CINAMA: Emotional punch; redbelt 15 ****.

Byline: Roz Laws

WITH a script by David Mamet and a cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emily Mortimer, this thoughtful film is a cut above your average fight movie.

The always-watchable Ejiofor plays martial arts instructor Mike Terry, saddled with a mountain of unpaid bills. He can solve his problems by entering a tournament, but he lives by the high-minded moral code of fighting for honour, not money.

Still, he gets sucked into the Hollywood world of glamour when he saves movie star Chet Frank (Tim Allen, pictured) in a bar brawl. Mike agrees to co-produce Chet's latest action movie, but it doesn't work out quite the way he hoped and he's forced to forego his principles and enter the ring.

Ejiofor delivers a fine performance as a hero sinking beneath the weight of his convictions in a film packed with well-rounded characters and a rousing finale.