Redbelt (2008)
Is there room for principle in Los Angeles? Mike Terry teaches jujitsu and barely makes ends meet. His Brazilian wife, whose family promotes fights, wants to see Mike in the ring making money, but to him competition is degrading. A woman sideswipes Mike's car and then, after an odd sequence of events, shoots out the studio's window. Later that evening, Mike rescues an action movie star in a fistfight at a bar. In return, the actor befriends Mike, gives him a gift, offers him work on his newest film, and introduces Mike's wife to his own - the women initiate business dealings. Then, things go sour all at once, Mike's debts mount, and going into the ring may be his only option.
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Crappy film
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
MMA, Bushido and Brazilian Jiu-Jistu seem to set the tone for this movie. A veteran and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor makes bad business deals, unintentionally wrecks his friend's life by giving him stolen property, lies to his insurer about how his school's front window was broken, and to cap it off is alienated and separated from his wife. He's also easily taken advantage of and shares his Bushido-inspired training method with the blind fold martial arts pebble taste test, which is usurped by the bad guy MMA promoters for making up the rules of their tournament. The rules say that the guys who draws the black pebble will fight with a disadvantage. So a guy in the movie with competes with his arm strapped to his side. Wow, really, this MMA card would have to take place in Japan or an Native American casino because no state athletic commission that licenses boxing and MMA would allow something so stupid to took place. Japan loves it's pro wrestling, sumos, and Herculean Western strong men so it's known for it's rock opera and circus-like approach to MMA promotion. Native American reservations are outside of state regulations, but even the more reputable tribal group have their own form of athletic commission for regulations.The problems of the Chiwetel Ejiofor character seem to just drop on him like a pile of bricks. His wife is also painted as a greedy shrew. It's waste of a performance from Ejiofor, who's actually very good in this and comes as capable and honorable. He's just so frustratingly naive and the way his personal and professional life are ruined is so far-fetched. Emily Mortimer is also well cast as a rape survivor and lawyer whom Ejiofor befriends when she wanders into his school for help. The story is supposed a type of honorable-at-all-costs samurai film but just fails with the soap opera-level tragedies the main character endures.
Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) teaches jujitsu in L.A. His wife Sondra (Alice Braga) struggles to pay the bills with her fashion company. Lawyer Laura Black (Emily Mortimer) hits his car and comes into his studio to report it. Police officer Joe Collins touches her from behind and she grabs his gun firing it through the front window. They agree to forget the incident. Mike tries to get a loan from Sondra's brother Ricardo (John Machado) but he only offers him a fight in the undercard. Action star Chet Frank (Tim Allen) gets into a bar fight and Mike saves him. Chet and his wife Zena (Rebecca Pidgeon) befriend Mike and Sondra.Chiwetel Ejiofor's zen-like quality anchors this movie. I like him and Emily Mortimer. However the movie is overstuffed with too many characters and too much plot. It gets too convoluted. I wish Mamet could simplify the story to concentrate on fewer characters. It's still worthwhile but it could be much better.
I liked this movie. It has a good, quite original plot. Good fight sequences and great cast.The plot setup is really intriguing. Very unpredictable and unique, but on the other hand it does look believable. Certainly it's not a casual story, but things happen. Another point for the extra credibility is the character portrayal. Everybody are perfect in their places.I liked the ending as well. It's unpredictable, it looks real and it's satisfying. The only major fault was the suicide, which I found not credible (or it was credible but I didn't understand the related character well - so it's directors' fault as well).Kudos to Chiwetel Ejiofor for his brilliant portrayal of Mike Terry, the main protagonist of the movie. I found him very true and real. It's a very rare kind of person, that doesn't care much about money, prestige or being important. He's very sure and positive. He cares about family, friendship and survival, believing that every situation can be handled.
This atrocity plays like MAD MAGAZINE does martial arts, only with zero sense of humor. Maybe its artsy-fartsy pretentiousness would play better with subtitles, but in English it's a disaster from start to finish. I cannot understand how in the world it got made. Nor, in truth, can I understand how those involved in making it could come to work every day. Indeed I have trouble understanding how in hell I made it through the entire film. I guess the only possible explanation is total disbelief. The plot is preposterous, a character who seem brain dead at one moment prove to be star attorney when it's convenient, and the action is clubfooted at best. As for the dialogue, maybe it's time for Mamet to hang it up -- or at least to head back to the stage.