Redbelt 2008

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Like everything Mamet touches, whether predominantly comic or dramatic, this stern cautionary tale concerns whom we can trust (ourselves, if we live by a few simple, honorable rules of conduct) and whom we cannot (others, especially if they're in the film Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: So how's the Mamet Rocky? Fast. Lively. In your face. Very watchable. And, like its predecessors, so bizarrely convoluted it barely holds together on a narrative level. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Ejiofor gives a commanding performance, perfectly calibrated in what's withheld just as much as what's revealed. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: David Mamet's take on the trendy new world of mixed martial arts is a gem not quite like anything I've seen before a" a smart, absorbing, anti-Hollywood, hypermacho look at what it is to be a true martial artist and a man. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: A superior, sophisticated, and unusually gentle character study where the point isn't the twists, so much as watching how one man's belief system holds up through them. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Before it sort of punches itself out in the final few minutes, it's a surprisingly compelling story about honor and betrayal. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: While Redbelt may be a character study in search of a movie, that character feels fresh and real. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: [A] contemporary noir with a samurai movie interior, as sincere, plaintive and strangely optimistic a movie as he's made. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A sour little 70s-style David Mamet play about the lies, calculations, and ice-cold politics of Hollywood. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Mamet toys with this existential dilemma but his heart -- or fist -- isn't in it. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Incompetently made and covered in corn, this is a martial arts movie that makes you yearn for The Karate Kid. Yes, that movie was corny, as well, but at least it was fun. Redbelt isn't fun, just laughable. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: That thing Mamet does he does again with feverish effing commitment in Redbelt, his effing Rocky. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Teeters precariously between Mamet's typically noirish realm and the kick-ass commercial galaxy, looking not quite at home in either. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: David Mamet must have gotten roundhouse kicked in the head to think there was a story worth telling in his latest macho faceoff. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Redbelt fails on nearly every level, from its incoherent story line to its threadbare action sequences. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The only person bruised by the end of the competition is the audience. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: This does seem to be a world Mamet knows well, and every so often we see flashes of the great movie he might have made. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This isn't Mamet at his finest, though, which leaves us with a script that is merely three times as smart as the average feature. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Ejiofor, a marvelously focused actor whose range and intensity are given a faintly inscrutable edge here, holds the center of the screen. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Redbelt's ultimate Ultimate Fight moment feels sorely lacking. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's neither uninteresting nor unentertaining, but the plot is as threadbare as an old carpet and Mamet's narrative contortions will leave many viewers scratching their heads. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: So gifted is Mamet as a writer and director that he can fascinate us even when he's pulling rabbits out of an empty hat. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Mamet's love for the sport comes through in every frame. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Redbelt ranks as one of Mamet's lesser efforts as writer and director. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The glue that holds it together is Ejiofor's muscular performance as a man whose principles may be about to feel the brass knuckles of reality. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: It's still basically a boxing picture, not essentially different from dozens of other movies about life in and around what the old time sportswriters used to call 'the squared circle'. Mamet's circle is, alas, just a little too square. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: The plotting is contrived, the supporting characters two-dimensional, and the ending slides from predictable to absurd to maudlin. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Anchored by a powerful and nuanced performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mamet's latest writing and directing effort is a compelling drama about the world of martial arts fighting. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: In the story of a purist-minded jiu-jitsu instructor trying to keep his distance from the vulgar commercialism of arena-style martial arts competition, David Mamet may have found the ideal metaphor for his own relationship with mainstream Hollywood. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: With his 10th feature -- an entertaining tale of high-stakes martial arts -- Mamet has infused the sleight of hand with a measure of two-fisted action. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: What is memorable is the film's portrait of a man of honor in a sleazy world, possibly a metaphor for the struggle of the artist to stay honorable in a world of backbiting, betrayal and hunger for easy money. Read more