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Hey if you look really hard at the beginning of this new Expendables 2 trailer, you might see Randy Couture. I think… maybe… actually I’m not really sure, but we’ll pretend it’s him flying down the zipline to give this post some sort of MMA connection so no one pulls out the “this isn’t MMA, why did you post this??!?!?!” comment I love so much.

Anyhoot, the trailer also features other cool stuff like Arnold Schwarzenegger ripping off a car door with one arm (…seriously lol), Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris being a badass (!) and plenty of cheesy one-liners like Statham’s “I now pronounce you husband and knife” and Arnold’s “I’m back!” Oh, and if you’ve ever wanted to see Frank Dux nail Rocky Balboa with one of his flying, spinning, split kicks, that’s in there too. Van Damme vs. Stallone = AWESOME!!!

Video via IGN

Hey look, it’s Dan Henderson beating the living crap out of Cung Le in Jean Claude Van Damme’s new movie “Dragon Eyes.” Poor defenseless Cung eats H-Bomb after H-Bomb after H-Bomb. Uh, can you say worst nightmare?

HT: FightLinker

A trailer for the new action film starting MMA superstar Cung Le, and famous action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

From the official press release:

THE BATTLE FOR THE STREETS BEGINS

St. Jude Square is a neighbourhood living in fear as duelling drug gangs and corrupt police terrorize the streets… until hope arrives in Hong (CUNG LE – FIGHTING, TEKKEN, PANDORUM ), a mysterious stranger who after release from prison decides to take a stand and fight back. Using his unparalleled martial arts skills and calling on the teachings of his ex-cell mate mentor Tiano (JEAN -CLAUDE VAN DAMME — UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, TIMECOP ) Hong begins his savage campaign for justice, taking on the brute force of the gangs and the notorious corrupt police chief Mr V (PETER WELLER – ROBOCOP, 24 and the upcoming STAR TREK 2013 ).

A heavy handed barrage of bare knuckle street fighting and mixed martial arts, that also features UFC stars Dan Henderson, Trevor Prangley and Gilbert “EL NI ÑO” Melendez, Dragon Eyes comes to DVD & Blu-ray 9 April.

So I’m going to take a wild guess that Gina Carano doesn’t return to MMA and Strikeforce anytime soon.

Reason being she just landed another leading role in an action film. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story late tonight.

After making her breakthrough with the action vehicle Haywire, the MMA fighter-turned-actress is coming on board to star in In the Blood, an action thriller being directed by John Stockwell (Into the Blue, Blue Crush).

Described as being in the vein of Taken, Blood is set in motion when a husband disappears while vacationing in the Caribbean with his wife, to be played by Carano. The grieving wife passionately and recklessly pursues the men whom she believes kidnapped and killed him. Bennett Yellin and James Robert Johnston wrote the script.

“This role will showcase not only Gina’s fighting skills, but also her acting abilities as her character struggles to reign in her violent past,” Stockwell tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie is scheduled to start shooting in late spring/early summer so it’s pretty much a given that she wouldn’t fight again until well after the movie wraps, if she ever fights again period. She didn’t close the door on returning to MMA in her recent round of interviews, but it certainly sounded like acting is the priority in her life now. I’d love to see her fight again, but hey if acting is where her heart is now and she can make a career out of it, then good for her. Either way, we still get to see her kick butt.

Image via Esther Lin for Strikeforce/Showtime

The mystery has been solved.

In an interview with Fightlinker’s Matthew Polly, Gina Carano confirmed that her voice was in fact altered in Haywire. Her explanation:

GINA: Yeah absolutely and I’m surprised that hasn’t come up sooner. Stephen Soderberg wanted Mallory Kane [the character she plays in the movie] to be a completely different entity than Gina Carano. So he definitely went in and I went in to AVR and he did some tweaking. We all knew that that was going to come up because people know me so well in the MMA world. But he is quite a genius in what he has created and it still was an honor to be a part of it. Even though it might not sound exactly like me, there are still parts of me that are in there. But he just wanted to make sure that that entity was completely different from myself.

ME: Gotcha. And I just wanted to be clear, because TMZ was hinting that you had been dubbed over by another actress and I just wanted to clear up that that wasn’t what happened.

GINA: Yeah, everyone was a little curious about that. And I don’t blame anyone for being curious about it. But if I was bald and they had given me the voice of Bill Clinton I still would have done the movie.

Funny enough, Gina’s publicist immediately jumped in and stopped the interview after she answered the question. Maybe it was just coincidence, but it sure seemed like they don’t want her saying too much about it. I personally think changing her voice is kind of lame, but I haven’t seen the movie yet so maybe it was the right call.

Switching topics, Gina also commented on Cris Cyborg’s positive steroid test. Understandably, the news makes Gina wonder if Cyborg had an unfair advantage when they fought.

I definitely could have lived without hearing the news that she had tested positive. You know, it kind of hurts. For me that was one of my biggest moments. That was my biggest moment in mixed martial arts… It was huge. And of course people were saying that around me and I didn’t want to take anything away from her so I would steer clear of that question. But now that it’s positive years later, it really kind of hurts. But at the same time it could be some misguided direction. Someone around her was telling her that was a good idea. Obviously it isn’t something an athlete like her needs to do. She’s already a phenomenal athlete without it. I’m not going to sit here and rejoice in the hard time she’s going to have to fight back into the hearts of the fans to, you know, not be considered a cheater. I know she’s a great person and she’s going to get past this hard time and use it to make a better person out of herself. I know that because I’ve been around her, the little I have. It’s unfortunate that someone around her was telling her she needed it. That hurts my heart for her. But at the same time, there is this other part of me that’s like, “Dammit, I don’t want to hear that, because that was the biggest moment in my life.” I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it felt like a stab in the heart.

Gina basically went off the grid after that loss, however she said she would have “absolutely” continued fighting and working for a rematch if the movie hadn’t come along. But since it did, she has some major decisions ahead of her. Given the opportunity she says she would do “another film over and over and over” in a “heartbeat,” but she doesn’t want to completely abandon her MMA career. She’s not giving any concrete answers on her future, but it sounds like acting is probably going to take priority in her professional life if those opportunities are there, and similar to Cung Le, we could see her take sporadic one-off fights in between roles.

Image via Esther Lin for Strikeforce/Showtime

I attended an advance screening of “Haywire” tonight, which stars Gina Carano. This is relevant to our collective interests because, hey, it’s Gina Carano. You remember her, don’t you? She was labeled “The Face of Female Mixed Martial Arts”, and together with Cris “Cyborg” Santos, was the more hormonally-balanced half of the biggest female MMA bout in history. So how was Haywire? Let’s just say that when director Steven Soderbergh is on, he can make a fantastic film. Also, Carano can’t act.

The story concept isn’t a new one – a “secret agent” gets betrayed in the field, goes on the run, and tracks down those who ganked her – but there are flourishes of the modern world in there. Carano’s character, “Mallory Kane”, isn’t so much a secret agent as she’s a private contractor (and ex-Marine), and the “betrayal” hinges not on shifting international ideologies but on money and government contracts. Aside from one fisticuff on a beach, the fight scenes are exciting and believable, a mix of Jason Bourne and Anderson Silva that doesn’t stretch reality too much. Carano’s co-stars, which include Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender and Bill Paxton, all turn in palatable performances. And Soderbergh infuses the flick with the same stylized storytelling (read: use of score and scene dissection) that made his other films, such as “The Limey”, “Traffic” and “Ocean’s Eleven”, so entertaining. But whenever Carano speaks… damn. Just damn.

Which isn’t to say she’s like Sophia Coppola in “The Godfather Part 3” – she doesn’t sink Haywire, she’s simply the reason it takes on a bit of water towards the end. Yes, we get that she’s supposed to be a badass, capable of taking a hard beating before eventually slipping on an armbar or triangle choke (and following that up with a close-range gunshot wound to the face). Yes, she’s a fast thinker, and calm, cool and collected under fire. All that was believable. What was not, however, was her simmering anger and the appurtenant one-liners. The Carano we know grins sheepishly after winning via TKO in the cage; she does not stare into the camera and convey cold hate. Sorry, not happening.

While Haywire falls short of “Warrior” in terms of where it rests on the MMA-related movie ratings scale (note: Warrior was a solid film), it’s by no means the next “Never Back Down” (note: note a good film) or “The Expendables 2: Electric Bugaloo”. It’s just that, with Soderbergh behind it, and the stellar list of co-stars it sports, I expected more. I was hoping for a female Jason Bourne-esque character, kicking ass and conveying emotion in such a way that the audience doesn’t laugh at the attempt at drama. Instead, I got Carano glaring out at the dusky landscape, muttering “You better run” to a nemesis she can’t see and eliciting a cackle from the dude sitting beside me.

Check out Haywire for yourself. Just don’t expect Carano to blow you away.

Quite a few Haywire clips and news items hit the net today.

Above, you can catch a glimpse of the first five minutes of the movie which includes a pretty badass fight scene between Gina Carano and Channing Tatum and another clip below.

The biggest news of the day however is Gina’s voice in the film. TMZ initially broke the story this morning, suggesting that her voice had been altered via a little Hollywood magic in post-production. And you know what? I think they’re right. Some actors are able to mask their accents really well and change their voice to a degree — Christian Bale is a prime example of this — but that’s not the case here. Her voice sounds radically different than in real life, almost to the point to where it’s distracting. I included an appearance Gina made on G4TV for a point of reference.

Despite the voice issue, it does seem like Gina can act. Maybe an acting coach or someone with a better eye for that sort of thing would disagree, but as an average moviegoer, she doesn’t come across to me like she’s acting, which I can’t really say about other fighters-turned-actors we’ve seen in big movies. I was concerned that would be the case when she hardly spoke any lines in the trailer, however if the preview clips are any indication, she might actually have a promising future in Hollywood if she chooses the right projects.

If nothing else, the critics seem to like it and didn’t make any poor comments about Gina’s acting ability. Rotten Tomatoes screenshot via Cage Today:

All in all, I’m really looking forward to this movie now. I’m hoping the voice alteration won’t ruin the film for those of us who are familiar with Gina’s voice, however all other signs are pointing to Haywire being a pretty good flick. It releases in theaters next Friday, Jan. 20.

Bonus: Gina Carano chokes out AC Slater!

HT: Cage Today, The Fight Nerd, The MMA News

Gina Carano has been pretty much MIA since she lost to Cris Cyborg and went off to film “Haywire.” MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani finally tracked her down though at UFC 141 for a lengthy interview about her life the past two and half years. She talks about how the Cyborg loss affected her, the experience filming Haywire and the current state of women’s MMA. What Gina couldn’t give an answer to however is her future. She says she has a lot of acting opportunities, but isn’t going to make a decision whether to continue acting or return to fighting until the movie premieres on Jan. 20.

Holy smokes! Gina Carano just surfaced in GQ Magazine with a short feature on her soon-to-be-released movie, Haywire. What’s there to say beside wow!?

HT: Fightlinker

As we all know, Jim one of our writers, recently published the book, Raw Combat. Jim asked me to provide an honest unbiased review of the book, so I took him up on the offer. I got a free book out of it, so I figured why not.

Raw Combat closely follows the underground fight scene of the New York City area. It is written in an ambiguously informal first person tone with mixes of dark and witty humor sprinkled through-out. For instance, “mother f***er” can be found on the fourth page. About half way through the first chapter you’ll clearly tell Genia writes from a place of passion. He paints rather ornate images of gritty, dirty dojos polka-dotting the city. Worn-down mats, blood soaked faces, and sheer power in victory all come to life. I personally enjoy the vernacular Genia provides. The vocabulary throughout is advanced for sure, but it’s written in a way that makes easy for inferences and the like. As Jim writes almost exclusively about events he has personally attended, both sanctioned and less than legal, I found myself surrounded by a rich scene I was not privy to in the least. These first-hand accounts are second to none. The UCL (Underground Fight league) is New York City’s premier MMA fight club. Though the events are totally illegal, that doesn’t stop fighters from fighting. Jim really goes out of his way to give first-hand interviews from the fighter’s and trainer’s mouths. Quotes rattle through the chapters from promoters, fighters, and the ever-present fighter/promoter hybrid (i.e. Peter Storm The UCL’s “founder”) These interviews are gold mines; these are people that the average MMA fan would never be able to hear speak.

In the first quarter of the book, the legal issues surrounding The Empire State are looked into. I for one have always attributed MMA’s absence from New York to be the product of uninformed naysayers and the plain ignorant. I personally have never peered into the “behind-the scenes” workings of the state’s great MMA debate, but again I was afforded an insider’s perspective on the topic. Jim gives a clearly persuasive, but near entirely bias free, explanation of the issues blocking MMA’s legalization in his state. Most who know even the least of New York’s MMA struggles, know State Assemblyman Bob Reilly is the antagonist of the on-going legalization tale. A from-the-mouth rehashing of a meeting between Brian, a mixed martial artist with an omitted last name, and the sport’s Darth Vader if you will. Brian paints a surprisingly humble and respectful portrait of the one labeled villain by the sport’s fans. Though ignorant his views are, Reilly isn’t as far out and uninformed as I assumed him to be. The man illustrated in Jim and Brian’s conversation is a man with good intentions but is out of date/touch none the less. For example, Mr. Reilly seemed unaware that [Nevada] state sanctioning bodies had the power to medically suspend fighters based on injuries received during a sanctioned fight.

The second and about half quarters of the book lean more towards actual underground and sanctioned fights; the images of bloodied, beaten (wo)men run rampant. Tiger Schulmann’s Mixed Martial Arts or “TSK” is sung up to basically be THE place to train throughout the city. Jim goes deeply into Tiger’s pulling off massive success while all too many others falter miserably and fade away to irrelevancy. Though members of TSK are threatened with permanent banishment from their respective martial arts school, you’re left with a sneaking suspicion that some of the fighters fulfill they’re desire to fight illegally; though, this is never explicitly stated. Tiger’s fighters are seen as a brotherhood above all else. They display unparalleled loyalty and respect to one another; Jim explains that ‘anytime a Tiger Fighter fights, he brings an audience of other TSK followers with him.’

The later parts of the book are more based on the sport’s advancement and how some of the underground guys started to get a shot at the big time, Frankie Edgar for example. He profiles a specific fighter for a chapter more or less, and I actually was impressed how much he made me care about how some no name fighter’s career was going. It was also relieving to move the book forward and keep the topics fresh. Jim odes a good job of not focusing on one person or one thing for too long. My initial thoughts before reading the book were that it would only focus on the underground aspects of MMA. I’m glad to have been wrong.

My only complaints of the book are simple. The book is not written in a chronological state. I’m not saying there is anything inherently wrong with that, but it does seem to make some areas of the book hard to follow. Also, there are a lot of names. I mean a lot. Again I’m not saying Jim could do anything about it. It just makes you re-read a page from time to time to make sure you know who is who. That’s about it. I liked it over all, and for ten bucks you can’t go wrong. Pick it up, and give it a read. Why not?