget films (what Stalone's The Expendables is targeting).
Other observations? I actually liked the ending. There's always an escape. Yes, we know this. As Hadrat Ali (AS) stated: "No problem can withstand the onslaught of sustained thought." Mike Terry understood this as an incremental process of "improving the position". Of not giving up.
I didn't like the death of the blond cop - Max Martini's character, but it speaks an ode to another theme of the movie most people probably didn't get: Reverence and Respect. Respect for the leader, the teacher, yes, the Sensei. Yes, it goes to the fact in the internet era where most people think they can get a Phd from Apple's iTunes U, that real knowledge is passed down from teacher to student, live and in person. Joe Collins had this reverence for Mike Terry. Terry had it for the Professor, enough to go back in in the stadium and risk his life to expose the fraud.
Its usually reserved for people who have excellent scruples and principles -- not just from the Pulpit or the lectern, but in daily life. THIS REQUIRES SACRIFICE. JFK, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Paul Wellstone, these people are martyrs for a reason. The movie reminds me a bit in this respect of ending in the "The Mission". Mike was one of those people in the movie. My point is that today we seem bereft of public leaders who also share this quality - willing to take a bullet for the Cause. This is why the movie had a long wind up to the finale.. character development for Mike Terry. You know a man from his words and his actions. That takes time to witness.
Hopefully America can return to an era espoused in the 2007 Documentary, "In the Shadow of the Moon" where we parade around the world after having landed on the Moon and the foreign crowds yell to the American Astronauts, "We did it!". An era when the whole world looked up to the USA, instead of fearing our 30,000lb MOP bombs that ABC news just started to predict we may use against Iran. We must turn this Ship now before we end up like the Romans. Go to the Collesium in Rome and look at the wall to see the passing of the Roman Empire. You can judge a nation by the way in which it entertains itself. MMA is rapidly growing in popularity. I wonder what this means for us.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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