Haywire

A female killing machine is double crossed and swears vengeance against her employers.

When female super soldier "Mallory Kane" is double crossed by unknown sources, she goes after the men who have made her life a living nightmare. She has to first figure out who the people are who are trying to kill her and make her way back to the USA to put this menace to an end.

In a world of back stabbing, counter intelligence, where you cannot even trust the people who claim to love and care for you, it is difficult to be able to establish who is trying to get rid of you. When she gets back to the US, she is thrown into not only a political struggle, but also an emotional one, trying her utmost that the only man she has ever loved would want to get rid of her.

Using all of her extensive skills, "Mallory" has to track down the people trying to kill her and turn the tables on them, if she is ever to gain revenge on her employer and save the life of her father.

American director Steven Soderbergh, has made some truly incredible films in his career, but seems to have forgotten to read the brief when making this film. For starters he chose to use mixed martial artist turned actress Gina Carano as the lead in this film. Her portrayal of "Mallory Kane", although very good technically, the fighting scenes being truly amazing, does still not make up for her complete lack of acting talent. She does well on the physical side of the role, but her delivery of lines and attempt at emotion are truly sad to behold.

Thankfully she has a cast behind her which any Hollywood director worth their salt would drool over. Ewan Mcgregor does well as the devious "Kenneth", the ex love interest of the lead character, but it is still difficult to get used to him with an American accent. He takes a step down from his last outing in "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" and not even his extraordinary talents can make this one any brighter.

Acting legend Michael Douglas, does a decent job as the government stooge, "Coblenz", while fellow theatrical genius Antonio Banderas delivers a decent showing as the blood-thirsty "Rodriguez". Sadly neither of these fine actors can make up for a strangely flat script. Channing Tatum, the flavour of the month at the moment, gives yet another very decent performance as "Aaron", adding yet more weight to his struggle to be taken seriously as a good actor, and not a piece of eye candy. He has done a few very good films lately and long may this continue

Michael Fassbender makes a fleeting showing in this one, his performance is violent, but he does a lot better than his most recent showing in "Shame". His role as "Paul" is convincing and made me think that he might make a rather good "James Bond" in the coming years

The action in this film is probably the only true saving grace. The story is disjointed and slow, and takes a long time to really reach a climax. I went in expecting so much more of this film and was grossly disappointed. Fight fans should enjoy this one, but serious film followers will not be impressed

4/10