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Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This movie is a solid martial arts drama mainly for Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance in the role of Mike Terry, the owner and head instructor of a failing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts school. His wife, Sondra (played by City of God's Alice Braga), has a small fashion designing business that allows them to stay afloat financially. Sondra, however, comes across as greedy and indeed a little shrewish. It seems every possible new person Mike meets and even his in-laws are trying to take advantage of him and screw him over personally and financially. It's frustrating how easy it was for people to do this to Mike. His past as a bouncer, martial arts teacher, and veteran would allow him to spot a con but no. Mike enters into a rigged mixed martial arts tournament after a personal tragedy sees his wife leave, leaving him in desperate need of money. It's a slightly silly homage to the samurai films of Kurosawa and maybe a cynical twist on the idea of the white knight trying to solve everyone's problems for them. No fighter would compete with the kind of disadvantage like the the one shown in this movie, a fighter has his arm strapped behind his back. It wouldn't be allowed by any reputable state athletic commission that licenses and sanctions MMA events.

Not loving this film was almost enough to make this reviewer forgo movies and go back to comic books (which, they tell me, are now called Graphic Novels, and that tells you how old I am.) The pedigree is to die for. David Mamet is not only considered one of the greatest writers of our time but the cadences he uses in his work (especially the repetitive phrases) are almost "trademark." On more than one occasion I have intruded on someone watching a Mamet film adaptation and within moments identified the film not because of the actor, but simply because of the speech cadences. And then you have Chiwetel Ejiofor, who may possibly never have given a bad performance in his life -- his work for example in Whedon's Serenity is nothing less than mesmerizing. And finally you have the subject matter. Mamet usually likes to under-promise and over-deliver, contenting himself with mild suspense themes, usually involving some sort of "long con" with a "big reveal." But here he takes on the big boys and attempts an actioner, martial arts no less. I was in the theatre for the very first showing of this film in Toronto. The matinée, as I recall. That's how much I wanted to love this film. But I didn't. It is workable, it holds together well, the payoff is adequate, but overall the "tall tale" of the overlooked martial artist with the high ideals was slightly off-note. Even to this day, I am not sure if the problem was in the direction or the story or both. So, having unburdened myself, I will leave the final analysis to future viewers like yourself. This should have been one of the greatest films of all time. But it missed.

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.

It's not very often that a film comes along about a martial art that is still relatively unknown and it actually pulls it off quite well. The jiu jitsu in the movie is done pretty well and the plot is really actually quite good. Obviously you wont be sitting there watching a performance as good as De Niro in Cape Fear or anything like that. It was a straight to DVD release because it lacks star power, noteworthy performances, or flashy special effects. Know that, and be a fan of jiu jitsu or even a practitioner, and you should enjoy this movie. It's very nice to see an aspect of MMA that really birthed the sport, and it be done justice.