HAYWIRE

This is a great action packed film with non-stop chases and revenge scenes and escapes starring a terrific female lead. her name is Gina Carano and she did not annoy me at all throughout the entire movie. She was believable with a hint of humor; she was beautiful without being plastic looking or looking so put-together you know you never saw and would never see a female like that in ordinary life; she didn't change her persona with stupid and extraneous flirty sex episodes. She remained the same character; methodical, performing her job emotionlessly, and excellent at martial arts.

The plot was nothing really new. Gina (Mallory in the film) worked for a private agency who contracted with the government to perform secret ops. Her boss played with great slime and duplicity (and boy oh boy, did he get his in the end!!!!!!!) was Ewan McGregor. The government guy was Michael Douglas; Mallory's father was Tom Paxton and Antonio Banderas was the facilitator of these undercover plans.

What was really refreshing about this movie was the breakneck speed and relentless suspense (lately, it seems all movies are 2 hours minimum and most of the time that is way too long and the movie suffers by a lot of extra stuff that just weigh it down; this film was 90 lean minutes) and the innovative camera work. When mallory was trying to get away from the very people who hired her she did a lot of roof jumping and crawling under fences and running around buildings and the photography angles would vary. You'd see her from straight-on and then from above and then from below and then from the perspective of one of her chasers. This raised the excitement level a lot.

Both of us rated it a solid 8.