Redbelt

REDBELT (2008) - Mar. 8, 2011
About a Jiu-jitsu master with a strict honour code (much to his own financial and personal detriment) who finds himself mixed up in the world of professional fighting, this was a really well made film.  Though I was kind of iffy on it at first (David Mamet has that very specific, laboured style that can take some time to get used to), Mamet ultimately does a really great job of establishing this world and the characters who live within it.  The cast, with people like David Paymer, Tim Allen, Joe Mantegna, and a scene-stealing Ricky Jay, is uniformly pretty great.  Then there's Chiwetel Ejiofor in the main role, who gives an absolutely outstanding performance -- one of his best (and I'm now convinced that he would have been a billion times better as Bond than Daniel Craig).  He creates a really compelling character, and the story surrounding him unfolds in a really interesting way.  Good times.  ***1/2