Lady Fighter

Beauty and.. er.. brawn mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano gets her first break into big-ticket Hollywood with Haywire. In a movie that is rather understated even as it carries the weight of an all-star cast and pans global locales, Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) recounts a mission where ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) sends her off to Barcelona, on a mission directed by US Government agent Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and his Spanish contact Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) to rescue a man in Barcelona. The mission is not quite what it seems – and nor is Mallory's subsequent assignment to pose as the wife of MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender) in Dublin. Mallory has to rely on her own wits and do her own fact-finding in a setup laden with multiple traps. And with the audience on her side, one hopes that she get the better of the nexus in the end. A well-paced introduction to a new action heroine, who will sharpen her thespian skills even as she can clearly hold centre-stage in a tightly scripted Steven Soderbergh thriller

14/20

This Series Hereby Sleeps

Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps – has the tough task of measuring up to its legendary predecessor that was anchored by two extremely strong leads – Charlie Sheen (featured in the current movie in a cameo is a shockingly aged incarnation) and Michael Douglas (not quite his former self in this edition, as an out-of-prison Gordon Gekko). Lead Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a level-headed investment banker, with a reasonably modest existence (by IB standards of course) and a penchant for the ethical and for clean technology. Jake works through the meltdown and the collateral damage of looking to marry Gordon Gekko’s daughter – is Gekko now a changed man or the same marauder that he was in the 80’s? With strong overtones of the fall of Bear Stearns and the continued survival of the likes of Charles Schwab, this movie is a bit of a mishmash between high street finance parleys, and good old family values. Generally entertaining without being edge-of-the-seat, and marred by shoddy cinematography and editing in some degree, this is an entertaining movie but cannot hold even the merest hint of a candle to the original

11.5/20

A few unrelated ones

Michael Douglas is perhaps the only actor who can hold a candle to the long line of Italians for his sheer intensity on screen. The Game (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/) is a simple "victim of a con job" with numerous twists, some barely believable, but entertaining nevertheless - what stands out is the lead's intensity and the frantic pace of the movie. A relatively hackneyed theme, well executed - just as in the case of Cloverfield (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/) - NYC under attack for the umpteenth time, but the footage over a Handycam and the relentless pace superbly executed. Who was it that said that we discover something new every day? Director David Fincher of the former has to his credit Alien, Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac. He could do worse. Definitely one to comprehensively cover, as it were

Speaking of good movies, there are movies that one watches that one wishes were not made. I am not speaking of the good-intentioned flops, the tributes to sheer lack of talent. I speak of plagiarisims and ripoffs so poorly done and such obvious and shoddy attempts to milk a genre, they bring discredit to all concerned. In the Name of the King (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460780/) should have known better than to shamelessly rip off LOTR. And poorly too. Hope it does not put the brakes on Jason Statham's rise to reasonable fame. If you seek period pieces of recent make, I strongly recommend Beowulf (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/) while Tristan + Isolde and 300 also make for decent viewing.