Plot: A freelance, covert operative is betrayed and hunted down on a mission, so she begins her own mission of revenge.

Review:

The trailers of "Haywire" were hard to pin down, which might've been the reason the movie opened with only $9 million in its first week of release. What kind of movie was I watching? Some trailers really emphasized the fight scenes, so was I watching a martial arts film? Other trailers seemed to play up the apparent romantic encounter between Carano and Fassbender before Fassbender suddenly punches her from behind, leading to a fight scene. Er, so was it going to be some ironic action movie like "Mr and Mrs Smith"? Other trailers emphasized the huge cast and all of the double crossing, so was it going to be an ensemble, intrigue thriller like "Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy" (my favorite movie of 2011)? Hell, other trailers just made it look like a typical actioner. The title doesn't help much either. I'm pretty sure if there was a book that listed all of the possible generic titles you could choose for your movie, 'Haywire' would be one for the action genre. That's what scared me the most. Any movie with a name like that suggests that the movie wants to be vague as to what it is and that it's probably going to be generic too. But in the end, I was wrong on all accounts. The film is a light action-thriller with some martial arts that is purely a vehicle for its rising star, Gina Carano.

The movie opens with a woman named Mallory (Gina Carano) entering a diner and waiting for something or someone. Aaron (Channing Tatum) enters and sits across from her. They exchange a few words before getting into a nasty fistfight. In the end, Mallory kicks the crap out of Aaron and she instantly won my heart. Indeed, I require that any woman I date kick the crap out of Channing Tatum at least once...Surprisingly, I'm not as lonely as one might think. Anyway, Mallory leaves the diner with Scott (Michael Angarano), a young man who tried to help her. As they drive off, Mallory tells him who she is and how she got into this situation. It turns out she is a covert operative who was betrayed by her former employer, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). Now she's trying to weed out the people who are trying to kill her so she can find out why.

I said that this movie was a vehicle for Gina Carano, now let me explain why. The plot is nonsense and honestly, I was often confused as to who was who and what they were actually doing. This is because the film doesn't want us to focus on the plot, it wants us to zero in on the leading lady. The films all star cast seems pointless but I can actually see why they did it. Without guys like Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, Ewan McGregor and of course the A-list star Michael Angarano (sarcasm), "Haywire" likely would've gone direct to DVD. Even Soderbergh as the director could only do so much. The familiar faces catch our attention, but during the course of the movie we're only supposed to focus on Carano. She is, after all, the only one with a substantial part. The only person who might count as the second main character is McGregor, and he only has about 20-30 minutes of screen time total (am guessing, he isn't in the movie THAT much). Furthermore, having her act against these more established stars enables us to see how good she is. Despite their limited screentime, each of them appear with her at some point.

Some complained that these actors played pointless or shallow roles, but think about it. All of these guys are there to showcase a side of Mallory's character. Fassbender and Tatum bring out the sexy side of her (and one point, a tragic side), Banderas and Douglas bring out her imposing side, Angarano brings out her heroic side and Paxtron brings out her emotional side. McGregor, the villain, brings out many sides including her ferocious and her witty sides. My point is all of these people are there to show us her range, and casting established actors allows her true skill to show while making the film more marketable. The same goes with Soderbergh's direction. It has its moment of eccentric quirkiness, but is mostly clinical. He allows the suspense and intensity to take its own life, but for the most part, his style is there to boost Carano's performance and not get in her way.

So that leaves us with one last thing. How is Gina Carano?

I won't pretend that Carano is a great actress, but she did a good job considering everything could've backfired on her. If she did a poor job, then the movie would easily collapse and considering how subjective film is, many might think she did a bad job and might think the movie collapsed for it. Furthermore, if she delivered a poor performance then watching her with good actors might've made her seem worse. But I felt she hit all the right notes. She can be believably sad, angry, happy, awkward and intense whenever the movie calls for it. She's beautiful, but not excessively so and she always looks tough and strong (because she is). She's known as an MMA fighter and while there are only two extended fight scenes with a few smaller ones, she does them gracefully but effectively. When she punches someone or gets them in an arm lock, you feel she's doing that to them. But when she gets hit or is thrown around, you feel it's being done to her. If I have any problems with this, it's that she never appears to get bruised like she should. But the fights are stylishly realistic when they happen and the action scenes in general are crisp and effective. Nothing ground breaking, but effective.

To me, "Haywire" works because Carano works so well. It is the perfect starting vehicle for her because it allows her to showcase her skills- both physical and acting- and it provides the right elements to get assses in seats. However, if you don't like her, then you probably won't like the movie. You also might look at every other aspect about this film and find it underwhelming. Example, the film seems to be building up to some sort of shocking revelation, but when you learn why everything happened you realize that you already knew why and there was nothing shocking about it. It also doesn't have a real ending, but just stops like "The Devil Inside" did. At least this ending was sort of funny though. But instead of getting hung up on the films faults, I instead focused on how cool Gina Carano was. It's like "Taken". You watch it to see Liam Neeson kick ass and nothing more. I just believe that everything about this movie was there to showcase her. Now, I won't be as easy on her in the future, but I thought "Haywire" was a pretty good start.

Violence: The fights are rather brutal, but PG-13 worthy.

Nudity: None, although there is an off-screen sex scene.

Overall: "Haywire" is worth watching if you want to see a potential new leading lady in the action genre. It's at least worth a rental.