Commit to the Move. You Know the Escape.

May 24th, 2008

Awesome.

This is not David Mamet’s best film. It’s not even in the top 10. But I urge you to give “Redbelt” a chance. I know the premise seems ridiculous. And it’s going to help if you’re no stranger to watching martial arts on the big screen. Or, perhaps, if you have a bit of martial arts lurking in your grade-school past. But even if the floor grappling and asphyxiating chokeholds don’t impress you, this is a Mamet script through and through. The trademark line delivery. Deception everywhere. And tons of badass macho lines.

After the final scene, a woman in the seat behind me leaned to her husband: “What? We’re going to have to talk about this later.” I had to keep myself from starting one of those rounds of slow applause.