Haywire

Plot synopsis:
Former Marine Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) goes to a diner in Upstate New York to meet Aaron (Channing Tatum). He tells her to get in his car, but she refuses and they fight. He pulls out a gun, but she disarms and pistol-whips him. Scott (Michael Angarano), a customer in the diner, intervenes and Mallory demands his car keys and that he get in the car. As they flee, she explains who she is and what has happened to her. The flashback sequences are intermixed with scenes of their flight.
Mallory tells Scott that she and Aaron work for a company that handles "operations". One week before, the firm's director (and Mallory's ex-boyfriend) Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) had attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. arranged by government agent Coblenz (Michael Douglas). Kenneth's firm was hired to rescue Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong), who was allegedly being held hostage in an apartment in Barcelona. Also present at the meeting was Coblenz's Spanish contact, Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas).
Mallory and her team, which includes Aaron, travel to Barcelona and, despite difficulties, succeed in rescuing Jiang and delivering him to Rodrigo.
Back in the United States, Mallory is approached by Kenneth, who insists she undertake what he describes as an easy assignment: to pose as the wife of British MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender) during a mission in Dublin. Mallory agrees and accompanies Paul to a party at Russborough House, where they meet with his contact, Studer (Mathieu Kassovitz). Paul meets with Studer again as Mallory watches from afar. She sees Paul go into a barn and after he leaves, she enters it to find Jiang dead, clutching in his hand a brooch which Kenneth had insisted she wear as a recognition signal for her initial contact with Paul. Mallory realizes she has been set up.
On returning to their room at the Shelbourne Hotel, Paul attacks Mallory and they have a brutal fight; Mallory gets the upper hand and suffocates him near to death with a choke hold, then shoots him point blank in the face. She finds a missed call on Paul's phone and returns it. Kenneth answers and asks if Mallory has been taken care of, before realising who is on the other end. As Mallory leaves the hotel, she evades Kenneth's agents, who are tailing her. Heavily armed members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) appear and try to arrest her. She escapes after a chase and sneaks onto a ferry to England.
Mallory calls Rodrigo and asks him whether it was he or Kenneth who set her up. Rodrigo calls Coblenz, who then calls Mallory. Coblenz tells Mallory that he has had suspicions about Kenneth for some time. Coblenz then contacts Kenneth and tells him to inform Mallory's father, John Kane (Bill Paxton), of her purported crimes.
Meanwhile, Mallory enters the United States and reaches the diner, expecting to meet Kenneth. Now on the road, Scott and Mallory are captured by the police. Both are taken into custody but the police are ambushed by Kenneth's men. Mallory manages to kill one of them and flees with Scott in one of the police cars. She releases Scott and leaves to meet with her father.
Mallory reaches her father's house in New Mexico before Kenneth, Aaron and two other men arrive to interrogate John about his daughter's whereabouts. Aaron receives a photograph on his phone of Jiang lying dead, and it dawns on him that Mallory might have been set up. He tries to press Kenneth for the truth, but Kenneth shoots him and escapes, as Mallory takes out Kenneth's other men. Aaron apologizes to Mallory as he dies in her arms.
The following day, Mallory meets with Coblenz, who reveals that he told Kenneth to contact Mallory's father, expecting that Kenneth would go to her father's house and that she would kill him there. Coblenz also gives her Kenneth's present location. Before they part, he offers her a government job, but she says she will respond after she has found Kenneth.
In Mexico, Mallory confronts Kenneth on a beach and they fight. Kenneth's foot becomes jammed between rocks. Unable to escape, he reveals that Jiang was a journalist who was being protected in a safe house after having exposed Studer's crimes. Knowing that Mallory planned to leave his firm, Kenneth arranged for her to kidnap Jiang and deliver him to Rodrigo, who delivered him to Studer, who killed him. Kenneth then framed Mallory, planning to cut all ties that could lead to him, and convinced Paul that Mallory was a double agent whom he should kill. Mallory leaves Kenneth to drown in the incoming tide.
A few days later, Mallory locates Rodrigo, who is on vacation in Majorca. The film ends as she confronts him, presumably intending to eliminate him as the last remaining link in the conspiracy against her.

Tags: revenge, action, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
Haywire is directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an all star cast that includes Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender.However the main star is MMA fighter Gina Carano as Mallory Kane who works in black ops and is hired to pose as he wife of a British agent and ends up being a target for elimination herself.
Carano has to unravel who is trying to set her up.The film is shot with little dialogue and a moody setting, many of the known cast has small roles and its a 'unHollywood thriller' although Carano does get to kick ass as well as getting chased mainly in the streets or rooftops of Dublin.Fassbender and Carano's scenes standout especially their combat sequences.
People told me to avoid "Haywire" but I found it reasonably entertaining.First off, I was amazed by the number of likable actors that are in the movie - Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton (where has he been hiding?) all star in co-roles.
It's got a simple, but hugely unoriginal plot - Special Ops agent gets doubled-crossed (yawn) and proceeds to exact her revenge on those who wronged her, yeah, it sounds very much like the standard plot for your average Steven Seagal straight-to-DVD actioner - not a film directed by Steven Soderbergh!
I suspect that Soderbergh is not overly familiar with this particular genre, otherwise he might have avoided the clichéd script like the plague...The direction for this piece is restrained almost to the point of inertia - any energy generated within the action scenes comes sorely from the mixed-martial artistry of Ms. Carano, it almost feels as if Mr. Soderbergh is embarrassed by the notion of directing an action thriller.Soderbergh does his usual thing of peppering his films with stars and/or solid character actors, but despite the presence of the likes of Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, etc, they are underused in what are essentially expanded cameos - only MacGregor gets to shine a little, but his character is underwritten and lacks any credible motivation for his actions.Gina Carano acquits herself quite well, especially so given the fact that she is carrying the movie on her inexperienced shoulders - that and the cold, hard reality that her character is basically a Jason Bourne clone, albeit with female genitalia...The film also suffers from the fact that it doesn't have a climax, it just simply stops.The restrained approach Soderbergh adopted for this film is it's undoing - short, sporadic bursts of action in an uninspired and leisurely-paced script damage Haywire badly, if Steven Soderbergh had bothered to have injected a bit more zest and flair into his direction, the film might have been redeemed somewhat and not turned into the lifeless, miserable clone that it is.PG..
It's not quite recommendable to everyone unless you like art films, Soderbergh's directing style, or Gina Carano.
No female action star can fight like Gina Carano.
And the fact that no sound effect or background score is used during the fight scenes make the sequences feel more real and effective.The editing is tight, the camera-work is beautiful, the background score is minimal, and the story doesn't try too hard to be complex, which makes the movie an exhilarating ride..
And that way Soderbergh proved to be one of the top directors of his time, but that is also his main problem because people usually overrate his movies a lot.He made a huge campaign about Haywire, stating that his decision to make this action movie is for the fact that great action movies wasn't being produced anymore.
Gina Carano's expertise really dismiss stunts and the results are intense and realistic scenes.Being an MMA fighter, Gina Carano delivers a fair performance, but of course that she is better fighting than acting.The movie gives what it promises and Soderbergh tries to keep the actions scenes focused entirely on the fighting performances and chasing sequences never using soundtracks or gun shots more than the necessary to not overshadow all the technical attention he so wanted to experience.
And the reason I give that advice is that you will have the opportunity to experience Soderberg again but I am not sure I can say the same for Carano.This is of course a change of pace for Soderberg who is actually becoming known for his ability shape-shift between genres and do a pretty good job at each one he chooses.This is an average spy thriller lifted to above-average by an A-List cast backed by Gina Carano in the action scenes.Carano is the actual reason I wanted to review the film.
According to what I read (or should I say waded through), Steven Soderbergh saw Gina Carano fight (she is an expert in martial arts) and wanted to build a film around her.Haywire isn't your typical Soderbergh film.
And she has a great figure.The film also stars Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, and Ewan McGregor, so the inexperienced Carano was surrounded by good people who didn't have much to do.This isn't an action film up to the standards of a Bourne film, due to Soderbergh not doing much in the way of directing.
With Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender in supporting roles, "Haywire" certainly has a large part of the equation covered in order to work, but it falls decidedly in the "anywhere in between" category.MMA fighter Gina Carano is the foundation around which "Haywire" attaches its many Oscar- caliber ornaments.
Despite some really wooden line delivery in a number of scenes, she's got action star chops, and her character, contracted black ops agent and ex-marine Mallory Kane, isn't treated differently for being female."Haywire" isn't quite by-the-numbers as far as modern post-Bourne special agent action- thrillers go (nothing by Soderbergh ever is), but it places all its novelty in Carano's hands.
She's an entertaining watch, but she's not going to take generic material and make it awesome — no one's that talented.Lem Dobbs' screenplay isn't really a problem, as plenty of films in the genre have been made out of worse, but neither he nor Soderbergh make an argument for why you should watch "Haywire" instead of another movie (or even another viewing of any "Bourne" film) other than to see all the stars that have been collected to play minor characters."Haywire" follows a classic betrayed agent looking for revenge premise.
She breaks his arm and escapes in the car of a random person at the diner (Michael Angarano) and tells him the whole story of her betrayal as she flees.Soderbergh downright refuses to follow some of the most fundamental conventions of the action genre in this film, which keeps "Haywire" fresh but ultimately renders it somewhat stagnant.
With a short run time, "Haywire" never gets too boring, but it does at times feel flat.The technique Soderbergh uses that stands out the most involves flipping the traditional use of scoring in an action film.
Whereas most movies use silence to build suspense and then use music to underscore the intensity of an action sequence, Soderbergh does the opposite: he enlists David Holmes (of the "Ocean's" films) to create synthetic-sounding '70s action music leading up to action confrontations and then cuts the sound completely to make the fighting feel more raw and natural.
Gina Carano and her fighting skills have been chosen for the leading role, alongside an interesting supporting cast such as Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton and Michael Fassbender.
And it is boasting a better cast than Cowboys and Aliens - Haywire is arguably the best piece of filmmaking in the action genre in recent memory.This could obviously be expected by Steven Soderbergh, still one of America's most consistent directors.
They empower the story of a gutsy, fearless, ass-kicking woman determined to avenge herself even with a loss of trust for anyone willing to take her side after the double-crossing and the small amount of genuine help.The plot itself is told in a disjointed way which is honestly a criticism to be made of the film because I believe that it will leave several people scratching their heads for some time during their viewing experience.
A great start to the new year.Watch it if: you like new takes on genres; willing to view something with a brain (especially if you just saw something stupid like New Years Eve recently); are a fan of Steven Soderbergh and his smart direction; looking to begin your 2012 cinema experience with something good.
Exceptional cinematography and pacing; a nice twisty back-stabbing plot in exotic locales (parkour on the rooftops of a soggy Dublin!); and some heart-stopping fight sequences and stunts.There are - as others have commented - some well-known actors in this flick turning in highly enjoyable performances, but the unknown Gina Carano is actually rather excellent too.
Check her bio, and you will understand why.I thought the big fight scene between her and the always excellent Michael Fassbender was one of the best I've seen since John Cusack and Benny "the Jet" Urquidez kicked the crap out of each other in Grosse Pointe Blank.There's a decent plot going on in the background, but you have to pay attention and listen to the dialogue.
The dialogue is truly quite painful to hear made only worse by the feeble mumbling Channing Tatum (who, btw I normally truly enjoy as an entertainer in titles such as: Step Up, She's the Man, etc., but let's be honest- he shouldn't be allowed to have more than 4 words per line.) and the "Britney Spears"-quality delivery of Gina Carano (who genuinely does a fantastic job in terms of stunts and choreography, but her quasi-expressionless face (while pretty) and vacant eyes have none of the stage presence of a Matt Damon).
Missing frames and shaking cameras don't make for great fight scenes.This movie just had excellent fight scenes that depended on the knowledge and abilities of an great, real life fighter and man does it show.It is puzzling that this only has a 6.1 because there is also a cerebral element to this film, you have to watch closely to know what is going on.Maybe there is why it is rated so low, most out there like quick action, but poor fight scenes and dumbed down fluff.This is a solid 7 of 10 and I'm looking forward to the next movie from Miss Carano..
Plot line: what you'd expect from an action-thriller - pleasantly confusing, double crossing, main character (played by Gina Carrano) has to fight for her survivalActing: Absolutely fine in my opinion, I found that Carrano was charming, convincing and amusingCinematography: Very cool, slightly different style to other action films, allowed you to see all the details necessary to really draw you in, slightly artier than other action films, none of that annoying trend for shaking the camera around so much you can't even see who is fighting whoAction: BLOODY BRILLIANT, Carrano being big in the world of UFC obviously helped, all of the fighting was realistic, clever, beautifully choreographed but still felt raw and gritty.
Haywire is not the most remarkable of films, working well within the standard genre framework, but manages to be entertaining none the less.Haywire focuses on Mallory Kane (Gina Carano), an operative with a private firm that is often contracted to handle jobs that the U.S. government doesn't want to get its hands dirty with.
'HAYWIRE': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Director Steven Soderbergh teamed with writer Lem Dobbs to make this B action film specifically to showcase star Gina Carano's talents.
After a mission in Barcelona, the efficient agent Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is betrayed and chased by agents."Haywire" is a kind of "Full Frontal" of spy movies: a great cast in magnificent locations wasted in mediocre story, screenplay and direction.
Yes, the acting isn't stellar and the basic scenario has been done many times before, but come on people, you need to take it on its own terms and in terms of the basic "agent out in the cold" action/thriller with the usual shady dealings/betrayals in high places, it acquits itself very well.I'm generally pretty critical - "Hanna" for instance, a similar tale but with a young girl rather than a woman, was preposterous from start to finish.There will probably never be a truly realistic action film.
But there is a series of characters, actresses and films/TV shows that are offering females who have no problem taking down their male opponents.Haywire showed the best action sequences I've seen for some time and Gina Carano is so tough I almost felt sorry for the guys she was fighting because I knew they didn't stand a chance.
To say that this movie sucked would be an insult to movies that suck.After watching the trailer and seeing some of the big named stars in this movie(Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, and Ewan McGregor) I became excited with the idea of a great action film with the possibility of many sequels.
The story is nothing special, but for anybody who might get confused, it all gets explained right near the end.Soderbergh made sure to surround Gina with excellent co-stars who could help to do some of the heavy lifting: Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Michael Fassbender, Mathieu Kassovitz.
The director's use of location shots and more realistic(ish) action may make the movie a little slow for those expecting break neck action start to finish.Personally I felt the acting was good enough for the type of movie and Gina isn't any worse than the major male action stars..
The action here is not over the top like in Mission Impossible, but more like The Bourne Movies, the Gina Carano character half the time almost felt like a female Jason Bourne.The story has been too many times, so I won't some it up.
Elaborate fight scenes, a retired MMA fighter and a hell of a lot of shootings can only describe one film, Haywire (Dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2012).
However, Steven Soderbergh always tries to use new talent, as much as old, and Haywire sees Gina Carano in her first major acting role since retiring from MMA.One aspect of the film that will stand out to everyone who goes to see it are the fight sequences.
The film isn't anything like what its synopsis had promised, being silent for the most parts and having little spoken segments, relying on plenty of mood and music generated, which reminded me of Drive, but without the coolness and chic since it's very much grounded in reality with no frills and no flamboyance.And by that I mean no exaggeration in its fight action sequences, where sound effects usually get amplified and for some cinema, elevated to becoming a key component to camouflage the lack of hard hitting impact, which in real life hardly ever happens anyway unless someone possesses some out of this world bionics, or ability to whistle one's punches when punching through to another body.
Curiously it's how the director had decided to treat the entire material, not just allowing the fights to take centrestage, but to weave a tale of curious jet setting espionage around it, dealing with shady characters with even shadier intents, and assemble a wealth of acting talent and action knuckle-men in its testosterone filled ensemble cast - check this out: Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas etc - at his disposal to deliver on all fronts.Before you go Gina Carano who?
in terms of the lead actress on whose broad shoulders the weight of this film got carried upon, it's good background to know that she's a one time #3 in Unified Women's MMA Rankings, thus making her the genuine deal required of an action heroine, sorely missed in Hollywood these days, especially those who possess real skills and not poser ones that any camera can turn one into.
There isn't much talk here by the leading character as she devotes herself to carrying out her mission and overcoming obstacles put in her way, and Soderbergh fashions the pace and mood of the film almost like a typical 80s B-action movie if not for its European trot from Barcelona to Dublin predominantly told in a series of flashbacks.
"A dynamic action-thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Lem Dobbs, Mallory Kane(Gina Carano) is a highly trained covert operative who ends ups up being double crossed and left for dead by the people she has worked with in the past.
The Cast Is Extraordinary And Includes Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, And Gina Carano In Her Film Debut.
The Film Lacks The Choppy Editing Of Most Action Movies And Just Delivers Great Cinematic Fight Sequences.
While most of the professional cage brawlers who've made it to the film world have had to slug it out in some remarkably bad low-budget fare (e.g. NEVER SURRENDER), MMA heroine Gina Carano lucks out with a great director and a surprisingly good cast in a pretty satisfying CIA revenge flick that could easily become the foundation of a very promising career.The story: Black ops operative Mallory Kane (Carano) embarks on an intercontinental mission to find out why she was betrayed by her allies...I can easily see why the general, non- action-oriented public might not like this movie.
Real life female mixed martial arts star Gina Carano convincingly beats up the blokes in this lean Steven Soderbergh action thriller.
Starring Gina Carano, along with an A-list cast and one of the most innovative and exciting action scenes ever put to film with plot twists, and eye-popping stunts.What I like best about this film is how character driven it is.
The lack of more action may turn off some, but I liked this film more because it actually has a plot and characters you really care about.
In other words, it's a fun ride full of stunning fight scenes filmed with an artistry only director Steven Soderbergh can achieve.Newcomer Gina Carano stars as Mallory Kane, an independent contractor ...