Trailer Tracking: ‘Drive,’ ‘Contagion,’ ‘Paranormal Activity 3,’ ‘Haywire’

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Movie: “Haywire”

Best Parts of the Trailer: The supporting cast; the Gina Carano/Michael Fassbender hotel fight; the supporting cast; the lack of CGI action scenes; did we mention the supporting cast?

Worst Parts of the Trailer: The extremely cheesy action movie trailer narration (“she is our nation’s most valuable weapon… in a world…”); the final “you better run” Schwarzenegger-esque moment

Our Take: Wait, weren’t we just talking about Soderbergh a minute ago? Didn’t Matt Damon tell us that he was retiring? (We kid, we kid.) The trailer for “Haywire” shows off so much about why Steven Soderbergh is simply one of the most interesting directors out there. The fact that he can go from a serious, big-budget, world-spanning character drama, staffed by a murderer’s row of Oscar-bait actors, to a much smaller, gritty, spy noir thriller built around a female mixed-martial arts star who has never headlined a movie before, all in the same year – c’mon, that’s just cool. Soderbergh has proven that he can do great popcorn flicks before (i.e. the Ocean’s trilogy), but the story behind “Haywire” is way more interesting than Steven just wanting to get his Bourne on.

The fact that Soderbergh found a woman, MMA-champ Gina Carano, who could seriously kick-ass in real life and constructed a bad-ass spy thriller around her – it’s unheard of. Action films like this barely exist anymore and, when they did, they were normally just the province of men. Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Tony Jaa – they all had a long series of movies crafted, not around their acting talent (hell no), but rather around their aptitude for kicking butt. So the idea that an Oscar-winning director decided to create a throwback action showcase for a female MMA-star is both very unusual and very, very cool.

And you have to admit, for the most part, Carano looks great in the trailer. Yeah, she’s easy on the eye, but we’re mostly admiring her capacity for violence. She’s confident, strong, and the few action scenes featured really do a nice job of selling the action scenes. It looks like Carano is skilled enough that Soderbergh can rely on wider shots, with less editing, to really show that she’s doing all of her own stunts in frame without computer-aided assistance, which 100% rocks. One of the many cool things about doing a ‘90s action throwback (aside from the sheer nostalgia) is the giddy joy of actually watching some really talented athletes doing amazing things in a single shot. It’s something we don’t get enough of nowadays in the age where CGI and overdone, Greengrass-esque editing can make anyone look like they’re a ninja.

But Carano, bless her mighty fists, isn’t even the coolest part of the trailer. The sublime thing that happens when a director like Soderbergh decides to do a low-budget genre experiment is that he can get all of his A-list friends to help out and, dear lord, Haywire might have the most jaw-dropping supporting cast of the year. Remember when you were shocked that Robert Rodriguez got Robert De Niro to show up in “Machete”? That’s NOTHING compared to Soderbergh doing a MMA spy flick, with an unknown in the lead, and assembling a supporting cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, and Michael friggin’ Douglas. And not only does that killer cast of gold-standard actors lend their collective gravitas to the proceedings, they also look like they’re having a ton of fun. Paxton and McGregor are hamming it up, Tatum and Fassbender get into huge throwdowns with Carano – her tussle with Fassbender is one of the trailer’s highlights – and Douglas and Banderas make great shadowy agency types. Yes, the plot about “the nation’s most valuable weapon” getting betrayed and seeking revenge is a little basic, but it looks like Soderbergh has really tapped into the fun, pulpy side of this twisty genre throwback.

In fact, our only big concern is about Carano. She’s an unknown quantity with this being her first major film lead and, while we have no doubt in her ability to sell the action, we’re just not sure if she’s up to it on the acting side, particularly up against such an intimidating cast of co-stars. Her final “you better run” line in the trailer is pure cheese, right out of a ‘90s Schwarzenegger vehicle, and she doesn’t get a lot of her talking scenes featured in the trailer, but we’re going to give her the benefit of our doubt. Soderbergh has made a career of creating films with non-traditional lead actors – ranging from “Bubble” to “The Girlfriend Experience” – so we trust in his ability to pick diamonds out of the rough.

TRAILER OUTLOOK: Surprisingly fun. Soderbergh knows how to make a great trailer, and this entertaining, impeccably cast female Bourne alternative looks like a kick-ass good time.

By TOM BURNS
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
tom@hollywoodchicago.com