Haywire (2012) directed by Steven Soderbergh
Some of my favorite movies in recent years have involved girls kicking ass. There is something insanely cool about seeing a girl duke it out with the guys and this isn't just a recent phenomenon; it dates all the way back to the myth of the Amazon. Haywire is just a variation of the female revenge story that has the heroine defeating foe after foe in a series of extended fight sequences and she takes down a mighty impressive list of guys including Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor.
The film starts off with the heroine Mallory sitting alone at a diner waiting for someone. Aaron (Tatum) walks in and sits down with her and the two exchange a cryptic conversation that we don't know the details to. Before you know it he suddenly attacks her and the two engage in an all out brawl. The way this scene is set up, you can tell that it belongs somewhere in the middle of the film and we must figure out all the events that led to a man suddenly trying to kill a woman in a MMA style fight. Much of the story is told in flashback and we learn that Mallory is a professional soldier/secret agent contracted by the government and suddenly all the people she thought she could trust are trying to kill her after a mission in Barcelona.
I've never even heard of Gina Carano before (I don't follow MMA) but I was immediately struck by her strong features. She is clearly an athlete (she doesn't have a model's body) but she also has a natural beauty to her. I guess I'd categorize her as the cute tomboy type. This is her first major role and she seems like a natural on screen, at least when it comes to the fighting. No, she's not a great actress, she has a sort of uptight delivery in her voice, but she's not horrible either and is comfortable in the range given to her. But you didn't come to watch he win an Oscar, you came to see her kick ass.
In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a kind of no holds barred fist fight in their house that quite frankly is a little unbelievable because we've seen Brad Pitt's rippling body in Fight Club and Troy and we can see how rail thin Angelina Jolie is. Despite how much furniture they break, the scene itself isn't all that physical, partly because neither are really trained fighters but more importantly you know there's no way she would stand a chance against him in real life.
In Haywire, Gina Carano goes at it hard. These are brutal and physically demanding fight scenes that don't pussyfoot around. The fight scenes she has with Tatum and Fassbender are both long and shot without any sense of drama or pretense; they look like real fights where they are trying to kill each other.
At its heart, Haywire is a kind of shallow action flick but it is actually quite sharply directed by Steven Soderbergh who adds a sense of style to the film. The screenplay has more intricacies to it than the plot description would have you to believe and the film features an all-star cast. And if this film is any indication, we may have a genuine female action star in Gina Carano.
Grade: B
Some of my favorite movies in recent years have involved girls kicking ass. There is something insanely cool about seeing a girl duke it out with the guys and this isn't just a recent phenomenon; it dates all the way back to the myth of the Amazon. Haywire is just a variation of the female revenge story that has the heroine defeating foe after foe in a series of extended fight sequences and she takes down a mighty impressive list of guys including Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor.
The film starts off with the heroine Mallory sitting alone at a diner waiting for someone. Aaron (Tatum) walks in and sits down with her and the two exchange a cryptic conversation that we don't know the details to. Before you know it he suddenly attacks her and the two engage in an all out brawl. The way this scene is set up, you can tell that it belongs somewhere in the middle of the film and we must figure out all the events that led to a man suddenly trying to kill a woman in a MMA style fight. Much of the story is told in flashback and we learn that Mallory is a professional soldier/secret agent contracted by the government and suddenly all the people she thought she could trust are trying to kill her after a mission in Barcelona.
I've never even heard of Gina Carano before (I don't follow MMA) but I was immediately struck by her strong features. She is clearly an athlete (she doesn't have a model's body) but she also has a natural beauty to her. I guess I'd categorize her as the cute tomboy type. This is her first major role and she seems like a natural on screen, at least when it comes to the fighting. No, she's not a great actress, she has a sort of uptight delivery in her voice, but she's not horrible either and is comfortable in the range given to her. But you didn't come to watch he win an Oscar, you came to see her kick ass.
In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a kind of no holds barred fist fight in their house that quite frankly is a little unbelievable because we've seen Brad Pitt's rippling body in Fight Club and Troy and we can see how rail thin Angelina Jolie is. Despite how much furniture they break, the scene itself isn't all that physical, partly because neither are really trained fighters but more importantly you know there's no way she would stand a chance against him in real life.
In Haywire, Gina Carano goes at it hard. These are brutal and physically demanding fight scenes that don't pussyfoot around. The fight scenes she has with Tatum and Fassbender are both long and shot without any sense of drama or pretense; they look like real fights where they are trying to kill each other.
At its heart, Haywire is a kind of shallow action flick but it is actually quite sharply directed by Steven Soderbergh who adds a sense of style to the film. The screenplay has more intricacies to it than the plot description would have you to believe and the film features an all-star cast. And if this film is any indication, we may have a genuine female action star in Gina Carano.
Grade: B
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