Friday, January 20, 2012
Haywire
Prolific director Steven
Soderbergh must be bored. Otherwise, how can you explain
his motivation for making an action thriller film
"Haywire"
(USA 2011 | 93 min.)? This film is filled with mindless
awesome fighting and chasing sequences, although hardly
anything is new or exhilarating.
Mallory Kane (Channing Tatum) is an amazingly skillful freelance assassin for hire. She walks into a breakfast joint, sits down, and minutes later, she gets into a vicious fight with an ex-colleague, Aaron (Channing Tatum). That is just the beginning of her endless running for her life. The film flashes back episode by episode what she has been doing in Europe, which seems nothing other than fighting, killing, escaping, and occasionally drinking. Then repeat. Eventually, she gets her chance to revenge toward her handlers who double across her. Despite the attempts to make the plot seem relevant by applying an intriguing rhythm, the story is absurd. Actually, even you try to engage in the plot development, you will be lost in an artificially twisted puzzle. But not to worry, in the end, you will be given all the answers about the puzzle, just in case you care.
The film's characters are also preposterous, regardless they are played by fine actors like Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Fassbender. They all serve one purpose only—to give ex-mixed martial arts fighter Channing Tatum an excuse to beat up some hunky guys on her character's behalf. Or, to be beaten. But of course, she is like a superwoman and never gets injured for unknown reasons. And from my observation, Ewan McGregor should be singing instead fighting. This is a forgettable film that does not expect you to remember anything when you walk out of a theater. "Haywire," a Relativity Media release, opens on Friday, January 20, 2012 at Bay Area theaters.
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