Popular reviews

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  Review by Will Sloan ★★★★

  When the world seeks to entrap and destroy you for your honor and integrity, the only way out is with more honor and integrity, for those are the only things that matter. A great, noble man out of step with his evil and mercenary surroundings, Chiwetel’s character is clearly the Mort Rifkin of the martial world.

  Full of Mamet regulars giving the dialogue and doing the acting. Tim Allen belongs in an S. Craig Zahler movie pronto. Dense with plot and colourful characters, and yet the ending still feels a little abrupt, like reaching the end of a staircase when you expect there’s going to be one more stair.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 6

  strength in rectitude, fortune's reversal, the conservation of movement, leave the outside where it belongs, strike hard, fast, and true -- there is no free lunch in mamet's world, every indulgence must be paid for in the end, every negative balanced by positive -- the way out is the way within, center your body and mind between the exchange of energy, goods and services, emotions, materialism and spirituality -- mamet and johnnie to make two sister martial arts films in redbelt and throw down, both directors who are disciples of kurosawa's lean economy. johnnie to crafts an ode to persistence, mamet directs a thesis statement on insistence -- in this world which binds us to certain obligations, we must try…

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  Review by Adam Nayman ★★★½ 4

  A self-portrait of the artist as a noble, principled  warrior, with a climax set outside the big pay per view showdown - all the better to seal a victory that resonates beyond a corrupt, sensationalistic showbiz milieu. If you were to tell me this was Mandy’s best produced and executed film as a director, I’m not sure I’d argue. It lacks the element of surprise (which carried House of Games) and it’s a strictly B-level cast, but the raggedness of the actors is quite endearing on the whole, with Tim Allen in particular killing it as a parody of ex-action-star sleaze. It’s funny to watch something that was made contemporaneously with Mamet’s rightward heel turn, and feels inflected though not infected by it; compared to truly abject stuff like the Phil Spector movie, it’s not only smarter and better but just so much less *strained.*

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 1

  Insist on the move.

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  Review by ♠ Benja ♠ ★★★

  Mamet's mixed martial arts character study leans on morality and strives for realism, but most of the character introductions and dialogue comes off as awkward. The stacked cast made it interesting enough, especially Tim Allen in a 180-degree turn of a performance, Emily Mortimer skillfully delivering as usual, and Chiwetel Ejiofor's confident turn as the jiu-jitsu instructor driven by integrity.

  Uniformly well performed and entertaining yet odd misfire that adjusted a beautiful takedown only to get self KO'd in the attempt.

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  Review by eddie ★★★★

  all professions are conspiracies against the laity

  the above George Bernard Shaw quote is relayed by Ricky Jay in his Mamet-directed HBO special, which feels essential to the notion of the charade in Mamet's work. in Redbelt, Hollywood and mixed martial arts are the rings of conspiracy that are exposed - but rather than being eaten alive by lies once again, Mamet goes samurai mode for his most cathartic finale.

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  Review by {Todd} ★★½

  "There is no use opposing a force, you might as well run with it or deflect it" - Mike Terry,

  Mamet's dialogue in a fighting film feels about as awkward as Shane Black's dialogue felt in Predator.

  A down on his luck jujitsu instructor reluctantly participates in competitive fights for money. This is done David Mamet style meaning lots of headsy dialogue and characters that are just straight up smarter than you. I don't really understand the point of this film. I'm not sure what it's satirizing or commenting on and the plot isn't strong enough for this to matter to me as a pure action film.

  Not a recommend.

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  Review by Wirthit ★★★ 9

  MAMET-THON #3

  I’m of two minds here. On one hand, I was very, very invested in Redbelt. It absolutely resonated with me.
  On the other, some of Mamet’s shortcomings as a director were frustrating because they held this back from being a legit classic, for me.

  First off, the price of admission is paid by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance alone. Ever since I saw him in Serenity as a teen, I knew this guy had it. I loved seeing him in supporting roles popping up here and there from then on; he always did a great job. So seeing him get a lead role, especially a meaty one like he has here, is a huge treat, personally, for me.

  Redbelt starts…

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  Review by HKFanatic ★★★★

  Well, it only took me a decade, but I finally see the brilliance in "Redbelt"! Rewatching it, I did realize why this failed to land with me in 2012: unlike "Spartan," this really pushes the stylization of David Mamet's theatrical dialogue to the forefront, meaning the human beings in this movie sometimes don't act or speak like human beings. But let me set that aside for a moment and appreciate that "Redbelt" is on the very, very shortlist of Hollywood films that actually tackle the philosophical side of the martial arts.

  This viewing made me realize "Redbelt" is essentially a neo-noir that happens to be set in the world of contemporary mixed martial arts: it's a film about Los Angeles…

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  Review by gibson8 ★★★

  Mamet is a practitioner of Jiu Jitsu, so it seems perfectly understandable that he would want to build a story around the martial art, but Mamet being Mamet, he has to crowbar in a con-element which really doesn't work at all.

  It's almost as though someone else came up with the plot, involving Ejiofor's character descent into desperation, but didn't have the leverage to convince Dave to desist from the usual bells and whistles.

  Ejiofor sounds like the least Mamet character ever and so the other guys parroting the usual clever dialogue seems rather discordant and Ejiofor's quite understated yet accessible ex-Special Forces Mike Ferry isn't as fun as he should be.

  It makes for an uneasy mix and despite…

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  Review by sipovic ★★★ 3

  Хозяину школы джиу-джитсу необходимо выступить на турнире чтобы избежать банкротства.
  Распробовав чистую бэшку, Мэмет не удержался и снял ещё одну, на этот раз про единоборства, которых он, как оказалось, большой любитель. Получился спин классической формулы про каратэ-турниры, с уклоном в драматическую подноготную и рефлексии по поводу чести воина.
  Получилось неплохо, но я, признаться, смотрел с вежливой скукой, потому что на подобное тратишь время либо ради драк, а тут они нормальные, но не впечатляющие, либо ради кумиров детства, а Эйджиофор хоть и хороший актёр, не смотрится в качестве крутого сенсея, поскольку не имеет ореола легитимности, поэтому Норрису или Ван Даму несмотря на их сомнительное актерское мастерство веришь больше, чем хорошему актеру, потренировавшемуся для роли. Да и таланты Мэмета, неожиданно сработавшие в…

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  Review by Rob Hill ★★★★½ 4

  "It's alright; there's no one here but the fighters."

  Jesus, it's even better than I remembered.

  I don't know how many of y'all have been lucky enough to have a real relationship with someone training you to fight. It's... unique, and special. This film gets the feel of it.

  I've been in a few relationship with women who had previously been.... hurt. As a (tiny) part of their recovery, it's hard to see this and not feel things.

  I've got a buddy who sponsors a gym of fighters. Seeing the crap those kids go through... this film gets it. I've seen him take money out his own wallet to stop some stupid, screwed over kid from fighting a cat with…