Chiwetel Ejiofor

Salt

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Salt
  • IMDB: link

Originally intended as a vehicle for Tom Cruise Salt was shelved and then given an impromptu sex change operation to ready the way for Angelina Jolie to headline the shoot ’em up. When your leading man becomes a leading lady the original script by Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet , Street Kings) had to be rewritten by Brian Helgeland (Conspiracy Theory, Assassins, Man on Fire), and director Philip Noyce (The Bone Collector, Clear and Present Danger) was tasked to make it all work. That’s an awful lot of time and effort to put into a project well before shooting was scheduled to begin. Too bad it wasn’t worth it.

Angelina Jolie stars as CIA Agent Evelyn Salt, a fugitive on the run after being accused, by the questionalbe word of a dying former Russian spy (Daniel Olbrychski ), of being part of a top secret Russian sleeper cell doomsday scenario more than three decades in the making.

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Mamet + MMA = Good Times

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Redbelt
  • IMDB: link

redbelt-poster

Okay, I love David Mamet, but at first glance the mixture of Mamet and mixed martial arts sounds like a formula for disaster.  With memories of many horrific MMA themed films running through my head (including Hollywood’s latest blunder) I sat down to see what one of the best writers working today had to say on the subject.  I walked out a very happy man.

Our story centers around Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a guru and owner of a martial arts dojo struggling to get by.

A series of events disrupt Mike’s world and force him to make hard choices about his core beliefs about martial arts, training, and his disdain for competing in staged MMA tournaments.

This is a David Mamet script and, as you would expect, things don’t go from A to B here, and if they do it’s never in a straight line.  There are surprises, twists, and an elaborate con which leaves our hero out of options and at odds with the world and himself.

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Worth a Listen

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Talk to Me
  • IMDb: link

Talk to Me

Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) is a con artist and a convict.  Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works for the local Washington D.C. radio station WOL.  Through a chance meeting as Dewey visits his brother (Mike Epps) in jail a long, and often tumultous, friendship develops between the pair which lands Petey an opportunity as a disk jockey.

Martin Sheen provides a nice supporting performance as the radio station’s manager who is less than thrilled with putting a malcontent ex-con who speaks his mind on the air.  Dewey’s gamble pays off however and Petey provides the voice the station and its listeners have been waiting for.

The film is bursting with great performances.  Aside from the two leads, who will knock your socks off, and the nice turn by Sheen, the film also features Taraji P. Henson as Petey’s girlfriend and Cedric the Entertainer in a humorous and subdued performance as the Nighthawk.  All are terrific.

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