Review: Redbelt
This was kind of an odd choice for me; as my good friend Justify pointed out, I do not usually take an interest in martial arts movies, so there must have been more to it. I think what grabbed me was the implication of the modern-day warrior living by an outdated code of honor more than any of the action or whatnot. This was done already in Ghost Dog (which is a pretty excellent example of the aforementioned character type- the movie itself is glacially slow-paced and there's virtually no action whatsoever, but the character is incredibly compelling), and I suppose that's what the trailers reminded me of. Sadly, there just isn't quite as much going on under the surface here.
Plot time: Mike Terry (played by the virtually unpronounceable Chiwetel Ejiofor) runs a mixed-martial arts dojo that is slowly sinking under the weight of its bills. This causes some friction between Mike and his wife, who runs a moderately successful fabric business and who's pretty much forced to keep the place operating out of her profit because the dojo makes no money. Mike is completely unconcerned with money, and he refuses to take part in prize fights because he says that such competitions weaken fighters. However, this does not impress the landlords, and through a series of ethical and financial hardships Mike is left with pretty much only one choice- to fight in an MMA competition.
Watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something. It's possible that I just don't have enough familiarity with the MMA sport to recognize some of the players and some of the history going on- particularly the character of the Professor (apparently Mike Terry's master, who appears only once in the movie but is referred to many times). That info isn't really necessary to watch the movie, but it definitely felt like I was lacking something without it. Furthermore, the fight scenes are clearly meant to be as authentic (well, when I say authentic I mean they are meant to replicate actual MMA fights) as possible and have a strong emphasis on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which means for most of us that they are going to be really boring to watch. The last fight is pretty good, but still not particularly flashy or anything. Really the interesting moments of the movie have nothing to do with the action- but the directorial style is so flat those moments barely stand out against the backdrop themselves. I did like the character of Mike Terry- very serene, but possessing great strength and capable of displaying great emotion when it's called for. I think the story could have been interesting in other hands, or perhaps if it was cleaned up a little- there are a few subplots (particularly the romantic one) that look promising when they're introduced, but are pretty much dropped in favor of throwing in another twist on the main plot, until much later in the movie when the characters proceed as though those plots had actually been resolved off-camera. The ending itself is the worst example of this- a main component of the resolution appears to have simply been deleted, so you get the buildup to it, and the results of it, but in between there's nothing there. Tim Allen's character is pretty much a nonentity, and he serves no purpose beyond cranking the plot along another notch or two.
I think the most interesting thing about this movie was reading what other people thought about it on IMDB. My favorite posts threw in the notion that everything that happened in the movie was really supposed to be a test of Mike's character, and everyone from the Professor to Tim Allen's character to his wife was in on it- trying to see if he would make the right choice. I imagine these kind of people as the ones who obsessively go over the Zapruder tapes of JFK's assassination and post 9/11 conspiracy theories on their blog. But I can't help but feel like they're desperately grasping for a complexity to the movie that just isn't there, and they've completely missed the point that none of the problems for Mike are resolved at the end of the movie. He has won the moral victory, but if anything his situation is worse than before. And the problem with moral victories is, they're almost always unsatisfying. I'd rent this one, and even then only if you have a vested interest in MMA.
I think from now on I'm going to start reviewing new DVDs I watch as well, since I go to the theater so infrequently. My definition of new will be anything I've never watched before, or anything I haven't watched in so long that I remember nothing about it. So, stay tuned.
Plot time: Mike Terry (played by the virtually unpronounceable Chiwetel Ejiofor) runs a mixed-martial arts dojo that is slowly sinking under the weight of its bills. This causes some friction between Mike and his wife, who runs a moderately successful fabric business and who's pretty much forced to keep the place operating out of her profit because the dojo makes no money. Mike is completely unconcerned with money, and he refuses to take part in prize fights because he says that such competitions weaken fighters. However, this does not impress the landlords, and through a series of ethical and financial hardships Mike is left with pretty much only one choice- to fight in an MMA competition.
Watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something. It's possible that I just don't have enough familiarity with the MMA sport to recognize some of the players and some of the history going on- particularly the character of the Professor (apparently Mike Terry's master, who appears only once in the movie but is referred to many times). That info isn't really necessary to watch the movie, but it definitely felt like I was lacking something without it. Furthermore, the fight scenes are clearly meant to be as authentic (well, when I say authentic I mean they are meant to replicate actual MMA fights) as possible and have a strong emphasis on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which means for most of us that they are going to be really boring to watch. The last fight is pretty good, but still not particularly flashy or anything. Really the interesting moments of the movie have nothing to do with the action- but the directorial style is so flat those moments barely stand out against the backdrop themselves. I did like the character of Mike Terry- very serene, but possessing great strength and capable of displaying great emotion when it's called for. I think the story could have been interesting in other hands, or perhaps if it was cleaned up a little- there are a few subplots (particularly the romantic one) that look promising when they're introduced, but are pretty much dropped in favor of throwing in another twist on the main plot, until much later in the movie when the characters proceed as though those plots had actually been resolved off-camera. The ending itself is the worst example of this- a main component of the resolution appears to have simply been deleted, so you get the buildup to it, and the results of it, but in between there's nothing there. Tim Allen's character is pretty much a nonentity, and he serves no purpose beyond cranking the plot along another notch or two.
I think the most interesting thing about this movie was reading what other people thought about it on IMDB. My favorite posts threw in the notion that everything that happened in the movie was really supposed to be a test of Mike's character, and everyone from the Professor to Tim Allen's character to his wife was in on it- trying to see if he would make the right choice. I imagine these kind of people as the ones who obsessively go over the Zapruder tapes of JFK's assassination and post 9/11 conspiracy theories on their blog. But I can't help but feel like they're desperately grasping for a complexity to the movie that just isn't there, and they've completely missed the point that none of the problems for Mike are resolved at the end of the movie. He has won the moral victory, but if anything his situation is worse than before. And the problem with moral victories is, they're almost always unsatisfying. I'd rent this one, and even then only if you have a vested interest in MMA.
I think from now on I'm going to start reviewing new DVDs I watch as well, since I go to the theater so infrequently. My definition of new will be anything I've never watched before, or anything I haven't watched in so long that I remember nothing about it. So, stay tuned.