Holding out for a hero...or heroine

It's been a summer of comic book adapations, over-long sequels to films based on Disney rides or 80s kids toys, and bro/ho-mance flicks, with a distinct lack of quality cinema fare. To date the one genre woefully malnourished this summer has been the action thriller, as more kid-friendly films  have dominated the cinema listings.

Last year saw Stallone rage against the dying of the light, with 'The Expendables', which while not great, at least provided some entertainment from over-the-top explosions, cheesy dialogue and a close-up study into the effects of human growth hormone (HGH) on the human body (seriously check out Stallone and Micky Rourke's massive, claw like fingers).

Mickey agreed on theclear resemblance of Sly's fingers to a pack of Denny's pork sausages

Slightly higher up on the 'brow' scale, 'Inception', directed by the excellent Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) also proved that a smart story didn't have to be sacrificed in order to add more squibs, and was one of the highlights of last year for me.

In contrast, this year we've had the stupid blockbuster action film in 'Fast Five', yet another 'Fast and Furious' sequel, notable only for having almost-but-just-not-quite action stars The Rock and Vin Diesel stare each other down repeatedly in full on homoerotic fashion. Nothing wrong with that, but you wouldn't catch Arnie engaging in such a display...

...'cough'.

 With neither The Rock or Vin Diesel delivering, it may just take a woman to do 'a man's job' with the first trailer for 'Haywire', an upcoming action film starring MMA fighter/legitimate badass/extremely hot Gina Carano, which looks, quite frankly, fantastic.

That the main protagonist for an action film is female isn't exactly new, Cynthia Rothrock carved out a name for herself as the 'female Chuck Norris' in the 80s/90s, and even Angelina Jolie has tried her hand at the genre a number of times, most recently with 'Salt'.

The difference I see with 'Haywire' is 1) Unlike Anglina Jolie, Gina Carano has the martial arts background that adds authenticity to her moves and to the physicality needed in an action film as opposed to numerous stunt doubles and, 2) This film is directed by Steven Soderbergh, director of OSCAR winning 'Traffic', 'Oceans 11' and 'Erin Brockovich'.

In short if this man could get a award-winning performances out of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones, then he for damned sure can get a passable performance out of Carano!

The support cast includes the likes of Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas (with a quite frankly tremendous beard) and the great Bill Paxton. That is too good a cast to be wasted on your typical, straight-to-dvd action film, and with Soderbergh directing, there's every reason to be hopeful if you're a bit of an action junkie.

Check out the trailer and let the old school gravelly-voiced voiceover guy lead the way.

'Haywire' is scheduled for UK release in January 2012, and will be well worth seeing, if only for Banderas rocking the beard.