Movie Review #8 Haywire (2011)

- Girl power, and by that I mean a woman who could kill you before you knew she was attacking.

Another action movie, but I promise I'm going to lay off them for awhile in May. When I was told that there was going to be an action movie with one of my sweethearts from American Gladiators (2008) and Mixed Martial Arts fighter, Gina Carano, I was already sold on going to the movie. Shortly after I found out that Steven Soderbergh was directing, I knew this was something I just had to see for myself as he isn't known for action movies. I wanted to see what he'd pull in a movie that seemed like a run of the mill “run till your heart stops” action movie.

I really wanted to like this movie, I was stoked as much as I was for The Expendables (prior to seeing it, as the hype was better than the movie) but it falls on its face more often than not and it's not even the fault of the fighter turn actor, not intentionally anyway. I'd like to give Gina Carano quite a bit of credit, for the most part she did her scenes as to be expected from a real fighter turn actor in a dumb action movie.

The writing is certainly one of the problems I had with the movie. The story is similar to many movies of which stood on their own (The Bourne trilogy is the best example) but could Haywire stand on its own? I won't let you think about it that long, the simple answer is no, not even close. The story contains almost no detail, no connection to just about everyone on screen. Mallory (played by Gina Carano) sets nothing to chance and tells her story to a random guy that joins her, which is a bit odd but eventually you find out why and it's stupid, he's instructed to tell the police her story. As if anyone would listen to a man that was shown to be more accomplice than victim – multiple people see him help Mallory in her time of need and offer help. In all honesty he really is more on the aiding and abetting side, but don't worry since his storyline is forgotten shortly after. If that was the only story fault, I could live with it, it is an action movie after all, right? But there is what I was believing to be a great missing action sequence, at the very least a really satisfying redemption/revenge kill – something action fans surely all love and appreciate but the film fades to black to let you the viewer imagine something worse than what they could do, I assume. I understand that, I get it and that certainly does have its place. But this is an action movie featuring a MMA fighter who can probably kill someone in ways I thought impossible so I felt there was no need for that kind of lack of scene. This should have been made as an action movie that held nothing back, showed its hand and showed it proudly. I know story can often by put aside for action movies (see last week's The Raid: Redemption review) but there was something about this movie that it felt like they wanted you to care about the story, like you should jump through their poorly planned plot points and care for these people and know them, and I won't and don't. Pieces of story that leave more questions at the end is far worse than a story that is simplistic but is nicely wrapped up come the credits.

How did she have time to give herself cornrows?

The acting was, for an action movie, borderline acceptable. I never expected to be pleased with the acting range of Gina Carano, I wasn't. She was gung-ho mostly, never stop till the mission is complete action star. She did two emotions “I just killed someone” and “I need to kill someone”, they were both fine. The shocking fact about the movie was the headline-grabbing names Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender all were just such plain characters, first and foremost for what those actors can do and what they are needed to do in the movie, I question why they were even chosen. They said their lines and moved on and that was more disappointing than anything. They are all actors who can steal scenes and movies alike but none of that was present. I guess they all just needed a cheque that week.

The only redeeming thing about this 1 hour 28 minute movie was the actual combat not to be confused with generic action sequences, many of the driving or running sequences were rather boring. The hand-to-hand combat featuring Carano or Fassbender were actually really fluid, not filled with shaky cam quick cuts and one or two times you might just feel like you're watching an old Jackie Chan action sequence. This is especially so when Carano plants herself five feet off the ground on a wall and holds herself up off someone in a tight space. The fights were awkwardly silent and it works for the most part. The heavy breathing and grunting throughout seems more real than the Hollywood big budget fight sequences with booming hard rock scores that are no more memorable than the movie title. These little things were certainly done right but overall it was just about the only thing done right.

It grabs a 4/10

PS: This stands as only the second female lead action movie I've seen, where no risque sequences or faux lesbian sequences were used to entice males to view the movie – not that they would help this flop.