Haywire is a movie in that carries forward the newly begun Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) tradition of a woman annihilating her chauvinist male counterparts in delicious fashion. Granted, Haywire takes about forty five minutes to offer anything in the way of entertainment or excitement, but the visual spectacle that is Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) beating the ever living bleep, expletive, shit, out of her betrayers is worth every penny. The best part of Carano's character is she handles ever monkey wrench thrown at her and every would-be-attacker with aplomb and equipoise.
Mallory is no ordinary government-for-hire assassinette (my newly coined term for she-killer). Instead, she is a lethal weapon capable of managing and resolving any obstacle in short order and with brute force. The story begins after she has been sold-out and almost framed for a murder she did not commit. Mallory's former lover and employer Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) has taken it upon himself to expel her from his life. In a private meeting with two other government power brokers, Michael Douglas as Coblenz, and Antonio Banderas as Rodrigo, Kenneth arranges for a dissident journalist to be rescued and then killed. Mallory's personal effects are to be planted on the carcass and with the help of an MI6 agent Michael Fassbender as Paul), nobody will be the wiser, particularly not the police.
After discovering (in the middle of an operation mind you) the nefarious plot unfolding around her, Mallory returns to her hotel room with Paul. It is there where he attacks her from behind. Only through her incredible strength and relentless counter-strikes is Mallory able to survive and to extinguish her attacker's life force.
Shortly thereafter, the power brokers release information that Mallory is a criminal and a murderer. At the beginning and end, her ephemeral lover Aaron (Channing Tatum) is both her ally and one of her assailants. Tatum has proven yet again, as the song lyric goes; "you say it best, when you say nothing at all!" Good lord, somebody find him a muzzle and use him as eye candy and nothing more, ever. Mallory's staunchest ally throughout is her father Mr. Kane (played by the nonchalant Bill Paxton). Mr. Kane is a faithful parent, advisor and author to boot. He helps his daughter resolve her near-fatal conflicts.
Haywire leapfrogs across Europe and the United States and showcases Gina Carano in a variety of locations where she is able to dip, dodge, duck, dive and dodge, the five D's of Dodgeball! She practices perfect evasive maneuvers and manages to perform some ostensibly impossible acrobatic moves to escape the authorities. Once her character meets that of Fassbender's the film picks up speed and the quality action begins. It is unfortunate the inchoate phase of this movie is dreary and boring. The whole affair is rather pointless, but Carano's feminine macho-ism is priceless. I have one rather backhanding remark for Michael Angarano who plays Scott. He looks like the love child of Marc Wahlberg and Shia LaBeouf and has less than zero acting talent., not unlike his purported parents! Haywire is a decent action thriller with a bulletprood (figuratively) cast but it is not substantive and the leading lady Carano is a relative newcomer that doesn't quite connect with audiences.
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