Redbelt (2008)

After watching, Gary said "I enjoyed that." When I gave him my no way look, he defended the statement with "Sometimes I'm in the mood to bust on a movie." This made a lot more sense, as we had punctuated most of the scenes with our expressions of disbelief or annoyance. For me, however, the experience was far from enjoyable.

There are tons of movies which deserve to be trashed because they SUCK and then there are movies like this that just feel like missed opportunities: great vibe, good cast, good acting...all forced to support a shtick that makes little sense. Why? What? Huh? to so much of it. Was the movie star and his wife on it? Was the jujitsu dude's wife planning all along? Who was in on what and WHY? Just felt like Mamet wanted to do yet another double-cross con game movie, whether or not it makes any sense in the world of these characters.

Disappointing because it was in an original setting and could have been so good.

C