10-09-2012, 09:25 AM
Someone accidentally breaks dojo window; everyone agonizes endlessly over how to fix it. The end.
I've been practicing saying something positive about movies I don't like. This is going to be a tough one. All the major scenes misfired in my brain. The encounter that leads to the broken window seemed incredibly forced, the various people acting out of character to set it up (and it was followed by too many long talky scenes that stopped the story). Tim Allen in the bar just didn't seem to behave rationally. When the cop commits suicide, the wife is furious -- absolutely furious -- that she won't be getting his pension, even with her dear husband still in sight, splayed over the desk covered in blood. And she's angry at Soon-to-Be-Redbelt. Why not be pissed at her husband? He had to know what he was doing to her. Jesus! Her emotions were so wrongly skewed. Then when Soon-to-Be-Redbelt helps the jumpy lady overcome her fears due to a past rape -- well, that just freaked me out, and I really doubt that 9 out of 10 rape councilors recommend that type of confrontational treatment. Then the big tournament where fighters draw balls, and a black one means you will have an arm tied behind your back, or even both arms. It becomes a massacre, which is the whole point among those running the show. They determine who wins and loses. But who in the hell would want to sit through these fights where the drawing of the ball settles the winner, and they needn't even bother climbing into the dodecahedron. Those spectators should have been booing throughout.
I really really dislike paranoia movies. I hated Coma (was that back in the '70s?). I hated Rosemary's Baby. In both of those films the protagonist realizes something is amiss, but no one will believe them, and ultimately it turns out that everyone's in on it, and the protagonist is just really fucked. Redbelt strikes me as totally in that vein. Mr. Soon-to-Be-Redbelt is taken for a ride by everyone involved, even his wife, and it is just a despicable unpleasant vehicle to be in for nearly two hours.
More scenes come to mind that completely misfired for me. I suppose it’s a cliché to say that there were plot holes big enough for a truck to drive through, but it reached the point where trucks were driving through trucks, breaking their windows, and no one quite knew how to put Humpty together again.
I've been practicing saying something positive about movies I don't like. This is going to be a tough one. All the major scenes misfired in my brain. The encounter that leads to the broken window seemed incredibly forced, the various people acting out of character to set it up (and it was followed by too many long talky scenes that stopped the story). Tim Allen in the bar just didn't seem to behave rationally. When the cop commits suicide, the wife is furious -- absolutely furious -- that she won't be getting his pension, even with her dear husband still in sight, splayed over the desk covered in blood. And she's angry at Soon-to-Be-Redbelt. Why not be pissed at her husband? He had to know what he was doing to her. Jesus! Her emotions were so wrongly skewed. Then when Soon-to-Be-Redbelt helps the jumpy lady overcome her fears due to a past rape -- well, that just freaked me out, and I really doubt that 9 out of 10 rape councilors recommend that type of confrontational treatment. Then the big tournament where fighters draw balls, and a black one means you will have an arm tied behind your back, or even both arms. It becomes a massacre, which is the whole point among those running the show. They determine who wins and loses. But who in the hell would want to sit through these fights where the drawing of the ball settles the winner, and they needn't even bother climbing into the dodecahedron. Those spectators should have been booing throughout.
I really really dislike paranoia movies. I hated Coma (was that back in the '70s?). I hated Rosemary's Baby. In both of those films the protagonist realizes something is amiss, but no one will believe them, and ultimately it turns out that everyone's in on it, and the protagonist is just really fucked. Redbelt strikes me as totally in that vein. Mr. Soon-to-Be-Redbelt is taken for a ride by everyone involved, even his wife, and it is just a despicable unpleasant vehicle to be in for nearly two hours.
More scenes come to mind that completely misfired for me. I suppose it’s a cliché to say that there were plot holes big enough for a truck to drive through, but it reached the point where trucks were driving through trucks, breaking their windows, and no one quite knew how to put Humpty together again.