Haywire (2011)

Despite the excellent cast (except for Ms. Carano who simply is not an actor by any standard, even Ed Wood's) and director's efforts, this movie is almost awful. Most of the time nothing really happens and so called fights are obviously designed for (again) Ms. Carano. What is she doing in this movie (or in any, for that matter), especially as a main character? No acting abilities, fights and wins opponents who could "eat her for breakfast" and so on. But she can run. Maybe look good (depending on the taste). That's it basically. Writers of this movie should be put before the firing squad and/or prohibited to work anywhere and anyhow. Ms Carano should remain in C or D movies, where she belongs. Other cast - shame on you for participating in this waste of time. No, salary is not an excuse.

With Steven Soderburgh at the helm and a multi A-list line up (Ewen MacGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton & Channing Tatum), this should have been far far better than it turned out to be. That being said, it's largely unknown main player Gina Corano does a fantastic job in the lead role. The extras on the DVD would suggest that this whole project was built around her, which is amazing in itself, using an amazing amount of recognised talent around somebody who was only really previously known as an MMA fighter. She was obviously unphased by all this and easily comes out as the star of the show. The plot is a little confusing at first, but given that it was a mere 88 minutes long, it soon pieces itself together. Most of the main stars roles, apart from MacGregor, are not very big at all but it's not the acting that is the fault here....it's the character building. Basically, there isn't any at all (probably due to the films length), which suggests to me that Soderburgh could have made a longer, more intriguing movie. The films premise is quite intriguing itself, but it's lack of feeling leaves the viewer a little flat. Soderburgh does not however focus on Corano's fighting talents alone.....to me he has helped to create a very good actress and this reflects in some of the films that she has appeared in since. To sum up....I found this quite a good spy thriller, but in the main I was left a little disappointed when there was so much talent on show.

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a private special ops contractor who works for governments in their black secret ops. She fights with fellow contractor Aaron (Channing Tatum) and escape with civilian Scott (Michael Angarano). She tells him the story behind the fight. US government Coblenz (Michael Douglas) hires Kane and others including Aaron to rescue Jiang being held in Barcelona. Afterward, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) assigns her to pose as the wife of British MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender) during a mission in Dublin.Director Steven Soderbergh brings his A-list friends to play along with Gina Carano. She is the heart and it's a robotic one. She would be a good Terminator but she's not an actual actress. Her one big advantage is her fighting abilities. She can really hit and more importantly, she can really get hit. It makes the fight scenes that much more exciting. This movie has about 20 minutes of amazing fight footage. The rest has Soderbergh's style and good work but also Carano's wooden facial expressions. I wonder if the movie could be better with Carano as a silent killer.

In typical Soderbergh fashion, it takes a couple of viewings to sort out all of the plot's twists. It's easy to get left behind; the time shifts and the quiet moments of dialogue can trip up a viewer, but it's a slick little thriller. I happen to love Gina Carano in this role; maybe she's not the most flexible line-reader but in her character, it works, and she pulls off the action sequences beautifully. I also was amazed at the star power in the supporting roles. The soundtrack is excellent as well. In short, this is exactly the kind of spy thriller you'd expect from the guy who made Out Of Sight, Ocean's 11-13, Traffic, etc.