AFI Fest's "secret" screening of Steven Soderbergh's Haywire wasn't so much a showcase for the AFI darling as it was a coming out party for MMA bruiser-cum-action heroine Gina Carano, whom Soderbergh glimpsed fighting one night on TV and subsequently built a star-studded spy thriller pic around. But it's hard to say if first-time actor Carano will branch out in a film career beyond the often lo-fi action experiment. Is she a hybrid of Angelina Jolie and Steven Seagal, as Soderbergh suggested Sunday night? Or is there more of a Cynthia Rothrock quality to Carano's steely gaze and powerhouse physicality?
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"Basically, I'm fighting evil -- I'm fighting the most evil motherf--kers -- and it's fine that they're being killed," Kristen Stewart told Box Office Magazine of her currently-filming Snow White and the Huntsman. "It's anguish. It's literally f--king anguish. She takes absolutely no pleasure in ever hurting anything. I'm exhausted right now and I was thinking, 'The fight stuff is coming up, maybe that won't be so bad.' And then I realized that they're probably going to be my most emotional scenes because I'm killing people and I'm Snow White. It's a really f--king cool way to approach a movie where so many people die." Score another badass point in favor of SWATH. Sorry, other Snow White movie. [Box Office Magazine]
It's not just Twilight star Taylor Lautner who has a lot riding on this week's PG-13 action thriller Abduction, in which the erstwhile Jacob Black plays a suave teenager who turns spy-on-the-run after discovering his life has been a lie. Director John Singleton has something to prove with his first directorial effort since Four Brothers, even if he exudes nothing but confidence while discussing the high-octane action pic.
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Now, now: The word "Indonesian" should make my description of The Raid's red band trailer intriguing enough. Will there be expensive coffee? Komodo Dragons? Beautiful Sumatran supermodels? Even better: Gareth Evans's The Raid (Serbuan Maut) has the harshest, roughest, bloodiest, fastest-paced action of any trailer I've seen this year. It is a rush, and it is shocking as hell. It's the rare movie that warrants a "red band trailer;" type in your birthday, click play, and let your jaw drop.
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Not even yesterday's first look photo of Robert De Niro and his great big bushy beard could prepare us for the non-stop macho action in the trailer for the Jason Statham-Clive Owen starrer Killer Elite, which hit the web today. After the jump, watch the wealth of punches, power kicks, explosions, gunshots, inventive action moves, and unabashed man love on display in the span of a minute and forty seconds. Then mark your calendars for September 23.
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Hold on to your hats, action buffs, because Hong Kong star Donnie Yen is about to blow your minds. In this Movieline exclusive clip from Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, Chen Zhen (Yen) -- in France with his fellow countrymen to help the Allies -- decides he's had enough with this trench warfare b.s., grabs a couple of knives, leaps, slides and sideways runs his way through a barrage of bullets, and single-handedly takes out a squadron of Germans. Thor, Transformers, Captain America -- the gauntlet has been thrown down.
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In this week's Hanna, 16-year-old knife enthusiast Saoirse Ronan joins the illustrious ranks of the lethal young women who've taken up arms (or fangs, or machine gun-arms) in the movies in the name of raining down righteous fury upon their enemies. Whether raised as assassins or transformed by tragic circumstance, these ten adolescent girls and teens don't take crap from anyone -- and they have the combined body count to prove it. If you run into any of these fierce misses in a darkened alley, let's hope they're on your side.
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