Powerful

Instant Favorite.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Blistering performances.

Mamet discovers cinema and I looked forward to this! Most of his movies had been like radio plays but not only does the camera move around in this one, there are action scenes!Now, I hate exposition and so does Mamet. What I think he was trying to do here was combine as many genres and traditions as he can in a single film so that the exposition is taken care of.The camera eye is in the middle of all the fights, raging bull style. But scenes where Mike is supposed to be doing transcendental meditiion, the camera is "zen". Then when he has to spring into action, so does the camera.We have a public performance that folds into a sports movie, but the sports is shifted to television medium as part of the noir conspiracy.It doesn't always work and it doesn't tie up all neatly at the end, but it was different and I'd rather see a genius reach for a great idea than the same boring stuff thats always on tee vee.

I liked this movie. It has a good, quite original plot. Good fight sequences and great cast.The plot setup is really intriguing. Very unpredictable and unique, but on the other hand it does look believable. Certainly it's not a casual story, but things happen. Another point for the extra credibility is the character portrayal. Everybody are perfect in their places.I liked the ending as well. It's unpredictable, it looks real and it's satisfying. The only major fault was the suicide, which I found not credible (or it was credible but I didn't understand the related character well - so it's directors' fault as well).Kudos to Chiwetel Ejiofor for his brilliant portrayal of Mike Terry, the main protagonist of the movie. I found him very true and real. It's a very rare kind of person, that doesn't care much about money, prestige or being important. He's very sure and positive. He cares about family, friendship and survival, believing that every situation can be handled.

This atrocity plays like MAD MAGAZINE does martial arts, only with zero sense of humor. Maybe its artsy-fartsy pretentiousness would play better with subtitles, but in English it's a disaster from start to finish. I cannot understand how in the world it got made. Nor, in truth, can I understand how those involved in making it could come to work every day. Indeed I have trouble understanding how in hell I made it through the entire film. I guess the only possible explanation is total disbelief. The plot is preposterous, a character who seem brain dead at one moment prove to be star attorney when it's convenient, and the action is clubfooted at best. As for the dialogue, maybe it's time for Mamet to hang it up -- or at least to head back to the stage.

It seems most people who saw this film really liked it. It also seems that most of those people are really familiar with writer David Mamet's work, and really follow that. Most people give credit for the 'excellence' of this film to the script. I really have to disagree.For me, the film started out really promising. I dig that the main character is too noble for the world around him. I get that the nobility he exhibits and brings out in others seems to just bring them all more pain. There's really some great philosophy and mixed martial arts in the early parts of the film. It's later in the film that everything falters.*****SPOILERS AHEAD***** First off, the whole middle of this film contains little to no action. Fine, fine, but not really satisfying for a film that's all about martial arts. Second, the motivations and machinations of the characters seem too convenient and intricately orchestrated. The whole deus ex machina with Tim Allen's movie star character is just too convenient, and then suddenly there's this masterpiece of a plan involving all the other characters that've been introduced. The lawyer in the beginning suddenly becomes essential at the end, etc. It's all too convenient and sorry, that's just poor writing. The wife abandons the main character pretty quickly and easily...she seems quite loving and concerned in one scene, and then completely done with the relationship the next scene! A world class fighter is going to risk damaging his reputation, getting arrested, and possibly getting really injured all for an out-of-the ring fight?! Why would he jeopardize his career when he clearly only cares about money? The main character wins one fight, and then an old Asian man is hugging him? I live in Japan, old Asian men rarely demonstrate emotion with physical contact, much less to strangers! *****END SPOILERS*******Basically, the whole 2nd half of the movie just seems shoehorned together to pay off the concepts introduced in the first half. For a movie that's so cleverly written in parts, it adopts an extremely convenient viewpoint on how things fit together later. To me, it just became really cheesy and unbelievable. It's a shame too, because it is well-acted and there are a couple moments with some great MMA work. It had a lot of potential, but ultimately it was just frustrating for me. Perhaps I'm just not a big enough Mamet fan.