Girl Delivers Beat-Down

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

So tonight, after some quick shoveling, I went to see the new movie Haywire with...invader_haywire.

Short story, Mallory works for a private security firm. One of her jobs goes pear-shaped and she gets the blame. Now she has to fight everyone to find out what's going on, who betrayed her and how to set things right.

Mallory is played by Gina Carano who did women's MMA for a while. So the fight scenes aren't some beautifully choreographed Hong Kong deal, they're vicious, brutal things, but with the MMA element, you've got lots of locks and holds and fewer punches. The fights are pretty short and no one looks prettier at the end than when they started.

The plot basically moves Mallory from one fight scene to the next but there's a lot of good actors up there who really enjoy being in a spy/revenge flick. There's also a fair amount of humor isn't too over-the-top, but just a nice contrast every now and again.

Although this has a tough woman being tough, she's tough of her own choice (no traumatic origin story). The movie utterly fails the Bechel test. Actually, I guess she talks to a shopkeeper about a new mobile phone at one point but that's two lines of dialog at best. For the most part, Mallory is the only woman in the movie. So...baby steps I guess.

But like I say, if you like watching strong women kick the crap out of some big-name actors, this is a fun popcorn movie.

later
Tom

Comments

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

if you like watching strong women kick the crap out of some big-name actors, this is a fun popcorn movie.

Oooh, I'm there! :-)

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Oddly, the main reason why I'm considering watching this movie is because it's chock-full of male eye candy. :)

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Michael Fassbender spends about half his time shirtless, until Carano kicks his face in. Channing Tatum is fully clothed the entire time. Antonio Banderas is rocking a Fidel Castro beard; this may work for some but is kryptonite for me. Could be better, could be worse.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the facial hair kryptonite is kind of a problem! Ewan McGregor's in that one too, right?

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Oops, yeah, McGregor's in it too. I forgot about him since (a) he's not naked at all (which is unusual for him), and (b) he's working a haircut so awful it actually made me look fondly on Banderas' beard.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of an aside I once read in a review of a movie. I think the film being reviewed was the original The Fast and the Furious, and the aside in question was when the reviewer mentioned Michelle Rodriguez and immediately followed it up with something like, "... who will have to punch somebody in every movie she's in for the rest of her career because she was in Girlfight... " before moving on to whatever the rest of the sentence was meant to say. :)

[rapha.livejournal.com]

Michael FASSBENDER! Swoon.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

This movie was about 30 times better than it had any right to be. I am looking forward to inflicting it on my friends repeatedly when it goes to DVD in about...a week.

[drwex]

Ebert liked it, surprisingly. I will probably try to see it despite the spinny killbot thing.