ANALYSIS:
HAYWIRE is a twisty thriller that reminds
me of spy and action thrillers from the 1960s and 1970s. The music is one of
the key reminders. It goes back and forth in time as Mallory first recounts
the story of how she was set up to how it all started before Mallory was involved in this mess she's not running from. Gina Carano is impressive in the action scenes and I would love to see her in
more movies (despite her wanting to back into Mixed Martial Arts fighting). She
is like a new discovery. Steven Soderbergh wanted to make a movie starring her
after seeing her fight, and HAYWIRE is the result.
HAYWIRE starts with Mallory showing up
at a dinner in cold and snowy upstate New
York. She is supposed to meet with her soon to
be ex-boss Kenneth, but Aaron (one of the people she has worked with) shows up instead.
A fight breaks out and she takes a young man with her in his car. She
starts recounting the story about her mission in Barcelona to bring in Jiang (who
is holed up in a safe house). Mallory considers this to be her last job
for Kenneth, but he manages to convince her to pose as a wife for a MI-6 agent in Dublin. She discovers she is being set up for the fall and begins to evade teh police.
HAYWIRE could easily be the start of a
franchise with a character you could use for a sequel. Soderbergh uses
his art film techniques to create uniquely edited scenes with the mission in Barcelona
playing out partly in black and white. Some of the action scenes are throwbacks
to British spy thrillers while the climax reminds me a little of the end of the original GET CARTER. Mallory works to unwind the conspiracy that has been weaved while Coblenz
(the government guy who hired Kenneth's company for the Barcelona mission) knows
there may be something fishy with Kenneth and he wants Mallory to find out the truth.
HAYWIRE doesn't rely on shaky cameras or quick editing for the action scenes which makes those scenes much easier on
the eyes. Some of those quick editing and shaky camera action scenes are
sometimes not easy on my eyes when I watch something like the BOURNE films on the big screen (they end up giving me a headache). HAYWIRE is the type of action film I would love to see a sequel to. Plus I hope Soderbergh puts off his retirement from filmmaking because sometimes he
makes great action thrillers like HAYWIRE.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray doesn't have much in bonus
features. No theatrical trailer and Steven Soderbergh doesn't do audio commentaries.
Two featurettes on the film are included
along with a code to download the digital copy of the movie from iTunes.
GINA CARANO IN TRAINING (16 minutes) covers
the casting of Carano as Soderbergh decided to make a movie around her in addition to covering the four weeks of training
she went through (with behind-the-scenes footage) and a look at the three of the major fight scenes in the movie.
THE MEN OF HAYWIRE is a five minute featurette
as the actors of the film reflect on their characters and talk about Carano.
FINAL ANALYSIS: HAYWIRE is like the old 1970s action thrillers they used to make.
At least see it for Carano because she is an action movie star on the rise. The
transfer could have been a little bit better (in terms of the black values) and I wish there were more extras.
this review is (c)5-4-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.
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