Redbelt (2008)

Redbelt: Directed by David Mamet. With Max Martini, Matt Cable, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice Braga. A fateful event leads to a job in the film business for top mixed-martial arts instructor Mike Terry. Though he refuses to participate in prize bouts, circumstances conspire to force him to consider entering such a competition.

“Mamet discovers cinema.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLetu0026#39;s face it, we need as many serious writers as we can get, even pompous mannered ones. But we all know, and now Mamet himself does, that cinematic devices have almost no similarity to theatrical ones. At least in the modern era. His movies have been better radio plays than movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow he decides to get serious and channels as many great cinematic traditions as he can fit in a single film. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe have the Raging Bull, flying eye sort of movie, where the camera engages in the space of the action. Scorcese hardly invented this, but he and Stallone merged it with the fight movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe have the Zen visual, where the character is supposed to have some transcendental value and we u0026quot;seeu0026quot; it in the environment he sheds. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe have the modern fold where you have a public performance that validates your existence; we have the performance fold — usually a sports movie, where the good guy wins, natch; we have the movie which features movie people and the writing of the movie similar to what we see; and we have the notion of the content of the medium fighting the medium itself, here TeeVee.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMamet chooses to use all three of the big strokes and all three of the folds. It seems a bit desperate.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think you might be better off watching Raging Bull with Ghost Dog.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTedu0026#39;s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.”