Tag: haywire

Grade B: I didn’t go into the movie Haywire with a lot of expectations, how could I since the movie is essentially a 1980s action throwback flick about a female secret agent (Gina Carano) out for revenge when she’s betrayed after a mission goes wrong? But oddly enough, I didn’t just come out of Haywire not-hating the movie, I actually liked it.

In Haywire, Mallory Kane (Carano) is on the run after her boss Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) reports her missing and dangerous, deciding that she knows too much about the behind the scenes going on in his shadowy organization. Mallory treks across Europe, then the US in search of Kenneth while at the same time dodging other operatives out to eliminate her.

Which, admittedly, sounds like a weak movie at best. But under the skilled hand of director Steven Soderbergh (Contagion, Traffic) and writer Lem Dobbs (Dark City, The Limey) Haywire comes off as a non-linear, interesting film that’s broken up by some absolutely bone crunching fight scenes.

To be sure, Carano comes off a little stiff in the film. Which is understandable since Haywire is her first real role, she’s in almost every scene and has to carry practically the entire movie. However, while Carano does act a bit stiff, she really delivers when it comes to the fight scenes. Here, it’s really her and not some stunt double taking the punches, falling from rooftops and crashing through doors.

What I kept thinking during the movie was that while a traditional actress really can’t be trained to be as physical as Carano has trained herself to be as a real-life mixed-martial arts fighter, with a bit of training Carano could become a good actress. Surly I wasn’t the only person to see Carano’s obvious beauty mixed with her physicality as being the perfect traits for someone to one day play the character of Wonder Woman?

Haywire is currently available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download.