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    Haywire

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    “Haywire” is a breath of fresh air in a world where we regularly get poorly edited action movies where female “action” heroes spend more time prancing around in skimpy outfits and fulfilling male fantasies than actually kicking butt. The film tells the story of Mallory Kane (Gina Carano in her first feature film) She’s not exactly a mercenary but does dirty government work for his through a company employed by the U.S. Government. After a successful mission, she is quickly pushed back into the fray by her employer/ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) When he betrays her and she nearly winds up killed, Mallory gets right back up, putting the pieces together and tracking down those responsible while dodging the authorities or anyone else who would stand in her way.

    While Carano’s performance isn’t anything you would call groundbreaking, she does a surprisingly good job for a first-time actress, significantly better than other sports or music stars have in the past. If you can remember such train wrecks as Shaquille O’Neal in “Steel” or Kelly Clarkson in “From Justin to Kelly”, you’ll be blown away by how good she is in this role. Part of the credit goes to director Steven Soderbergh who surrounds her with strong actors and places her in a lean, no-nonsense thriller that moves very quickly. He puts her in a film where we can see her display her strengths, which are kicking a lot of teeth down windpipes. Long sequences of hand-to-hand combat or stunt driving by Carano are expertly shot. You get to see her in all her glory, fearlessly mowing one opponent after the next. If there was a double for our star, she was sparingly used. The movie draws you in. You don’t subconsciously think about the camera tricks or the instances where they had to hire someone else that kinda looked Carano but didn’t have quite the right build so they have to shoot in a shaky manner to fool the audience. It’s all knuckles smashing into skulls. Her character is a strong, sexy woman not because we get slow-motion shots of her running in tight pants or because we get glimpses of her in the shower; she’s attractive because she’s confident, competent and just as capable as any of the adversaries she encounters. As Kenneth says during the film “You should not think of her as a woman. That would be a mistake.” Just think of her as an action hero or better yet, a bullet carving its way through enemies.

    One of the big strengths of the movie is that while the punching and kicking are made clear, there are many subtle moments throughout. Characters have natural dialogue; there are no long sequences of exposition where two people repeat to each other something they already know for the benefit of the audience so you better be paying attention otherwise you’ll be lost. It also manages to dodge a lot of lame action clichés. There aren’t any scenes where Mallory easily takes down a room full of bad guys only to get stumped by a single “boss” villain. Car trunks are not filled with dynamite in order to make every car crash a fiery ball of death. “Haywire” is very realistic in the way that if Mallory manages to get out of a situation (and she doesn’t always) it’s by outwitting or out-muscling a few isolated opponents and using her skills to stay one step ahead of the people pursuing her. There’s a fight right at the beginning of the film that’s going to catch you totally off-guard and from then on you’ll be hard-pressed to choose which action scene is your favorite.

    It’s fast, relentless and the supporting cast is fantastic. We’ve got Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton and Channing Tatum surrounding our female hero and elevating what could have been just a run-of-the-mill action movie. Think about it, how many times have you seen the old “special forces, betrayed by the higher ups and now back for revenge”? But this smart script by Lem Dobbs and the tight direction by Soderberg, combined with the great cinematography bring it all together and make it all fresh again. “Haywire” is a backflip off the wall followed by a kick to the face you’ll be excited to see and re-watch to catch all the little details you missed the first time. (On Blu-ray, November 15, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  16.9.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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