Here we go...

Let me say I'm a big fan of lead female action flicks, and we need more of them.  Of course, "Colombiana," JMHO isn't one of them.  Nothing groundbreaking about the premises, actually I think it lacked a plot and character, and I don't think Carano (even though i thought she did fine) is going to win any Oscars for best actress anytime soon...

...but we all know that woman can kick some serious butt.  And she didn't disappoint either.  Did some of the fight scenes get a bit repetitive absolutely, but overall the choreography was great.  Believable.

It reminded me of a watered down version of "Salt."  A Bourne with boobs.  James Bond dialogue.

To Soderburg's credit, he did surround her with a very good cast.

Entertaining for sure.  If you like great action and fun, I'd recommend it.  But since most of you prefer Netflix, you will not have to wait too terribly long.

Underworld 4 is next.  But based on most reports, it maybe a box office flop.  Will see.

Ghost

Hey Ghostie, thanks for giving this title some love.
I grabbed the soundtrack, it's pretty spicy, good thriller writing fodder.

I was shocked they opened this up against another chick action flick.
What were they thinking? Underworld is a successful franchise!

Sadly, the boxoffice projections for Haywire are abyssmal. $6 million weekend! :(
Underworld is poised for around a $25 million take.

I applaud Soderbergh for riffing with Carano, but the scheduling is all wrong.
Not to mention, the int'l trailer explained the plot way better.
Got me way more interested than the all action domestic snippets.

E.D.

I had very high hopes for this film. It was sadly, for me, very disappointing. Gina Carano was great and the action sequences, sparse as they were, were well executed.

The film was sadly let down by very poor choices and edits by the director, a soundtrack that out of place and belonged to a 70's cop show and a plot that was just paper thin and without substance.

The guy she took 'hostage' in the Evo X, explaining the plot to him, so we the audience would be in the know and the killing two birds with one stone explained by Antonio Banderas character at the end, just lazy writing.

If anyone is thinking about writing an action feature, write a proper meaty one with a female lead in mind, there are bound to be people looking for projects for this actor.

Checked this out a while back. Bottom line...
I think it's easier to train an actor to fight...
Than train a fighter to act.

Carano has got lots of on screen charisma, but it fades the more she talks.
So it only fades some, since this movie's plot and dialogue are wafer thin.

My big problem with this one is the narrative flashback.
We get the first two acts told through Carano to a civilian she hijacked.
But their payoff is a whimper instead of a bag.
So the 60 minute set up fizzled for me.

Soderbergh's camera dazzles me from frame to frame.
And he assembles a fine cast to spew spy stuff.
But the sum was not greater than the parts for me.

E.D.

Saw this one last night and was seriously disappointed.  Carano's not a great actress, and no one really expected her to be, but she is a compelling presence.  And the rest of the cast has some serious firepower.  Unfortunately the story is so muddled, I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on, and not in a good way.  Bourne had a way of keeping you guessing the end game while the story sustained its kinetic energy with innovative fight scenes and Bourne's desperation to find his own identity.

The whole kidnap and murder of the Chinese dissident was too vague to base the plot around.  Unlike Bourne, you never felt Gina had that life or death personal motivation to get to the bottom of this skullduggery.  The story felt like a weak excuse to stage fight scenes.  You know it's bad when you have to have that expo dump exchange between McGregor and Channing Tatum at Bill Paxton's house.  Yikes.

BTW, that fight scene with Ewan McGregor and Gina on the beach...who filmed that?  It's like Soderbergh took the day off and handed his camera to some tourist.  You had some bizarre edits and long distance shots that diluted the visceral thrill of the hand to hand combat.  The fight scene with Fassbender was good, but aside from the fact it's a female beating up a man, there wasn't anything original about the choreography.

All in all, this felt like a script that was written specifically for Carano and written very, very quickly.  I'm sure the timing of the release didn't help out the box office for this flick, but ultimately the fact that its just a lousy movie was the nail in the casket.

Quoted from eoin If anyone is thinking about writing an action feature, write a proper meaty one with a female lead in mind, there are bound to be people looking for projects for this actor.

Carano has two pix lined up. One of them being Fast 6. (Fast and The Furious franchise)

All those specs folks written in hopes of luring Cynthia Rothrock can now start dusting them off and updating them :)

Quoted from DarrenJamesSeeley All those specs folks written in hopes of luring Cynthia Rothrock can now start dusting them off and updating them :)

Big props for the Cynthia nod!
I'd line up to see a straight up remake of this classic with Carano!
Gina teamed up with the director of The Transporter? Hell yeah! ;D

^^  Great choice, Brett!  Biao's a madman.  

Quoted from Electric Dreamer My big problem with this one is the narrative flashback. We get the first two acts told through Carano to a civilian she hijacked. But their payoff is a whimper instead of a bag. So the 60 minute set up fizzled for me.

This was my favourite aspect of the film, actually.  For me, it begged the question, would audiences have batted an eye if the lead was male and the story seemed to randomly throw in a female supporting character?  I know what you're saying about lack of payoff, and absolutely it hurt the film, but I also found it very funny to see all the people on IMDb complaining about the random irrelevant character when we never question his female equivalent.

I thought the soundtrack was hilarious.  As above, the film seemed designed at least partially to f*** with you rather than to flat-out entertain you.  

The film was about what one might have expected from a Soderbergh action thriller.  Not particularly good, but at the very least unusual.  I enjoyed the fights, and enjoyed nearly as much the explosion of angry males on the internet complaining that a woman could never beat up a man.

Quoted from Heretic ^^  Great choice, Brett!  Biao's a madman.

Run, don't walk to NetFlix and watch this movie if you haven't already. ;D

Quoted from Heretic This was my favourite aspect of the film, actually.  For me, it begged the question, would audiences have batted an eye if the lead was male and the story seemed to randomly throw in a female supporting character?  I know what you're saying about lack of payoff, and absolutely it hurt the film, but I also found it very funny to see all the people on IMDb complaining about the random irrelevant character when we never question his female equivalent. I thought the soundtrack was hilarious.  As above, the film seemed designed at least partially to f*** with you rather than to flat-out entertain you.

Yeah the male tag along aspect in general is fine for me.
It tends to happen in HK action films with leading action females.
But here, that payoff doesn't work...

It's like Ally Sheedy in WarGames...

Does Jennifer Mack have info to move the plot forward?
No. But she helps the guy she likes because she's an emotional barometer.
She gives David Lightman the humanity/support to navigate the story.

And yeah... I rambled cuz this dynamic is rampant in the script I'm writing. ;D
Anyway...

Point being, the tag along should enhance the protag somehow or why bother?
And it took an hour for a 90 minute movie to dump the schlub in the room.
Hence, the fizzling for me.

And yeah, the kooky soundtrack is noteworthy! ;D

Regards,
E.D.

Now streaming on Netflix.

As a few have mentioned, this was indeed a strange movie with a strange vibe, a paper thin plot, alot of talent on display, and a kickass new heroine in Gina Carano.

I think Gina actually did a pretty great job in her acting debut.  She's got a certain cool style to her.  Her fight scenes were fantastic.  Some of her VO work was pretty flatline, but all in all, I was impressed.

But I wasn't impressed with the story, the plot, or the structure.  Like Ryan mentioned, I too was continually wondering what the fuck was going on and why.  Way too much time spent on many chase scenes, while not nearly enough time was spent early on, developing a story.

Once things got going, it was by the numbers, and very obvious what would follow - but I have to say, I sure didn't expect a deer to show up in the back of the car!

I was a little let down in that a number of scenes didn't play out as well as I think they could have, most notably at her Dad's house in NM.  I expected much more here.

I like Gina and loved her presence, stunt work, and fighting.  Because of that, I also liked the movie, but just barely.

Quoted from Electric Dreamer Carano has got lots of on screen charisma, but it fades the more she talks.

Totally agree but to the filmmaker's credit the kept her dialogue to a minimum for, I suspect, this very reason.

It was what it was, never pretended to be anything more than a balls out, a?s kicking action flick. I didn't think it was up to much but then again I was expecting much.

The flashback device of telling the innocent civilian was pretty weak though. Initially, I thought he was someway involved before realizing that no - she's just telling him all this stuff for no other reason then to fill the audience in.

This was so bad it made my blood pressure go up. And I only watched about 15 minutes! Doesn't anyone have the balls to tell a director he's blowing it?

It's a pain to try to follow the plot. Which tends to remove us from things.

But when the story went wonder woman, I had enough. They're on a hostage rescue mission in Barcelona. As they are loading the rescued hostage into a car, one of the bad guys shows up and opens fire. Then runs away. And for some reason she chases. Wasn't the mission to get the hostage?

So she runs the city to track him down. In an alley, she grabs a garbage cover or tray or something and throws it at him from a short distance. And it takes him down! Cripe, next she can make him talk with the lasso of truth.

Then she slams down one of those metal security gates with one hand, and it traps him under what must be the immense weight of 30 lbs. It knocks him out.

Combined with other stupid aspects of the plot.., this kind of stupidity turns me off from movies in general, I'm afraid. I mean was the editing crew secretly laughing as they put this together?