Haywire is a 2011 action movie directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Gina Carano (who at this time was best known for her MMA career), Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, and Ewan McGregor. In it, Carano plays a black-ops agent named Mallory Kane, who is burned and targeted for assassination. She has to unravel a conspiracy in order to clear her name.
When it comes to athletes turned actors, I define the spectrum as The Rock at one end (very good, lots of charisma) and Hulk Hogan/Jesse Ventura at the other (can't act their way out of a wet paper bag). Carano falls somewhere in between. She definitely does not have the charisma of The Rock, and in this movie is very raw. She obviously has been in other movies and TV shows since this movie and has gotten somewhat better, but she was extremely green when this movie was made, and you can tell that the script was written with that in mind. Carano was absolutely not good at conveying a range of emotions (and still is not) or even conveying much emotion beyond being mad and/or irritated. Her performance here is best described as wooden. You could not tell the difference between any emotional state. She looked the same being serious, angry, horny, and scared. Part of that is also due to the character she is playing, a black-ops operative who keeps her emotions bottled up. But it seems like she is basically there to look pretty and fight, which she does well doing most, if not all, of her own stunts. The movie was also made well before her controversial social-media posts that got her fired from the Star Wars franchise.
The A/V quality of the blu-ray release is very good, and there are a couple of extras. The first and most extensive is a 16-minute feature on Carano that touches on her MMA background and her training for the movie. The second is a 5-minute feature on the men in the movie, featuring interviews with all the male cast members except Douglas. Ultimately, the movie is good but not great. It definitely helped that the movie had a good backing ensemble cast that you can tell was put in place to support the fact that Carano was green. Unfortunately, the script was such that even the A-list actors in the cast could not do much. All that said, if you are into action movies and can handle a so-so script and marginal acting ability from Carano, this can be enjoyable and is worth the time to watch. The movie does not take itself too seriously and does not drag on too long. If, however, you are a casual fan of action movies, you may not like this one.
The A/V quality of the blu-ray release is very good, and there are a couple of extras. The first and most extensive is a 16-minute feature on Carano that touches on her MMA background and her training for the movie. The second is a 5-minute feature on the men in the movie, featuring interviews with all the male cast members except Douglas. Ultimately, the movie is good but not great. It definitely helped that the movie had a good backing ensemble cast that you can tell was put in place to support the fact that Carano was green. Unfortunately, the script was such that even the A-list actors in the cast could not do much. All that said, if you are into action movies and can handle a so-so script and marginal acting ability from Carano, this can be enjoyable and is worth the time to watch. The movie does not take itself too seriously and does not drag on too long. If, however, you are a casual fan of action movies, you may not like this one.
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