Directed by David Mamet. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emily Mortimer. Rated PG. Opens Friday, May 9, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

David Mamet’s masculinist concerns are starting to look a little—how shall we put this?—past their manly prime.

As always, there is some pleasure to be had in untangling the writer-director’s spider-web scams, but it’s now such a routine approach for him that you can’t help but think it’s all he can do—like a hair-metal rocker who plays blazing solos but can’t eke out a simple folksong to save his life.

Saving lives—and, more importantly, honour—is what Redbelt’s protagonist is all about. The impressively versatile U.K. actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (great in everything from Serenity to Kinky Boots) plays Mike, a Gulf War veteran and master of Brazilian jujitsu who teaches for love, not money. This is a problem for his wife (Alice Braga), a clothing designer also from Brazil, as she is trying to keep her business and his school afloat even when students aren’t quite footing the bills.

Things come to a head during a confrontation between Mike’s top student, an L.A. cop (Max Martini) with family problems, and a pilled-up attorney (Emily Mortimer) who accidentally damages the dojo. Mike is looking for financial help when he bumps into a big action star (Tim Allen in a rare, and brief, dramatic turn) who is impressed enough to want Mike on his movie team. But the sensei should have come to his senses upon spotting Joe Mantegna as the actor’s go-to business guy.

Since we’re told from the beginning that our muscular hero abhors public competition, viewers can pretty much guess that everything seems to conspire to force him into the ring. But the mixed martial arts, as presented here, are not much more interesting than guys writhing together on the floor, and, anyway, the plot contrivances—involving creepsters played by usual Mamet suspects like Ricky Jay, David Paymer, and Rebecca Pidgeon—in no way resemble life on this planet. This time, at least, the spider is stuck in his own web.