Redbelt (Blu-ray)

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Rather than allowing us to follow the personal journeys of the traumatized woman (who turns out to be an attorney) and her semi-mysterious instructor, we get a familiar tale of fight promoters, loan sharks, tournaments, and redemption. And as for the fight sequences? Lets just say that as the action spills beyond the ring, you can't help but think of WWF wrestling or the ending of "Blazing Saddles."

As martial arts movies go, there are a lot of familiar elements, but Mamet at least tries to cultivate a brooding atmosphere along the lines of "The Hustler" and his dialogue and character development, while it won't win any prizes this time around, are at least more authentic than the formulaic stuff we usually get. But there's plenty of formula here too, and for fans of Mamet or even fans of martial arts flicks, that's the biggest kick in the teeth.

Video:
The 1080p picture looks really nice, especially given the shadows and limited lighting that Mamet prefers to work with. In any given frame the detail is consistently sharp and the colors, though undersaturated in a number of scenes, feel natural given the changing levels of light. Black levels are strong, and there's hardly any grain. "Redbelt" is presented in 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The featured audio is an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby 5.1 TrueHD, which impresses immediately with the background musical score that builds tension as the beginning credits roll. The bass is pulsing, and the spread across the front speakers is nice and wide. Surprisingly, there's not much in the way of rear speaker action--at least until the tournament play. But when things ratchet up a bit, the balance between the musical score and ambient sound is never thrown off.

Extras:
There are a number of bonus features here, including some BD-Live links for those whose home theater systems are also hooked up to the internet. All of this will change, of course, when more Blu-ray drives are installed in computers. Then, suddenly, everyone will check out the Blu-ray exclusive features.

The accessible features include a dry-but-informative Q&A with Mamet that runs just over 25 minutes, in which the writer-director talks mostly about technical decisions and staging the fight sequences. Better is "Inside Mixed Martial Arts," a just under 20-minute feature in which Mamet explains his fascination with Jiu-Jitsu and even demonstrates a few moves. It's a nice all-around feature that brings in talking heads as well, and gives viewers a decent overview of Jiu-Jitsu. The other decent feature is the commentary featuring Mamet and actor Randy Couture, a UFC champion who talks about ultimate fighting as much as Mamet discusses the film. It's worth a listen, especially if you're into martial arts.

The rest of the features disappoint. A trailer? Eh. "The Magic of Cyril Takayama"? It took me longer to type that than it did to watch this under five-minute feature about the stunt slight-of-hand trick that this guy pulled. "An Interview with Dana White"? Another who cares, because all the UFC president does is go on and on about his company and his involvement in the organization. It's a LONG 17 minutes or so. Then there's a "behind the scenes" feature that's really just one of those backslapping cast tributes to the director.

Bottom Line:
"Redbelt" sags a bit around the middle, never delivering on the promise of its opening and degenerating into a seen-it-before fight that doesn't lift or inspire us as much as you suspect Mamet wanted it to.

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