I really hope that Gina Carano becomes the new face of female action. Don’t get me wrong in that there are plenty of strong female leads in action/adventure films, but there is something jarring about watching a 110 lb female like say Angelina Jolie in Salt, one punch knocking out NFL linebackers. There isn’t anything believable about that and she just does seem like her character to do damage with those waffish arms. But Carano, an MMA fighter a body that looks like it’s built Ford tough, that I can believe in. So continuing his tradition of casting non-traditional actors and actresses in high profile Hollywood film, Steven Soderbergh gives us the action heroine that we deserve when watching a woman dismantle guys her size without breaking a nail, and looking damn fine if I must say so.
MMA superstar Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, in a demanding lead role that has her performing her own high-adrenaline stunts. Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. — (C) Relativity Media
Haywire is a bare bones spy thriller that dispenses with the over done up effects and shaky cam effects that try to put you into the mix with the lead and goes right for a surgical and clean look. Soderbergh is incredible when he directs and edits his film, opting for a more full frame shot rather than trying to shake the camera and make it look more realistic. The twists and turns in the plot offer up a nice espionage thriller, while the action scenes are immersive and fluid. It is a clever film with some high profile actors like Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and Antonio Banderas. The veritable gravitas of acting on display delivers a much more fluid story delivery. It also helps overshadow the lack of Gina Carano’s acting abilities which aren’t the reason you watch this film.
Gina Carano is the action heroine we deserve. Action fans sometimes lament the fact that Hollywood continually casts skinny, pretty actresses who are capable of dispatching enemies three times their size in hand to hand combat. I mean look at Salt or anything Summer Glau has been in, you will marvel at the fact that these women are throwing punches that are coma inducing. For me, I need a bit of believability and Gina Carano just has it. She looks like she goes to bars regularly for a bit of slug fest. In Haywire, she is taking punches and throws that are intense and hard. She is her own stuntwoman and it shows. He skills as a fighter help give her an intensity that is missing, the sort of calculating and anticipating what the other opponent is going to do. Her fight scenes on screen are quick, but powerful. A rather fluid motion in her fights that add to the level of realism that you would demand.
I could stare at this gif for…like…days….
Suffice to say, Carano is the ultimate femme fatale, blending in her natural beauty along with killer thigh power that could kill a man. I say what a way to go. Sure, her line delivery and acting in the film is stiff and robotic, like talking to Siri on your iPhone, but I am not involved in this movie to see her acting. If they wanted somebody to act along side the man meat of Fassbender or McGregor, then they could have hired Angelina or someone else. Instead, Soderbergh brought on a believable fighter with the right screen presence and elegant beauty that Hollywood loves to trot out. So both beauty and brawn, Carano is going to go far. As for Haywire, a slick spy thriller with all the right moves in the action department, but a bit weak in follow through of acting and story. There are few elements that are just convoluted, but the action and Carano make up for all of that.
