Haywire - Kicks Butt!

Movie: Haywire

My Rating: 5 stars

I went and saw Haywire last night, and all I can say is that that movie is totally awesome.  It’s one of those films that gets you all riled up and inspires you to go out at take kickboxing lessons—men and women alike.  That’s kinda cool.  It was one of my friends that convinced a group of us to see this in the theater.  I didn’t really know that much about it, and he only billed it as a “lady MMA fighter movie.”  I didn’t know if that meant it was going to be a training movie, or an action movie, but it was enough to get me interested.

It turned out to be an action thriller.  It’s a story about a super-efficient, highly trained, private defense contractor (the amazing Gina Carano).  She works for some Blackwater-type operation, engaging in super risky, high-stakes, tactical missions—retrieving hostages, tracking dangerous war criminals—that sort of thing.  She’s the best in the game, and all her potential employers know it.  But, on her most recent operation it appears she’s been set up, and made to look like a rogue agent.  So, now she has to make her way home, figure out who betrayed her, all while trying to evade the law.  And these aren’t your ordinary police officers.  It’s those SWAT team guys, with those big, scary guns.  It’s not the ideal situation in which to find yourself.  But, we’re dealing with one tough chick.  She’s kicking butt and taking names almost from the very beginning of the film, and she doesn’t stop for very long in between.  Carano is clearly doing her own stunts.  It’s amazing to see the way her body moves after having watched bubbly, little, Hollywood starlets pretending to do martial arts in movies my whole life.  (Move over Mila Jovovich—your ride’s over).  You can tell the difference immediately when you see a real professional doing these moves for the first time.  The muscle control is just completely different.  It’s hypnotizing.  And, since Gina Carano is an MMA fighter in real life, she’s not afraid to take some real shots.  And, some of those body and face blows look and sound alarmingly real.

This movie is so cool.  It’s one of those ones that has you gushing about it to your friends as soon as the credits start to roll.  You know the type—the kind that has the whole audience give a collective, “AAAAWWWWWW!” right at the end.  It’s that awesome.  And, I can’t wait to see Carano in more movies.  And, after that now-legendary thigh-strangling scene, I’m sure there are plenty of men out there who are thinking the same.