ricky jay Tagged Articles at Cinematical

One of the challenges of being a great artist is that not all of your art is going to be great. The Beatles wrote several songs that lesser acts would have turned into careers, but that nonetheless lack the power of "Yesterday" or the joy of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"; George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier is an excellent work of journalism, but not nearly as good as Homage to Catalonia. Redbelt, the latest film from writer-director David Mamet, is not as impressive or thought-provoking as some of his other dramatic works, like Glengarry Glen Ross or House of Games or Oleanna; at the same time, it's an exciting, engaging mix of drama and action supported by an immensely appealing lead performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Children of Men).

Redbelt's subject and setting may make it seem incongruous -- Why is one of America's greatest playwrights making a film about mixed martial arts and Jiu-jitsu? -- but it's actually in keeping with Mamet's other recent entertainments like Spartan, his work as a co-creator of The Unit and his pseudonymous work on the screenplay for Ronin. Redbelt fits in with these projects: They have a kind of heroic stoicism under them; they're stories of honorable men in a dishonorable world. They've all got a kind of muscular poetry, too, a hard-bitten nobility that's still a little sad about the edges.

Here it is. Just as it was gratifying to see all the hallmarks of the X-Files franchise in the X-Files 2 trailer we linked to yesterday (it's since been pulled, but will no doubt reappear in studio-sanctioned form soon), it's great to see all the David Mamet staples pop up here. Hey, there's Ricky Jay, and Joe Mantegna, and Rebecca Pidgeon! Magic tricks! Macho posturing! Hints of cons, and cons within cons! Best of all, we get to hear a little bit of that unmistakable clipped Mamet-speak:

"Excuse me. Uh, who's the...?"
"It's alright. Come in."
"I believe I..."
"Hey Joe, take the lady's coat!"

Music to my ears. And far from straying from his usual milieu with the mixed martial arts angle, Mamet seems to have used it to create another of his shady underworlds where nothing is as it seems. For fans of the man's work, watching this trailer is like settling into a comfy old recliner.

When David Mamet is on, he is one of our finest writers. His script for Glengarry Glen Ross should be required reading for anyone aspiring to write for stage or screen. Mamet has put words in the mouths of some of the greatest actors in film history: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, and now ... Tim Allen? It's true, Allen will star in Mamet's Redbelt. And it gets stranger -- the film is a "martial arts drama." I'm quite serious. Mamet wrote and will direct the film, which co-stars Children of Men's Chiwetel Ejiofor. Rounding out the cast are Emily "Brittle Bones" Mortimer, City of God's Alice Braga, 300's Rodrigo Santoro, Crank's Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Mamet regulars Ricky Jay, David Paymer, Joe "Fat Tony" Mantegna and Rebecca "Mrs. Mamet" Pidgeon. If that cast isn't crowded enough for you, the film also stars "martial artists and fighters" Randy Couture, John Machado, Danny Inosanto, Enson Inoue, and Ray Mancini.

According to imdb, Redbelt is "the story of Mike Terry (Ejiofor), a Jiu-jitsu master who has avoided the prize fighting circuit, choosing to instead pursue a life of honor and education by operating a self-defense studio in Los Angeles. Terry's life is dramatically changed, however, when he is conned by a cabal of movie stars and promoters. In order to pay off his debts and regain his honor Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life." Allen will play "a troubled action star with marital problems who meets the master when he is getting pummeled in a street fight." I'm sorry, doesn't this sound like something Jean-Claude Van Damme and Gary Busey would have starred in back in 1988? And, you know, I was just about to close this article with a line about how I'm not worried because you can usually trust Mamet to deliver the goods, but then I noticed his next project is something called Joan of Bark: The Dog that Saved France! If this is an Air Bud sequel, we'll know the guy has officially lost his mind.

Holy. Crap. It's official: I'm in full freak-out mode about The Prestige. Before, I was just hopeful, and excited about the prospect of a weird, complex, fascinating book being turned into a movie by Christopher Nolan, with a cast made up of folks like Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine. Now that I've seen the trailer, however, I'm afraid I'm not going to have a moment of peace from my anticipation until the movie opens this fall -- it looks that good.

For those of you who read and loved Christopher Priest's novel, the trailer is a revelation (at least it was for me): I have chill on top of my chills right now, from the simple thrill of seeing the novel brought to life so vividly and effectively. Putting some of the book's diary musings into Cutter's (Caine's) mouth seems to work surprisingly well, and Jackman and Bale look fantastic. Plus: Bowie! Tesla's light bulbs! And was that Ricky Jay?! I mean, seriously. This could only be better if it came with chocolate cake.

The Prestige opens October 27.

[via AICN]