Is there room for principle in Los Angeles? Mike Terry teaches jujitsu and barely makes ends meet. His Brazilian wife, whose family promotes fights, wants to see Mike in the ring making money, but to him competition is degrading. A woman sideswipes Mike's car and then, after an odd sequence of events, shoots out the studio's window. Later that evening, Mike rescues an action movie star in a fistfight at a bar. In return, the actor befriends Mike, gives him a gift, offers him work on his newest film, and introduces Mike's wife to his own - the women initiate business dealings. Then, things go sour all at once, Mike's debts mount, and going into the ring may be his only option.
Mamet's love for the sport comes through in every frame.
– Ruthe Stein,
San Francisco Chronicle,
9 May 2008
fresh:
David Mamet's take on the trendy new world of mixed martial arts is a gem not quite like anything I've seen before a" a smart, absorbing, anti-Hollywood, hypermacho look at what it is to be a true martial artist and a man.
– Mark Rahner,
Seattle Times,
9 May 2008
fresh:
The glue that holds it together is Ejiofor's muscular performance as a man whose principles may be about to feel the brass knuckles of reality.
– Peter Howell,
Toronto Star,
9 May 2008
fresh:
What is memorable is the film's portrait of a man of honor in a sleazy world, possibly a metaphor for the struggle of the artist to stay honorable in a world of backbiting, betrayal and hunger for easy money.
– Stephen Hunter,
Washington Post,
9 May 2008
rotten:
The plotting is contrived, the supporting characters two-dimensional, and the ending slides from predictable to absurd to maudlin.