So was this Steven Soderbergh’s final project for film school?  The question is posed for it seems that the stylish director (Ocean’s flicks, Traffic, Contagion, etc.) couldn’t afford a talented lead for Haywire. Plus, the sound edit, uh, sounds as if a micro-budgeted indie filmmaker made this on his Macbook. Actually, one could probably get better sound out of that computer.

Obviously, this isn’t Soderbergh’s senior project and there was some coin behind it ($25 million) as you can surmise from the talented cast that chimed in on this 93 minute flick.  And although the action, which is to say hand-to-hand combat sequences, had some intensity to them, the script suffers immensely from the storytelling execution via the femme fatale, Gina Carano.

Her dialogue delivery is bloody awful to the point that you feel sorry for her as you watch this.  Now even though the story wasn’t all that riveting to begin with, having the majority of it told through the more-or-less rookie actress was clearly too much to ask here.  She is surrounded by an accomplished supporting cast and she does have the ability to carry them in the above mention decently choreographed fight sequences.  But once those come and go, the mediocre level this flick attains drops faster than a man between Carano’s leg scissors.  And speaking of those legs, the one thing Carano did accomplish is the dethroning of Famke Janssen (Goldeneye 1995); as she can now proudly wear the title of having the sexiest choke-hold in cinematic history.

While Carano just isn’t ready to enhance this spy-betrayed-by-the-system saga outside of using her apt MMA skills – and perhaps Soderbergh realized this during filming, as there are prolonged shots of her just running around and scaling rooftops (one of the better shot sequences though), it all falls on Soderbergh and the story to keep us wired in.  Watching Soderbergh’s camera placement is always intriguing.  If he’s shooting on a rooftop, he’ll find a crevice between a fireplace and a pipe and guide the lens through as it follows the character.  When screenplay is active, he’s at his best.  And much like his Ocean’s flicks, the luring musical score has the ability to set the tone.

Most of everything stated above is realized within the first thirty minutes.  And while the direction of this piece doesn’t quite come fully together, one is hopeful the plot will eventually catch you.  Unfortunately, it just isn’t happening here.  The atmosphere is subdued despite it being a spy-thriller.  It’s not wordy or bland like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or The American, but it doesn’t have an adrenaline rush commonly found in a Bourne movie or even Salt for that matter.  As far as originality goes, there is none.  Well, except for the fact that Carano actually looks like she can kick some ass as opposed to a 95lbs. Angelina Jolie. So basically, this is just Soderbergh’s take on a spy-thriller…that isn’t all that thrilling and has a few mechanical issues.

Overall, Haywire can never really get going.  At certain turns, you wonder if this would even make the cut to be shown in a local film festival based on the production and acting levels of Gina Carano. The pacing is fairly good when considering the short running time, yet the product as a whole feels like a rush job that people just wanted to unload.  In other words: Why bother even making this?

RATING: 2 out of 5

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Warner Bros. has unveiled our first look at Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer in the form of a teaser trailer. Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) leads the film as a young farmer called Jack who has to rescue a princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is kidnapped by giants.

From the trailer it’s clear Singer has stuck with the main beats from the Jack and the Beanstalk folktale people are familiar with, but with added elements. There are some epic looking battles teased and great landscape shots, but nothing to get too excited about at the moment.

Watch below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Jack the Giant Killer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

Ian McShane will play King Brahmwell, “who is none too thrilled about a union between his daughter and a farmer boy.” Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) is playing a villain who is “an advisor to the king with designs on usurping power” while Bill Nighy will play a two-headed giant called Fallon. Nighy will play the big head while voice actor John Kassir will play the small one. Ewan McGregor will play the leader of the king’s elite guard who helps the fight against the giants.

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie) wrote the script, and Warner Bros. will release the film June 2012.

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The first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire has appeared online. The movie stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Bill Paxton, however they are all in supporting roles. The lead belongs to Gina Carano, a mixed martial arts fighter who, by the looks of things, can also act.

Watch below:

Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her

It’s quite refreshing to see a female-driven action film that doesn’t involve Angelina Jolie. Hiring a relative unknown was a risk (Soderbergh discovered Carano on a random Saturday when watching an MMA fight), so surrounding her with strong (and well known) supporting actors was a good move.

Haywire will be released by Relativity Media on January 20, 2012.

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According to Heat Vision Ewan McGregor, best known for his roles in the Star Wars prequels and Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, is in negotiations to join the cast of Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer. McGregor will play the leader of the king’s elite guard who helps the fight against the giants.

In the movie a princess is kidnapped, threatening a long-standing peace between men and giants. A young farmer, to be played by Nicholas Hoult, is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giants’ kingdom in hope of rescuing her. The role of the princess has yet to be cast, however Australian actress Adelaide Kane and Eleanor Tomlinson (Alice in Wonderland) are both said to be in contention.

Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) is playing the villain who is “an advisor to the king with designs on usurping power” while Bill Nighy will play a two-headed giant called Fallon. Nighy will play the big head while voice actor John Kassir will play the small one.

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, The Wolverine) has been re-working the script over recent months, and Singer will begin shooting in July in London and Iceland.

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Jeremy Renner’s breakout and Oscar-nominated performance in The Hurt Locker has piqued the collective interest of film fans worldwide. So what will the actor do next?

The New York Times brings word [via The Playlist] that Renner is choosing between Peter Berg’s (Hancock, The Kingdom, The Rundown) board game adaptation Battleship or an undisclosed movie for which he’s had “no less than five meetings.” The actor will choose between the two projects soon; both are expected to begin shooting this summer.

But one thing we know for sure: Renner will suit up for director James McTeigue’s (V For Vendetta, Ninja Assassin) latest indie project, Raven. The plot synopsis is as follows:

[Raven is] a fictionalized account of the final five “mysterious” days of Edgar Allen Poe’s life. Apparently the famous writer joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. McTeigue described the film: It’s like the poem, The Raven, itself, crossed with Se7en. It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well.

Ewan McGregor is in talks to co-star with Renner in Raven, and I don’t know about you, but no amount of ninja assassins could sway my interest from this project. At this point, it’s unclear what parts the two actors would play in the film, but they are both high quality actors in an interesting-sounding story, so I’m sold regardless. Does this project interest you? What do you think about Renner’s potential involvement in Berg’s Battleship?

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If I were to give you a quiz on Amelia Earhart right now, how well would you do? Probably not so well, unless you are a female pilot or someone interested in the pop culture of the early 20th Century. Everyone knows Earhart disappears during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, probably ending up dead, possibly getting sucked into a time vortex, considering no remains were ever found.

If director Mira Nair and writers Anna Hamilton Phelan and Ron Bass decided to take the “sucked into the sixth season of Lost” crazy theory about Amelia’s death, this movie might have ended on a high note. It would have left me confused, but highly entertained instead of the reality: me, left bored and hungry after a boring film.

Amelia is beautifully shot and features a fantastic, possibly Oscar-worthy performance from Hilary Swank as the titular Earhart. The production used a real, polished, reflective Lockheed Electra while filming and re-created Amelia’s circumnavigation from African locations. The whole thing has a National Geographic gloss to it, and when the film’s score starts swelling every other scene, the gloss reveals itself to be sugary sweet and sticky.

There’s something about Amelia that doesn’t work.

Conflict, my screenwriting teachers told me, is the seed that sprouts all drama. One character is in a situation with another character and they both want something from each other. That sounds a lot like drama, and it might fit some loose definitions, but the sparkle of interesting interaction can be added to this scene by making both characters withholding of the other’s desire. Amelia fails to establish this basic level of conflict.

I’ve been describing it to people as a film made like a bad Disney sports movie. Swank as Amelia is an eyebrow-less but bright-eyed female pilot in 1928, when the film introduces her. She’s meeting with George Putnam (Richard Gere), a book publisher who hires her to command the first female-commanded flight across the Atlantic. Amelia isn’t psyched about not being able to fly, she’ll just be “commanding,” but the success of the flight will bring her fame enough to do what she wants, so she goes and successfully flies over the Atlantic. After that, there is no more conflict in the story.

Disney Sports films like The Mighty Ducks or Iron Will always take our heroes and put them in impossible situations. Even when the going gets tough and everyone laughs at a Jamaican bobsled team, the main characters hold on to their dreams of being great and won’t let anyone stop them. They work harder, train more and display more will power than the opposing team, so when they win, we’re ready. Amelia is like a Disney Sports movie character in the sense that she just wants to fly because it makes her feel free. Amelia, the movie, is not like Disney Sports because after Amelia crosses the Atlantic no one is interested in stopping her from doing anything.

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Yahoo! got themselves a new poster for The Men Who Stare at Goats. The film stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, J.K. Simmons and goat (who’s real name cannot be revealed due to an ongoing legal dispute between the Goat Actors Guild and the Association of Hoofed Beings).

The film is ‘inspired by a real story’ and follows reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) who is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. When the programme’s founder, Bill Django (Bridges), goes missing, Cassady’s mission is to find him.

Click here to watch the trailer!

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George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, and J.K. Simmons are in a movie together. It’s called The Men Who Stare At Goats, and it looks quite good. The film is ‘inspired by a real story’ and follows reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) who is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. When the programme’s founder, Bill Django (Bridges), goes missing, Cassady’s mission is to find him.”

If you look closely you will see Stephen Lang, who plays Col. Quaritch in Avatar, and Glenn Morshower who played General Morshower in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Nice bit of military typecasting there.

The Men Who Stare At Goats will be released on November 6th in the US and January 22nd in the UK.

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Explosions aren’t just limited to movies such as Transformers 2 or G.I. Joe, Angels & Demons can get in on the action too! There aren’t too many explosions mind, most of it is religious woffle troffle and Ewan McGregor in a dress, but it still looks good. Check out the Super Bowl spot below!

Directed by Ron Howard, with Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, and Ewan McGregor. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican.

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Technically this image is new, however it looks like it occurs a second or two after this image here, which we got back in August. In this new image from JimCarreyOnline Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are actually going all ‘Brokeback Mountain‘ on us. The image is from the upcoming movie I Love You Phillip Morris, and while finding out what the movie was about I came across a French trailer which was released last week. Watch it below!

“I Love You Phillip Morris” tells the story of Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), a married conman who found himself in a Texan prison where he fell in love with Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). Steven Russell tried to escape from prison four times, coming up with more and more elaborate plans, including once faking his own death. Morris was eventually released but Russell landed over a hundred years behind bars because of his escape attempts.

Thanks to Jan for the tip.

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