Consider how attractive she is, and how likeable she comes across as being in interviews, I'm not surprised that somebody wanted to put Gina Carano, the most popular woman in Mixed Martial Arts, in a movie. But Soderbergh? That's out of left field! When David Mamet did his MMA movie, he cast a respected actor in the lead rather than a fighter. And the IMDB listing sure makes it sound like Soderbergh has done a straight up (I'd say "intriguingly generic" and mean that sincerely) action film, rather than a drama about a woman who happens to be a fighter.

Hell this description sounds like the plot could have been that of a direct-to-video film starring Shannon Tweed, which only makes me want to see it more:

"Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can't authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her. "

It's apparently wrapped and will be out in April. Soderbergh's frequent collaborator Lem Dobbs wrote it, and it's got some impressive co-stars to take some of the dramatic weight off Gina: Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbinder, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas (also Channing Tatum, but I expect Gina to prove rather more charismatic than that lunkhead). Sadly, the "Anthony Wong" in the cast is someone named Anthony Brandon Wong, not the Hong Kong villain turned character actor and unconventional leading man, who's deserved a good English language role for a while now (and who is the closet thing I have to a celebrity lookalike, although we've aged differently and don't look as much alike as we did a decade ago).

This sounds like the kind of movie Oliver Stone kept talking about making fifteen or twenty years ago, when he said he wanted to do a film starring Kathy Long or Cynthia Rothrock (he later courted Michelle Yeoh with the idea), although I always got the impression that Stone was saying that to get the women to go out with him (he apparently dated Michiko Nishiwaki while making NATURAL BORN KILLERS).

At least this will be one film in the which heroine doesn't look ridiculous beating up men. At 5'8", she's taller than a lot of male stars, and she's got some powerful muscle mass on her. I sincerely doubt a young Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis could have beaten her in a fight, and a convincing case can be made that she could have taken Chuck Norris back in his prime (before you scoff, remember that Chuck dates from the era in which American martial arts tournaments were essentially point sparring, not full-contact, although he might have done more hardcore stuff in his air force days).

The question is, does Soderbergh know how to shoot the kind of action that a project like this needs? And who's choreographing her? Someone like Sammo could have worked cinematic magic with her, back in the day, but I doubt Soderbergh's fight director is in that league (and then there's the fact that real-world fighters don't necessarily look good on the screen, and tend to be most impressive when someone like Bruce Lee or Sammo is calling the shots).

This post has been edited by Ian McDowell on Feb 13 2011, 12:23 AM

Vern says that J. J. Perry, who choreographed UNDISPUTED 2 and BLOOD AND BONE, has done the honors for HAYWIRE. Now that's a good sign.

I thought Wong had a good part in THE PAINTED VEIL, with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.

I didn't even know he was in that. I'm guessing the movie makes better use of him than THE MUMMY 3 and THE MEDALLION did. Is it any good?

Carano made an appearance at last night's Strikeforce event on Showtime and said she will finally be returning to the cage this year. Good news and a great way to promote that movie.

Yes, it is. Well worth seeking out. Not a huge part for Wong as I recall but it was satisfying to see him in something more upscale than usual.

Here's the Trailer for Haywire. Gina Carano may not be able to act, but Soderberg has surrounded her with people who can (Channing Tatum excepted), and nobody is going to accuse her of demonstrating unbelievable waif-fu. An amateur fighter friend of mine saw this trailer and said "look at how she pivots her hips when she throws those kicks; she could put a real hurting on you!"

Hola,

Speaking of waif-fu, this past year witnessed the return of Yukari Oshima to the big screen in Frankie Chan's "Legendary Amazons" (2011), which is an updated retelling of Shaws' "The 14 Amazons" (1972)--the tale is much older and has been adapted in various forms but Chan's picture seems patterned most after that one particular iteration. Anyway, given that we have the return of a fearless action icon after a decade's absence, what better way to feature her than to have her standing around whilst a badly miscast Cecilia Cheung--whose personal life off screen seems to be a perpetual dumpster fire nowadays--is shown in endless waif-fu battle sequences. Also, iconic Cheng Pei-pei is in this one too only to suffer the same fate as Oshima. Frankie Chan--who should know better given all the work with Sammo, Jackie, and Yuen Biao--gets to cast two legendary action stars just so he can have them stand around like extras... what madness is this, I ask you?

I'm looking forward to Ms. Carano's film debut and it'll be interesting to see if people like Yanin Vismistananda ("Chocolate" [2008 Thailand]), Jiang Luxia ("Coweb" [2009 HK/China]), and Veronica Ngo ("Clash" [2009 Vietnam]) can get more marquee roles if "Haywire" inspires a wave of female-led actioners in the East. Maybe some better roles for the legends coming out of retirement too.

It would be awesome if that happened, Yi Lee! I've seen neither Cobweb nor Clash. How are they?

Another good sign for HAYWIRE is that the choreographer is J. J. Perry, who did UNDISPUTED 2 and BLOOD AND BONE. Perry had earlier moved to the big time with WARRIOR, but while I liked that film, the director really got in Perry's way, as Outlaw Vern pointed out. Early indications are that Soderbergh has not made that mistake, and shoots the HAYWIRE fights in long takes and even static shots (and sans music).

Plus, Carano seems to look better on screen than a lot of real-life fighters and tournament champions. I don't just mean that she's better looking (although she's gorgeous), but the clips suggest that she's mastered movie fighting, which not every "real" fighter can do. A lot of them look really stiff in choreographed fights: Don "The Dragon" Wilson in particular comes to mind.

Of course, that's not true of all of them. Ken Lo was a kickboxer, I believe. I don't think Dick Wei was a ring fighter, but didn't he have some kind of background in "real world" martial arts as a self defense instructor? And Benny "the Jet" looked awesome, at least when choreographed and directed by Sammo.

Have you seen BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS? If so, how does Cung Li look in his fight with Donnie? I've long thought he was the MMA champ who would look the best on film.

You can see the fight here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAAp6bPnokM

Sadly, I think it is marred by the dreaded shaky-cam and quick editing, making it hard to tell what is going on a lot of the time. Also, the HK flicks seem to be back to the phony looking wire work.

Hey Ian (and everybody else),

I haven't seen any of the Hostel movies but from what I've read about them, "Coweb" could feasibly be viewed as a localization of the franchise with the emphasis on the grisly torture removed and replaced with mucho ass-kicking instead. The directorial debut of legendary Chinese stuntman Xiong Xinxin, Jiang Luxia is a down-on-her-luck martial artist who is hired by her friend Sam Lee to be a bodyguard resulting in frequent fights with all manner of challengers intent on spitting in her sandwich. She and Sam slowly come to realize that there's a cameraman at every brawl and discover that the fights are being secretly shot by a cabal of high rolling gamblers who live-stream the bouts over the web for exotic betting purposes(!) Culminates in an old school knock-down, drag-out with Kane Kosugi (yes, that's right: son of Sho.) Ropey plot but great throwback execution (including liberal doses of wire work.) See earlier thread on the Asian forum for reference: http://z8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=12634

Jiang's interesting 'cause she's the real deal sorta like Jet Li and Wu Jing, that is, a real life multiple national wushu champion. She gained popular exposure on Jackie Chan's reality TV show _The Disciple_-- _American Idol_ or _X Factor_ but instead of singing, the producers were trying to discover the next big Asian action star, so obviously the elimination challenges are of a more physical nature (what that somebody imported the show concept over here to the West!)--but was inexplicably booted off during its run. Jiang has since gone on to make a handful of movies while the contests three male finalists--one winner and two runners up--to the best of my knowledge, haven't appeared in anything yet.

In contrast to this Veronica Ngo is a model/recording star who made the transition from soap operas straight to action heroine the right way: in brutal action films such as "The Rebel" (2006) and "Clash." Rather than being filmed in lingerie listening to bubble gum pop music on her down time or busy fighting thugs while wearing stiletto heels and cocktail dresses, producers somehow convinced Ms. Ngo the best thing for her career was to appear in fights with big burly dudes dead set on kicking her face in(!) Unlike most female action stars who come from either a dance or wushu background, Veronica's just a model who, for some mysterious reason, wanted to do bare knuckled fight scenes where she gets knocked trough wooden tables rather than simply being a Vietnamese version of Maggie Q. Considering the government is Communist and Communist governments have a tendency to execute professional criminals, I don't think anybody is extorting her to appear in brutal fare against her will or has some elderly relative out in an undisclosed location with a gun placed against their head.

In "Clash" she plays an underworld enforcer whose daughter is being held hostage by the leader of a major crime syndicate who promises to release the girl once she finishes one last job to pay off her debts to him: steal a suitcase owned by a bunch of French defense contractors visiting Saigon on business. So she assembles a crack team to pull off the heist but there's just one hitch: among her rag-tag squad are two potential moles--one assigned to shoot her in the back once they've grabbed the goods and one who is an undercover government agent who has been building a lengthy case against her and her boss--meaning once they're arrested, they'll likely be tried and shot in rather summary fashion.

Moving on to Cung Le: mighty impressive showing in "Bodyguards and Assassins" but I'd like to see him in something more substantial as a good guy or not the main villian's top lackey. Donnie uses a little wirework for his character but Le, as far as I can tell, is doing his moves on screen for real and it's a total clinic. William's right about the all too frequent use of wire work--especially with Leon Lai's character--but speaking for Le only, he makes one helluva screen debut in this one. Hope Wong Kar-wai showcases him well in his upcoming Ip Man movie. Older Mobius reference from the Asian board on "Bodyguards": http://z8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=11670

(To everybody):

All of that noted, I don't think actual wushu skill is needed to be a successful action performer. The three biggest action surprises of the past twelve months have been, for me at least:

1) Longtime supporting actress Crystal Huang's breakout performance in Herman Yau's "The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake." Xiong Xinxin does the action choreography for that pic.

2) Thespian Liu Ye as a semi-retarded ex-navy officer in "He-man," the sequel to Wong Jing-produced "Underdog Knight" (2008.) The whole JC Stunt team (maybe some of _The Disciple_ winners in this one?) stage some great set pieces. Older MHVF Asian board reference: http://z8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=13145

3) Global mega-star Shahrukh Khan ("King Khan") and and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra ("Piggy Chops") in "Don 2: the King Returns." Who knew the King of Asian narcotics and the Interpol agent doggedly chasing him were such brawlers? Neat Desi blockbuster that enjoyed a simultaneous global opening this past Christmas.

Before "Seven Samurai," actor Seiji Miyaguchi--the silent samurai blademaster in that film--never held a sword in his life. But you'd never know it unless somebody hadn't told you. If you're going to cast some pretty young thing from the CW in a major action role, at least get a decent choreographer to show her how to move her body and how to carry her frame in the right way giving the illusion of pin-point body control in addition to suggesting she's got a developed set of fast twitch muscles.

Ms. Carano, who is definitely not hard on the eyes, moves just right and there's enough of a heft to her movements unlike some size zero starlets who studios try to peddle as casual badasses. In the trailers I buy the proposition of her being a highly trained operative of some sort. That she's an actual MMA star is just icing on an already alluring cake.

Anyway, I follow action movies in part because I'm fascinated by the family-like community of stunt performers and action stars in that professional sub-culture. It's a really specialized form of training that can't be entirely faked and the good ones have the skill to take totally non-physical performers and making them look like they've been doing it all their lives.

It's amazing the amount of acting talent Soderbergh's assembled around Ms. Carano and I hope she wows audiences in a smashing debut. That considered, can mainstream audiences handle what Gina is throwing down or do they want more of lad mag gals doing waif-fu in trollopey outfits? Staying at my mom's place here in the Deep South, one picks up all sorts of neat localisms. One of my recent favorites is "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining." I feel like that with a lot of mainstream Hollywood movies, which show a star doing incredible wire-fu but don't bother to hire a decent choreographer to make the physical performance appear at least credible (if you don't move your limbs the right way whilst fighting, one's liable to break a bone or tear a ligament.) If one is going to just indulge in outright fantasy, I'd just a soon watch a Rudy Ray Moore picture instead. If she ever gets to make more than this one movie, I'd like to see what somebody like Tony Jaa or Xiong Xinxin (sans the wire harnesses) can do with her.

This post has been edited by Yi Lee on Jan 5 2012, 12:49 PM

There's an article on Gina Carano and HAYWIRE in the Arts & Leisure section in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/movies/g...ref=todayspaper

The first five minutes of HAYWIRE are up on Hollywood Elsewhere/hulu - it certainly looks like I will enjoy it.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/01/haywires_first.php

This post has been edited by Wade Sowers on Jan 11 2012, 04:29 PM

Here's the AV Club interview with Soderbergh.. Apparently Lem Dobbs showed him the DARKER THAN AMBER fight scene between Rod Taylor and Big Bill Smith as inspiration for the Carano vs. Fassbender fight. Cool.

Gina Carano is for real. The 27-year-old mixed martial artist and bit actress (BLOOD AND BONE) plays her first leading role in HAYWIRE, a low-budget trifle churned out by director Steven Soderbergh (OCEAN’S 11) in Ireland, Spain, and New Mexico. As an actress, the brunette easily holds her own opposite steely veterans like Michael Fassbender (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS) and Michael Douglas (WALL STREET), and as an action star, Carano has few peers of either the male or female variety.

As if acknowledging the wafer-thin nature of the plot dreamed up by screenwriter Lem Dobbs (THE LIMEY), Soderbergh tries to juice it up with non-linear storytelling with flashbacks, silent sequences, and shifts to black and white. He needn’t have, because HAYWIRE is at its best when Soderbergh (who, as usual, worked as his own cinematographer) plants the camera and lets his performers do their work.

Carano is cast as Mallory Kane, an ex-Marine now working as an operative for a private security company run by Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), her former lover. Although she has just returned from a mission in Barcelona rescuing a Chinese journalist, Kenneth goads Mallory into a quick weekend job in Dublin acting primarily as eye candy on the arm of MI-6 agent Paul (Fassbender). After poking around the edges of her assigned milk run, she quickly learns she has been led into a trap that has law enforcement on her back and unjustified murder charges on her head.

HAYWIRE is a revenge tale, pure and simple, and when Soderbergh keeps it simple, it really rocks. Eschewing contemporary trends of quick cutting and shaky handheld shots, Soderbergh knows there’s little he can do to make Carano look badass that she can’t do better. Choreographed by stunt ace J.J. Perry, the fight scenes are rough, brutal, and made devastatingly real by Carano. Even so, HAYWIRE’s best setpiece is a foot chase over Dublin rooftops and through a labyrinth of hotel hallways in which Carano is clearly doing her own stunts without help from the visual effects department. Dobbs could have laced the screenplay with a more liberal dose of humor, as Carano’s unexpected run-in with a deer provides a chuckle right when the film needs one.

As for Carano’s acting, she’s just fine. Frankly, she’s a better actor than Channing Tatum (21 JUMP STREET), here playing a fellow operative with whom she has a quick affair, and certainly more believable in her role than Tatum is in his. Stripped down to about ninety minutes and containing enough buff action to keep it from dragging, HAYWIRE is more pretentious than it should be, but a strong debut for Carano.

What's this nonsense about the plot being hard to follow and that the villain's motives aren't comprehensible? (I don't mean that Marty is spouting that nonsense, just some critics!)

I thought it was all pretty clear even before the conversation that spelled why Carano was set up. What I really appreciated was that it wasn't about a spy having a crisis of conscience and blowing the whistle or refusing to do a hit. It wasn't about her uncovering a far-reaching conspiracy. It isn't even the familiar cliche of a powerful secret government agency foolishly deciding to frame and/or kill one of their most valuable agents.

And yes, after one viewing, I can tell you how the characters played by McGregor, Douglas, Bandras, and Almaric all fit, what their motives were and what they did. It's not that difficult, people. I'm reminded of the critic's who found the first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE's plot impenetrable.

I'm a better actor than Channing Tatum, another ready-built "star" who's not exactly catching fire. If he isn't good in Soderbergh's movie about male strippers (an autobiographical part for Tatum, who always looks like he's in search of the nearest pole) he's pretty much finished. Sheepish beefcake. (And, unlike Colin Farrell, say, it's hard to see him rebuilding his career through character parts.)

HAYWIRE won't help his or Carano's cause at the boxoffice. Looks like Kate Beckinsale has kicked Carano's ass, twice. Then again there's usually a stuffy, clinical quality to Soderbergh's direction that tends to stifle the fun, even in the OCEAN's pictures, which felt heavier than they were.

I didn't feel it was stuffy or clinical at all, but hard-boiled breezy. I do know that, judging from random Facebook comments (not from my friends there, but via a search on public posts containing the title) that a lot of people didn't like it as much the critics do, complaining that it's "confusing" (which I don't get) and specifically saying they hated the lack of music in the fight scenes and thought there wasn't enough action (despite the presence of three fights with main characters, a fight with a runaway henchman, a fight with Irish Guardsman, a fight with hired muscle in Arizona, a heist montage in Barcelona that includes a firefight, a car chase in the snow, a foot chase in Barcelona, and a rooftop chase in Dublin -- there's every bit as much action as in a Bourne film, and rather more hand-to-hand fighting).

As for the UNDERWORLD movie, you couldn't pay me to see that. Here's what I said on Facebook:

****************

It wasn't f*cking blue.

That's what I liked most about HAYWIRE. Not Gina Carano's curvy muscular athletic hotness. Not the way she moves and has at least mastered the art of WATCHING other people onscreen (hard for a non-actor). Not the bone-crunching fights shot in sustained takes with a stationary camera. Not the way she looks like she actually killed that poor stuntman she kicks in Dublin. Not the graceful rooftop chase and crunching fall that reminds us to respect gravity. Not the stylish Barcelona caper montage. Not the swanky jazz score. Not Bill Paxton's welcome presence. Not the sexy way Gina bites her lip. None of that good shit.

No, just that it wasn't f*cking blue. Take that, UNDERLIT, I mean, UNDERWORLD: A-CRAPPENING. I'm looking at your dark blue monochrome plastic/gunmetal herky-jerky fast-slow-motion bellowing CGI werewolf shiny leather ass. F*ck you and all the movies who look like you.

The one thing that DID confuse me about HAYWIRE, and it's fairly minor (and may be perfectly clear if I see the movie again) is this. Why does Mallory chase the guy in Barcelona? I mean, I'm glad she does, it's a good chase, and leads to a good short fight scene, and is important later when she recognizes the guy in France, but what was her motivation for singling him out and going after him?

But the stuff that seems to have confused some critics -- who betrayed Mallory and why and the relationship between Kevin, Colditz, the Spaniard and the Frenchman, all that seemed quite clear, especially the reasons for the betrayal (even before Kevin actually spells them out).

Also, it's kind of like WARRIOR, a film it in no way resembles other than the presence of Isaac Florentine's former choreographer J. J. Perry (in whose way Soderbergh doesn't get, unlike WARRIOR's Gavin O'Connor), in that I really appreciated the things it DOESN'T do, what it leaves out. In WARRIOR's case, it ws the smart way the crisis that the family man fighter faces is caused by the bills from his daughter's recent illness, rather than the illness itself -- she's fine, fully recovered, and there are no tearful scenes of him telling her that he's going to win the Big Fight just for her, no tear-jerking stuff with the kid at all.

Here, it's that Mallory doesn't form a wisecracking bond with the kid she carjacks (he's scared, but ultimately helpful in a realistic way, but that's all, and I suspect he was supposed to have died when the fake Federal Agents show up -- I know Soderbergh reshot some stuff and changed one sympathetic character's fate, while adding the coda). She doesn't uncover some huge government conspiracy or have a Crisis of Faith when sent to do something that's against her morals. And there's no seemingly-sympathetic character who turns out to be the main villain -- Mallory is unclear on the details, but immediately knows who betrayed her, and the film doesn't try to make it a mystery.

This post has been edited by Ian McDowell on Jan 21 2012, 03:06 PM

Someone asks her that, and she says she doesn't like loose ends.

HAYWIRE may not be blue, but it's an ugly film. The photography is gray and grim, and the weather is terrible in all the exteriors. It may not be blue, but I'm not sure its look is any better than that.