Haywire

BLU RAY update of Soderbergh's great "B" movie
The amazing Steven Soderbergh directs and elevates another film genre. Specifically, "B" movies that focus on espionage, intrigue and high action martial arts fighting. In an unusual mixture of actors, he brings in former MMA superstar and calendar girl Gina Carano as the headliner. She plays an agent for hire who works for one of those Blackwater-type firms that do a lot of the foreign dirty work for Uncle Sam. For some reason, she is believed to be expendable and is used as a pawn in a double-cross to kill a Chinese journalist in Spain.

Unlike, the lithe Zoe Saldana in "Columbiana", Ms Carano is tall, firm and fully packed. The daughter of a former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, the beautiful fighter is very believable. She appears to be doing all of her own stunt work and from what I can discern without the aid of wiring and other devices. For example, in a rooftop chase she doesn't just leap up to grab a roof and catapult herself to the top. You can see the effort in her...

Female Jason Statham
I know this isn't the best action movie ever made but I cannot believe some of the low ratings. Like Taken, the story is second to the action. The story is good enough and interesting enough to keep you interested but the action is the real story. Gina does a great job!!! She doesn't come across as someone acting like a tough "guy". She comes across as tough and real. I highly recommend this movie.

"You shouldn't think of her as a woman. That would be a mistake."
So this was many months ago: Stunned in the aftermath of a brutal shellacking meted out by Chris Cyborg, MMA fighter Gina Carano entertained one of them standing at the crossroads moments. Which is around when Hollywood came knocking, when Steven Soderbergh decided to call and ask her to star in a movie. And here's HAYWIRE, fruit of their collaboration, a film that isn't high-brow or artsy or a Major Motion Picture. What it is, though, is gritty and action-packed and massively appealing. It just might make a movie star of Gina Carano. She's better looking than the Rock.

From the opening scene in an upstate New York diner, your eyes are fixed on Carano. She sits at her table quietly, but there's a trapped animal watchfulness about her and you're instantly put on guard. And yet when the sitch goes sour, it happens in a shocking heartbeat and you're caught unprepared anyway (unless, of course, you've seen the trailer). Carano plays Mallory Kane, an exceptional employee in a...

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