I really hope that Gina Carano becomes the new face of female action. Don’t get me wrong in that there are plenty of strong female leads in action/adventure films, but there is something jarring about watching a 110 lb female like say Angelina Jolie in Salt, one punch knocking out NFL linebackers. There isn’t anything believable about that and she just does seem like her character to do damage with those waffish arms. But Carano, an MMA fighter a body that looks like it’s built Ford tough, that I can believe in. So continuing his tradition of casting non-traditional actors and actresses in high profile Hollywood film, Steven Soderbergh gives us the action heroine that we deserve when watching a woman dismantle guys her size without breaking a nail, and looking damn fine if I must say so.
It’s that time once again for more trailer to get your excited for upcoming movies and I got two that are right up my alley. We got “The Day” which is a post apocalyptic film, which I love, and finally a movie that is basically Jason Bourne, but as a chick, in “Haywire”. A couple more action oriented movies, but none the less look fantastic and exciting. So lets take a look…
The Day:
Oh how I love my apocalypse genre of movies. The trailer for this is low-fi in the sense that we don’t get much dialogue, we aren’t certain what is happening and why things just go haywire all of a sudden. All I know is that when I see a band of humans together with guns strapped to their backs, roaming the country side for a rickety old house for shelter, I know that things are bad and we are in a post apocalyptic setting. The synopsis describes the movie as an action-thriller and trailer does set a moody tone to it, plus have an Explosions in the Sky song accompany the trailer is ok in my book. Hopefully more info will come of this movie, but we will have to wait since Slash Film has indicated it will play at the Toronto Film Festival and will await their impressions on the movie.
Haywire:
Yep, standard government weapon agent going rogue after possibly being betrayed by the same people she works for, got it. The thing about this movie that makes me want to see it, minus the stunningly gorgeous Gina Carano, is that Steven Soderbergh is branching out and casting a unique person into the role. Also it doesn’t help that the side casting contains Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, and Bill Paxton. Damn that is a lot of talent in one movie.
Now back to the unique casting quip, Steven Soderbergh is branching out with his casting choices in lead roles and actually casted someone who looks like they can walk into a bar, knock your teeth out, knock back a bottle of whiskey and go home and wreck shit up in the bedroom. Gina Carano is an MMA fighter by trade, so she has the physique to make the action sequences look genuine and have impact, plus she is a stone cold fox. I have commented before about women in action roles and it’s not that I don’t enjoy seeing them in it, I really do enjoy watching females whoop ass, but when you have a 100 pound woman one shot knock-out dudes who look like linebackers, there is a sort of disconnect in watching their scenes. Kill Bill was believable because Beatrix was a trained deadly fighter, we see her training and know that she is deadly. My review of Hannah also covered how it was believable that a 12-year-old girl could flip dudes over tables and snap necks like a champ. We see her training, we know her back story and it is believable. Salt on the other hand I can’t believe because the main character looks like a stiff wind would break her back. Gina Carano looks tough as hell and can beat up any man in the room. Granted she doesn’t much to any experience in acting, but when it comes time to fight, she is good to go. Is it going to be a thought-provoking movie? Probably not. Is it going to be awesome watching a woman who kicks ass for living, have believable action sequences with her male counterparts and looks good doing it? Absolutely.
Another Plot Device 