Scoring her first lead role, mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano struts her stuff in this fast-paced action thriller from director Steven Soderbergh (SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE).

At a small restaurant in upstate New York, Mallory (Carano) sits and waits when a young man, Aaron (Channing Tatum) shows up. He informs Mallory that he has arrived to pick her up and that she is cutting into his vacation time. When Mallory refuses to go, Aaron throws a cup of coffee at her and a fight ensues. Mallory eventually gets the upper hand and then forces a local boy, Scott (Michael Angarano), to help her escape. As Mallory drives with Scott in the passenger seat, she begins her story.

Mallory is a covert operation specialist who handles jobs that U.S. government cannot handle. When she is recruited by Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) to go to Barcelona to rescue Chinese hostage Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong), she assembles her team, which includes Aaron. The team succeeds in their mission and bring Jiang to Kenneth’s Spanish contact Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas).

However, things come to a head when Mallory is dispatched on a mission in Dublin, posing as the wife of British agent Paul (Michael Fassbender). When Paul meets his contact Studer (Matthieu Kassovitz) and follows him into a barn, Mallory follows. She finds the body of Jiang and learns that she has been set up. A fight with Paul results in his death and when Kenneth calls Paul to confirm Mallory’s death, he learns it is the opposite. Now, with nowhere else to go, Mallory begins her quest for revenge and redemption.

The film can be best described as a B-movie actioner that just happens to have a casts of A-list talent, from Michael Douglas as the government operative who handles all the missions to Channing Tatum as a member of the covert ops team. However, despite the A-list supporting cast, the film clearly belongs to mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano, who met director Steven Soderbergh, who was so impressed with Carano’s ring skills that he hired Lem Dobbs to write the film around Carano.

Carano definitely has what it takes to be an action star. She combines the eye candy look with the martial arts skills to match. Having made a cameo appearance in BLOOD AND BONE (2009), fans will get to see what Carano can really do when she is joined by a cast of A-list talent. She does fairly well in the role of Mallory, who only has one thing on her mind: revenge. Despite having her voice dubbed over, she pulls off quite an interesting performance in terms of the acting side of the table. Should she continue with her film career, one can only think that maybe she will have a chance to polish her skills in the acting side as she already holds her own with the action side.

From the opening alone to the climactic battle pitting Carano and Ewan McGregor, this is truly Carano’s show. One may think of it as a feature-length showreel that highlights Carano’s MMA skills used in a film environment. KFC favorite J.J. Perry (UNDISPUTED 2) choreographed the film’s fight sequences and while actors Michael Fassbender and McGregor do fairly well in their fights, the opening fight between Carano and Channing Tatum (who is actually a martial artist as well in the style of Shaolin Ngor Chor) truly is one of the best fights of the film.

If you are into the simplicity of plot and love some major butt-kicking, HAYWIRE is definitely worth a rental. The film is truly Gina Carano’s as she uses her skills to excellent effect against the backdrop of a revenge plot with the support of some major Hollywood talent.

The late Jonathan Brandis and martial arts legend Chuck Norris star in this action film about a kid whose dream comes true before his eyes as well as having the courage to stand up for himself.

Barry Gabrewski (Brandis) is a teenager who suffers from asthma. At school, he has a crush on local girl Lauren (Danica McKellar) and yet he is bullied by Randy Cellini (John Buchanan), the local bully who just happens to be a martial artist. When Barry tries his hand at martial arts, he is turned away by local instructor Kelly Stone (Joe Piscopo) when Stone mocks Barry’s hero, Chuck Norris. Stone just happens to be Randy’s teacher as well.

Barry’s only road to happiness seems to be his daydreaming about joining Chuck Norris in his adventures. When Barry’s teacher Noreen Chan (Julia Nickson) catches wind of Barry’s daydreams, she decides to have him train in martial arts. While Noreen is a tai chi stylist, Barry trains under Noreen’s uncle, restaurateur Lee (Mako).

As Barry begins to train harder in martial arts, his asthma slowly begins to subside. He is able to do exercises in gym and even impress his coach when he finally stands up to Randy. Randy, undeterred and shocked by Barry’s martial arts skills, challenges him to compete in a local tournament. With Noreen and Lee helping, the team will need a fourth competitor to complete their team. Barry’s second dream comes true when Chuck Norris himself decides to join the team.

Directed by Aaron Norris (Chuck’s younger brother and co-fight choreographer), this truly tends to be quite an underrated family martial arts film. The film was made in the wake of other “family martial arts films” like the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES films and the 3 NINJAS films. This film has definitely something for those who dream of hanging with their heroes as well as needing their own strength to stand up for what they believe.

The screenplay itself was written by a martial artist, Lou Illar. Illar is a master in White Crane kung fu and he wrote this film specifically due to his training with children with disabilities. This would explain why the lead character of Barry suffers from asthma. For playing such a role, the late Jonathan Brandis does quite well. Surprisingly, he also did well in training for the film as he did his own fight scene against the school bully. However, one flaw that shouldn’t have been done is his tournament scene where he uses a pair of nunchakus. Brandis starts off well, however, the film soon turns into a dream sequence where he is replaced by a white-uniformed ninja doing the demo. This should have been Brandis’ chance to show what he had truly learned and it is sad that the chance will never get to happen.

The dream sequences with Chuck Norris, who plays himself, are quite fun to watch. Some of the dreams spoof some of Norris’ films, including MISSING IN ACTION (1984) and THE HITMAN (1991). Aside from the dream sequences, Norris gets to fight in the tournament’s sparring contest. This is where the film’s comic portion goes into overdrive. In the finals, Norris takes on Joe Piscopo’s big-mouthed, Sensei Kreese-like karate instructor Kelly Stone. When Stone starts losing, Stone takes off the top of his gi and thinks he’s Bruce Lee. When the two jump towards each other, Norris goes for a jumping side kick (a trademark move he has performed in his films), and it’s Piscopo’s reaction that stands out as the real comedy of the movie. This all comes courtesy of Norris protégé, Rick Prieto, who was the fight choreographer and even appears as a biker alongside Norris’s son Eric.

SIDEKICKS is truly a family martial arts film about heart, determination, and living your dream. If you’re not into the sappy drama of the film, it is okay. Just fast forward to the Norris-Piscopo fight and be prepared for something funny. Worth at least a rental.

Originally titled BAIL ENFORCERS, this Canadian independent action film is truly B-grade material. However, the action proves to be decent due to its combination of martial arts and professional wrestling maneuvers in part from former WWE diva Trish Stratus.

Stratus plays Jules, who holds two jobs to support her daughter as a single mother. She works as a waitress at a local strip joint but her other job is that of a bail bondsman. Her supervisor Ridley (Frank J. Zupancic) is also her current boyfriend and her other partner Chase (Boomer Phillips) always gets his mouth into trouble. On the night where the three work together to nab a drug dealer is about to change their lives forever.

On a bounty to nab drug dealer Peter (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll), the trio work together to nab Peter despite the physical efforts of his girlfriend. En route to the police station, Peter gives the trio a tip in turn for his release. Peter works for a local mob enforcer, Mario Antonio (Enrico DiFede), who is hiding out after becoming turncoat against local crime boss Hal Lambino (Joe Rafla). When Peter tells the trio where Mario is hiding, they decide to go after him for a bounty of $100,000.

When Jules, Ridley, and Chase capture Mario, Lambino finds out and makes an offer to the trio. Lambino offers the bounty hunters $1 million dollars if they bring Mario to him. The trio debates on whether they should do their job and get the bounty or get the big pay day by turning him in to the boss. Lambino, however, doesn’t take any chances. He sends his best hitman Francis (Christian Bako) as well as two Asian enforcers, Ruby (Andrea James Lui) and Deacon (Richard Ha), to track down Mario and if necessary, kill the bounty hunters.

Shot in 2010, the film made its debut at 2011′s ActionFest to moderate reviews. The film’s screenplay is definitely B-grade material, thanks to some cheesy one-liners by Boomer Phillips’ annoyingly cringing character of Chase. Chase is definitely the kind of big-mouth turn punching bag character while Frank Zupancic’s Ridley is truly the authoritative figure of the film and acts as a “glue” of sorts, despite having a relationship with fellow bounty hunter Jules.

However, the real reason to see the film is that it marks the film debut of one Trish Stratus. For those who were into professional wrestling in the early 2000′s, Trish Stratus helped re-define women’s professional wrestling for this generation. While her main background is that of wrestling, she did train in yoga and martial arts as well. Here, she gets to combine all of her skills as she worked hard into her fight scenes. In her opening fight scene, she

Stratus’ best fight scenes come when she has not one, but two fights against Canadian-based martial artist and stuntwoman Andrea James Lui. The action choreographer was credited as “Riff Havoc”, but the true identity is that of Stratus’ real-life trainer, former Canadian wrestler Ron Hutchison. Hutchison definitely made good use of both Stratus and Lui in terms of using their incorporated skills. Hutchison received assistance from members of his wrestling academy, Squared Circle Wrestling, in terms of the fight choreography. Plus, guys who are looking for eye candy must know that in their climactic fight, Stratus wears a schoolgirl outfit (a relic from Jules’ other job) and Lui sports a nurse’s outfit (in an attempt to get Mario out of an ambulance). As for Boomer Phillips, he uses more Western boxing techniques in his fistacuffs with martial artist Richard Ha, who almost literally wipes the floor with Phillips.

In conclusion, if you like wrestling and martial arts, you may enjoy the action of BOUNTY HUNTERS. Other than that, it is only worth seeing once and then most likely, you will have forgotten it.