Mixed Martial Arts star Gina Carano makes up for her lack of acting chops with a great, honest, strong screen presence; who cares if she knows “method-acting” as long as she can kick butt. In the hands of a fine director, that’s exactly what she can do — take over the screen and single-handedly fight off a small army, as she did in Steven Soderbergh’s excellent “Haywire.” Unfortunately for her this time around, she’s at the mercy of weak direction (by John Stockwell)and a lumbering script that piles implausibility upon implausibility. Carano plays Ava, a trained fighter with a dark past whose new husband vanishes during their Caribbean honeymoon. Everyone thinks she did him in for his money, but we know better, and Ava sets out to discover what happened to him — and to take down the men she thinks are responsible for his abduction, one by one. It’s all pretty slow and silly — but, as we said, Carano is a pleasure to watch.Extras: Behind-the-scenes featurette. Vitals: Director: John Stockwell. Stars: Gina Carano, Cam Gigandet, Danny Trejo, Stephen Lang, Luis Guzman, Amaury Nolasco, Treat Williams. 2014, CC, MPAA rating: R, 108 min., Action-Suspense, Anchor Bay/Fox.
