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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
90
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
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Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Chop Shop
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Edge of Heaven, The
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Reprise
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Witnesses, The
75
Shotgun Stories
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
Standard Operating Procedure
71
Roman de gare
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
70
Caramel
69
Chicago 10
68
Surfwise
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Jellyfish
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Son of Rambow
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Unsettled
66
Shelter
65
Battle for Haditha
65
Married Life
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
Girls Rock!
60
Body of War
59
Under the Same Moon
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Fugitive Pieces
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Turn the River
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Mister Lonely
55
Noise
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Jihad for Love, A
50
Sangre de mi sangre
50
Look
49
Dark Matter
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Zombie Strippers
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Tashan
xx
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xx
Children of Huang Shi, The
xx
Kiss the Bride
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War, Inc.
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Redbelt
Sony Pictures Classics
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong language
Starring
Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Alice Braga,
Tim Allen,
Emily Mortimer,
Rodrigo Santoro,
Rebecca Pidgeon,
and
Randy Couture
Set on the west side of the Los Angeles fight world, a world inhabited by bouncers, cage fighters, cops, and special forces types, Redbelt is the story of Mike Terry, a jujitsu teacher who has avoided the prize-fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating a self-defense studio with a samurai's code. Terry and his wife, Sondra, struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet. On a dark, rainy night, an accident at the academy between an off-duty officer and a distraught lawyer puts in motion a series of events that will change Terry's life dramatically and introduce him to a world of promoters and to movie star Chet Frank. Faced with this, in order to pay off his debts and regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life. (Sony Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Mamet
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
David Mamet
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: May 2, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
99 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
The film unravels a bit in the last few moments, amid unanswered story questions and a simplistic climax, but until that moment, Redbelt is Mamet's richest film of the decade.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Mamet regulars Ricky Jay and Joe Mantegna blend well with Mamet newbie Tim Allen, a treat as a spoiled-rotten aging Hollywood action star.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Mamet is more respectful than exciting as an action director, but his fascination with how things work, be it the mechanics of designing and promoting a big pay-per-view event or battling a world-class Jiu-jitsu master, makes it all quite mesmerizing.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
As the heart and soul of the film, Chiwetel Ejiofor once again impresses.

80
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
A satisfying, unexpectedly involving B-movie that owes as much to old Hollywood as to Greek tragedy.

80
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Ejiofor brings a calm magnetism and a beatific serenity to his roles that have the effect of knocking you flat -- there's something about this guy that's messianic.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
It's certainly not Mamet's signature rapid-fire dialogue, but it's an intriguing and engrossing departure.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Mamet is on his game, and that is a sight to see. No con.

75
New York Post
Kyle Smith
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.

75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
For whatever its flaws, Redbelt offers up a good deal of Mametian red meat while also trying to break out of some of the strictures that Mamet's erected around his own work.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Entertaining in a pulpy kind of way, like the fight films of the 1930s and '40s, and more accessible than most of Mamet's movies.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
In Redbelt, David Mamet enters the realm of sports drama and Rocky-underdog clichés and discovers it's a surprisingly good fit.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Not everyone can act his material with ease. But Ejiofor, who brings a serene gravity to every exchange, was born to do Mamet.

75
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Mike Terry's uncompromising fight for his principles makes for a fascinating, beautifully acted study in philosophical tension.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
What Redbelt reminded me of more than anything else was a modern version of a classic film noir, particularly 1950's brilliantly seedy "Night and the City," with its pro-wrestling subplot.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes, which piled on developments almost recklessly.

70
Time
Richard Schickel
Despite its novel milieu somehow remains trapped in genre conventions. 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.

70
Newsweek
David Ansen
Thanks to Ejiofor's wonderful performance--his easy, commanding body language wordlessly convinces you of his character's nobility--and Mamet's knowing take on the arcane world of Brazilian jiujitsu, Redbelt never loses its muscular hold on your attention.

70
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
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.

70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
It's a classic fight movie, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as an honorable martial arts instructor...But nesting inside is a sour little 70s-style David Mamet play about the lies, calculations, and ice-cold politics of Hollywood, as the fighter is befriended and then discarded by a callow movie star.

70
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
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.

70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
An absorbing and colorful, if not particularly convincing, excursion into a demi-monde of fighters, scammers, promoters and self-styled modern samurai, Redbelt gives the impression of Mamet coyly toying with the idea of making a populist little-man-against-the-system sports melodrama without actually attempting to create a film for the masses.

70
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
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. But the underpinnings are consistent.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Ejiofor gives a commanding performance, perfectly calibrated in what's withheld just as much as what's revealed.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
In the end, Redbelt prevails, just as Terry teaches his students to prevail, but getting there isn't always pretty.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
One of the problems with the way Mamet resolves Mike's predicament is that it's ridiculously implausible - even in the context of a far-fetched fight story.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Disappointingly unique.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The plot is borderline ridiculous and certainly doesn't stand up to close (or even not-so-close) scrutiny, but there's a level of entertainment to be had watching it unfold in all its strangeness.

63
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
A perverse mixed-martial arts film in which talk trumps action.

60
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Redbelt will fascinate those who share David Mamet's interest in mixed martial arts. But its hold may be weaker on those who don't.

50
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
David Mamet and jujitsu come together in Redbelt, and the result is a draw.

40
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Mamet's trademark artificial, mutual-incomprehension dialogue and con-game plotting are ineptly matched to the action genre (and feel stale in any case), while the jiu-jitsu scenes are so incoherently shot and edited you can't tell if the fight choreography is any good or not.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
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