Haywire (2011) [Blu-ray]
Action | Thriller

Directed by Oscar®-winner Steven Soderbergh (Contagion), this dynamic action-thriller introduces mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, a black-ops agent for a government security contractor. After freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, Mallory is double-crossed and left for dead - by someone in her own agency. Suddenly the target of assassins who know her every move, Mallory unleashes the fury of her fighting skills to uncover the truth and turn the tables on her ruthless adversary. Featuring Carano performing her own high-adrenaline stunts and an all-star cast including Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas, Haywire is explosive movie entertainment.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** chris-fawcett from United Kingdom, 21 January 2012 • I've literally just seen this and came out of the cinema thinking 'Was that it?'. OK, the fight sequences were good, an easy rival for the likes of Bourne, and the occasional one line comments did make me chuckle but the acting, especially from the lead character, was pretty poor. I even expected more from the likes of Douglas, McGregor and Fassbender!

The general plot was there and developed over what seemed like 3 hours, however I felt the film was disjointed, predictable, and why she insisted on befriending a random bloke and telling him her entire life story after stealing his car is beyond me.

All in all I felt cheated, let down, and like I was watching a well budgeted university film.

Summary: Meh...

User Comment: Subhamoy Sengupta from kolkata, India, 29 January 2012 • Better than Ocean 13 perhaps, but still quite bad. Gina Carano did so much better than John Cena. Too bad the director was Soderberg and not an 'actually' intelligent man. IMDb published an interview of Antonio Banderas on Haywire, but I wonder why. His screen time is less than 5 minutes in total, and not the most interesting 5 minutes either. Reasons are not explained, characters are not detailed, it is not a respectable film overall. Some people called Mallory the female Bourn. That is another mystery, because when I saw the world through Bourn's eyes, I never had any problem understanding what he was feeling or going through. In this film, I had no attachment with any of the characters. If the bad guys just killed Gina Carano in the middle of the film, I would not really feel any different, because I had no idea why a bunch of people were just randomly hurting, shooting at, or killing each other. I read a review a while back, where someone criticized those who came to watch this film expecting a real action film or some award- winning performances. He wrote he liked this film honestly because of the surreal feel. I can kind of appreciate his remark. Surrealism and retardedness are two extremes that can sometimes cross over from one side to the other. For mentally healthy people, who expect to see female Bourn with stylish performances from McGregor, Banderas, Fassbender, etc., I do not recommend this film at all. The film is well shot, well edited, the soundtrack is not too horrible, so I give it a 5. If I had to rate only the substance, I would rate it 1, like many others have done.

Summary: Dumb movie. Too many big actors, too little brain-work.

[CSW] -4.1- (up from a -3.1-) This movie got one full extra rating point from me just because from the very beginning I thought that all of the fight scenes seemed so real and a lot more technical than flashy. I had no idea that the lead actress was the mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar Gina Carano. Her acting seemed more real too probably because it wasn't as polished as a seasoned actress's would have been. It seemed closer to a documentary that might have been done on a real operative. In its base form Haywire is a revenge flick similar to just about every revenge flick ever made except that this one felt a little more real because of the rough edges. We have the defense contractor who gets betrayed by her boss who sends out other defense contractors to silence her. The movie does have a great pace, skilled actors, and wonderful fights scenes that remind you of Jason Bourne's hand to hand combat battles only more real. The movie actually seems to run parallel to Bourne minus the whole amnesia thing. I am temped to add this one to my collection.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

º º