Movie Review - "Haywire" (2012) ***

     Haywire is the newest offering from acclaimed Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh and boasts a cast of high-profile names including Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton. Yet, the film is a showcase for a first-time actress Gina Carano, who is best known for her role in MMA fighting. I started following MMA about 3 years ago and actually one of the first cards I ever saw had a fight that included Carano in it. She was beat in the fight (by a fighter who was found to be using performance-enhancing drugs later on) but you could tell she was a fan favorite and had lots of talent. Of course, it didn't hurt that she was beautiful as well. Carano never fought again after that fight, but it's apparent now that she had other interests outside of the ring, which included one in front of the camera. Haywire called for a female lead that kick major butt...not many people better at that than Carano so she landed the role. The ironic thing is, in this cast of big name talent, the newcomer Carano more than holds her own.

     Carano plays Mallory Kane, a highly-trained government operative who does the dirty work that only the best of the best can pull off. Think Jack Bauer. After freeing a Chinese journalist who is being held hostage, she is double-crossed by her own agency and left for dead. Mallory survives and must utilize all of her resources and training to fend off an international manhunt that finds her a target seemingly at every turn. While evading capture, and assassination, she must uncover the details of her double-cross and learn why her government has turned its back on her.

     That's a fairly quick and simple plot summary but this is one of those films that you should just go with. The plot is really secondary to the almost non-stop action and well-choreographed fight scenes that accompany Mallory from location to location. Carano is obviously at her best when she is simply kicking butt and she does plenty of it in this film, but pulls it off convincingly by doing almost all of her stunt work herself. It adds some credibility to the action for sure. She isn't given much dialogue for obvious reasons as that is not her strong suit, but she never feels out of place in the role, even during the few times when things slow down. Most of the other performances in the film are simply adequate. Nobody brings the movie down, but nobody gives an Oscar-worthy performance by any means either. I am a fan of several of  Soderbergh's works, Ocean's Eleven cracking my Top 100 favorite films list last year. You could tell he was having fun with this movie. I give Haywire a slight recommend. It's nothing great, it falls apart as it goes along, but you can do a lot worse when it comes to find something to kill some time on a weekend.