HAYWIRE
JANUARY 20, 2012

Gina Carano's breakout film clearly shows she is a natural in front of the camera.  She easily puts some of the young actresses to shame with the ease at which she handles her lines.  There is room for improvement with some of the little things, but overall she will capture the audience with her sweet toughness.

The story, written by Lem Dobbs, is not the best, which left the director, Steven Soderbergh to input many long walling shots that do not advance the storyline.  Was the director looking for suspense?  If so, it was not felt by the audience during any one of the number of long drawn out walking, walking and more walking scenes.

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano), ex-military, now working for a private firm that is contracted by the government complete covert operations that the government itself is not permitted to do.  Weeks before the movie picks up the story, Kane's ex-boyfriend, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), and his firm are hired by government agent Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and his contact, Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) to rescue Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong), who was kidnapped.  Kenneth approaches Kane for assistance in the rescue mission as he needs a female to pose as the wife of a British agent Paul (Michael Fassbender). 

Kenneth is not the man that Kane fell in love with, and proves that the relationship had no future.  Kenneth goes as far as hunting down Kane's father, John (Bill Paxton), to get to Mallory.  She finally has to track Kenneth down in Mexico, where the final battle between the two comes to an end.  Mallory walks away as Kenneth's foot is caught between the rocks on the beach just before the tide is about to come in. 

The action and fight scenes are spread out through the film from the first scene right up until the final end.  Carano puts the casts' physicality to the test as she dominates every fight scene.  Her mixed martial arts background keeps everyone on their toes, making every fight as real as possible.

RUSTY
1/20/12