First we waited for them to decide to release HAYWIRE (it’s set for January 20th), now thanks to the nerds of comics conventioning they decided to also try to advertise it. They had a panel at the San Diego Comics Club (anybody go?) so they also released the poster and the trailer online.
The trailer seems to support my theory that Steven Soderbergh + Lem (THE LIMEY) Dobbs + “The Face of Women’s MMA” Gina Carano + topnotch supporting cast + fight choreographer JJ (UNDISPUTED II) Perry = thank god they finally decided to make a real action movie and release it in theaters.
Click on the click here thing for the trailer and more comments
So you can see why I’m excited for this one, right? After several years of having to learn how to appreciate post-action movies like SALT and THE MECHANIC REMAKE where I have to look really hard to find a clear action beat, here’s a whole bunch of them that look great even cut into a trailer and viewed on my jittery over the hill computer. At the same time it’s full of badass character moments and situations and still maintains a serious not-treating-you-like-an-idiot feel (not that I’m against ludicrousness, obviously. I’m a staunch supporter of ludicrousness).
I think Soderbergh has one of the most consistent track records of any working director. Maybe it’s because he’s so eager to experiment – even in the rare cases where he blows it I at least think “well, I like that he tried that.” Every one of his movies is at least interesting, almost all of them are pretty good to great. This reminds me alot of the tone of one of his very best, THE LIMEY, combined with his take on a BOURNE type of thriller.
Somewhere that posted this trailer, I forget where, they claimed Carano had “stiff line readings” and they were worried about that. I gotta call bullshit on that. I’ve watched the trailer like six times now and I don’t know which part you would say that about. I don’t think there’s any way they would’ve said that if they hadn’t read she was a fighter and assumed she was an actress. If it was true I would still question it, because if you can’t dig on the concept of an athlete, martial artist, body builder or wrestler starring in a movie due to their physical abilities, charisma and presence more than their nuanced acting skills then obviously you don’t like action movies so why do we care what your opinion is on this trailer?
Think of it this way: her acting is better than Van Damme’s generally is. And if this was a trailer for a new Van Damme movie I’d still be fucking excited. Not to mention we’re dealing with a director who has gotten good performances out of Jennifer Lopez, Sasha Grey and the manager of a KFC.
The point is my hopes are up. If this isn’t great I’m gonna be real disappointed. HAYWIRE and PROMETHEUS are my official list of Most Anticipated Movies.
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July 23rd, 2011 at 3:57 am
Actually, her acting does come across as kind of bad. Also, I was hoping for more of an MMA feel in the fight scenes.
The movie still looks awesome as hell, though. Great action, nice and direct action movie plot, and obviously the amount of talent involved makes me a little giddy.