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18 January 2012
REVIEW: Haywire
Carano plays Mallory Kane, a government operative for-hire, ex-Marine and daddy’s girl, who becomes embroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse when a job in Dublin goes bad, forcing her to flee from her superiors under fear of a set-up. It’s a rote story arc of government conspiracy, betrayal and revenge that favours function over believability, and screenwriter Lem Dobbs’ doesn’t make any attempts to fetter his characters with subplots or independent lives outside of their jobs. The main draw after all is Carano herself and the fists and kicks she wields, why spoil it with exposition? That may be why the screenplay’s central schema is a series of fill-in-the-blank flashbacks, each crafted in such a way that the audience is only handed the information it needs at that given moment. Nothing more, nothing less.
An introductory face-off with an ex-beau (Channing Tatum) sets the pace for the fight scenes within the film, which rarely deviate from the format of: quiet build up, explosive close-quarters confrontation and swift getaway. Nevertheless, unlike much of the current action-genre landscape with it’s bevy of homogeneous shaky-cam headaches, each instance plays off with creative verve, usually employing the various settings as a means to differentiate: a rooftop chase through the grey streets of Dublin offers glimpses of parkour, the snowy forests of North America gives way to car chases, a hotel room spat with a fellow government agent (Michael Fassbender) resorts in a sexually charged wrestling match. And Carano impresses throughout -- despite the first-time-actor label and the daunting responsibility of having to carry an entire feature on one’s shoulders, there is not one scene in which her feats feel forced or out of her comfort zone, which makes watching her all the more pleasurable. Even when not kicking someone in the face her acting is surprisingly robust, as evidenced by her ability to go tete-a-tete with Fassbender’s suave secret agent in one particularly magnetic scene of psychological foreplay -- although her voice can tend towards the monotone (but to be honest, I wouldn’t expect a stocky ex-Marine to be the most expressive of talkers).
Though Carano is indeed an attractive action-heroine --and Soderbergh’s insistence on photographing everything with a soft, romantic glow attempts to leverage that allure-- the film itself has about as much sex appeal as a married Catholic couple assuming the missionary position. So clearly rooted in the Oceans Eleven series’ methodical proceduralism, the camera is fastidiously obsessed with patient wide-shots, calculated rhythms and muted palettes, which can be stifling considering the fast-paced and vibrant nature of the combat. Kill Bill-esque relish and exuberance you won’t find here.
One editing flourish during a third-act confrontation between Mallory and a partner (Ewan Mcgregor), which cuts up one piece of action between 3 or 4 ‘180 degree rule’-breaking angles all at once is a notable stylistic achievement, and reminds you of the kind of visual invention so sorely lacking in the 70 minutes prior. But otherwise we’re left with an able-bodied, if rather staid, piece of genre-filmmaking. Carano supplies the muscle.
Movie Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: Pierre Badiola
Release Date: 18 January 2011 (Out Now)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
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8 January 2012
DVD Review: Go To Blazes
You know you're watching a quintessentially British comedy when the bank robber wears a three-piece suit, bowler hat and a red carnation. And that's exactly the main selling point of this Go To Blazes rerelease, it's a nostalgic trip back to the days of the Ealing and Carry On Comedies. The film originally released in 1962 follows three hopeless crooks that decide their perfect getaway vehicle after a robbery would be a fire engine, on the basis that nobody would ever stop a fire engine. However, things are never that simple, as their plan begins to show various flaws .
Go To Blazes is billed as a lost gem of British comedy and whether I'm not sure it lives up to that, it's a reasonably entertaining way to spend a short eighty minutes. The main laughs come from the dynamic between the three crooks and the bizarre situations they find themselves in - from being mistaken as real firemen roped into putting out a tree-house fires or to ending up as models at an all-female fashion show. The three leads are entertainingly played by Norman Rossington, Daniel Massey and Dave King, who establish an entertaining and fairly amusing dynamic. Unfortunately, the jokes don't work often, feeling generally predictable and lazy.
The rerelease also seems to be focussing on Maggie Smith's appearance in the film, which is little more than a minor supporting role. A young Maggie plays Channelle (before the name was hijacked by the chavs), an assistant in a high-end clothing shore, who begins to date one of the crooks. The character is quite entertaining but is never fully utilised, serving no real purpose in the film. However, those left disappointed by the lack of Maggie, may be entertained by another British thesp, Robert Morley. Morley brings his traditional theatrical camp to the role of 'The Arsonist' - a scientist obsessed with starting fires and steals the vast majority of scenes in which he appears.
If you're looking for cheeky nostalgic British comedy then you could do far worse than spending 80 minutes watching On The Blazes. However, there are far more entertaining comedies from the same period out there.
Movie Rating: 2/5
DVD Release: 29/01/12
Stars: Dave King, Norman Rossington, Maggie Smith & Robert Morley
Director: Michael Truman
Rating: U (UK)
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