Going Haywire...

Haywire

      This time of year is known for putting out the worst Hollywood has to offer. For those of us who go to the movies, we know that there is generally bad movies every week of the year. God knows we've all sat through a crappy movie in June and wondered, "Did they spend over 100 million dollars on that?" Remember Green Lantern? Yet this first month of the year seems to continually throw out garbage and reruns of Oscar contenders. Why no one has ever tried to put out a good movie in January and capitalize on the down movie time, I do not know. So to find a good movie, you almost have to jump back from the mainstream studio hits and look for a movie that speaks to you. God knows I don't want to sit through another independent movie about bean sprouts that is really teaching me of the plight of the hispanic community and the horrible way we treat them. Not that I don't think that message is valid but seriously, do I have to be scolded when I go to a movie? Of course not but after seeing Haywire with MMA women's fighter Gina Carano, I may enjoy getting my ass kicked a little more.

      The movie stars MMA fighter Gina Carano as super agent/spy/independent contractor Mallory Kane who is the very best at what she does. What she seems to do best is kick the crap out of people. That is until she decides to leave the company she works for and they decide to set her up for a fall. You ever notice how these setups never seem to go as the ring leader imagines? Well this movie is no different. Mallory escapes her death trap and flees back to America. We learn all this in a flashback so I am not really ruining anything for you. Needless to say, Mallory wants payback and must fight through the sea of governmental red tape to get to the man who did her wrong. This is literally all the plot that needs to be known. Yet the movie is stylish and interesting taking a conventional action movie and making it almost artistic. You believe and want Mallory to win through killing and maiming. Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi from the blasphemous Episodes 1-3) is pitch perfect as a jilted lover and boss to Mallory who seems to beg to be killed. Michael Douglas comes in and out of this movie as a state department politician with little to do but offer sage advice and a way out for Mallory. I'm still not sure to what degree he is culpable in her being taken down but he almost surely knew and used the situation to his advantage.

     I think what can be said for this movie is that the star (Carano) does an adequate job and the movie moves at a pace that allows the lack of acting skills to not be distracting. When she looks over the snow capped New Mexico (seriously does it snow that much in New Mexico? Both this movie and last year's Let Me In seems to say it does.) and says "You better run." I cringed a little in my mind. A gifted and talented woman indeed but the script offers her little to do. Indeed I think the intent was to put her into a situation to be carried by the other actors in the movie. Nothing wrong with that and in fact, it probably makes for a better movie. The movie does not throw punches and indeed has the most violent intergender fighting I've ever seen. Ewan McGregor's character Kenneth seems to sum it up best when describing her to Michael Fassbender's assasin Paul, that to think of Mallory as a woman would be a big mistake indeed. Carano has the sensuality and looks to be very successful in movies and acts about as well as anyone does in her first role. She can learn a lot but she surrounded herself with brilliant actors (McGregor, Fassbender, Douglas and the heavy bearded Antonio Banderas) who can lift her up and teach her while creating a good movie.

     As far as the action goes, this movie delivers in rough fight sequences and fierce brutality what some more recent action movies rely on crisp neat fights and explosions. As in real life, the fighting in this movie is rarely pretty. Certainly they have skill but every fight seems to be a fight to the death. Carano wraps herself around her male counterparts in ways that make me blush. Her sexuality is controlled and fierce. She is always in control and every fight scene seems bent on turning into passionate sex in mere moments. Tragically, it turns into her shooting someone in the face or strangling her with her thighs (not a bad way to go) more than it turns into some good loving. Something tells me that Mallory Kane has sex on her terms and not just because someone is pretty. So is this a great movie? Not at all but it is a very competent and entertaining movie. Carano is a person to watch as she grows into an action actress . I've never given much thought to whether action movies needed a female action hero and I can now see the appeal. Can Gina Carano become Glen Close? Probably not but she could easily become the female Bruce Willis and that is good enough for me.

Mr. Unhappy Sez: Violence can be sexy fun entertainment.