Haywire (2011)

We saw this two weeks ago at a second run theatre, thinking we shouldn't miss something directed by Steven Soderbergh (profiled in The Informant!, then made Contagion). This story of a female ex-marine fighting for her life against double-crossers is pretty good, but not great like his other work. Mixed martial arts star Gina Carano stars as Mallory (her second feature) and apparently she did lots of her own stunts. She's fine at acting sexy, angry, and/or tricky. Supporting work is provided by (in credits order) Michael Angarano (last in these pages in The Art of Getting By), Channing Tatum (I didn't mention him in my posts on Battle in Seattle, Public Enemies, or The Dilemma, and avoided his more syrupy or juvenile fare--he does seem to have the ability to do good work), Michael Douglas (more on him in A Solitary Man and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Antonio Banderas (favorites listed in The Skin I Live In), Ewan McGregor (most recently in Beginners), Michael Fassbender (profiled in Shame), Bill Paxton (before he played Bill Henrickson in all 53 episodes of Big Love I liked him a lot in True Lies (1994) as The Other Man, astronaut Fred Haise in Apollo 13 (1995), the first dinner guest in The Last Supper (1995)--you must see this sick and twisted dramedy, the tornado chaser in Twister (1996), the submarine captain in Titanic (1997), and Billy Bob Thornton's smarter brother in A Simple Plan (1998)), and more.

The screenplay is by Lem Dobbs, who did the honors for Soderbergh on The Limey (1999), for Frank Oz on The Score (2001), and a few others. There's a lot of property damage, dead bodies, and Carano is fun to watch running (she takes off her high heels in one sequence). Also, there are plenty of gorgeous location shots in Ireland, New Mexico, rural New York state, and other places meant to be Barcelona (I've been to Las Ramblas, and it looked real), Mexico, and Mallorca. As usual, Soderbergh was behind the camera as cinematographer, under the pseudonym Peter Andrews, and the editing bank, under the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard. Lovers of action movies should get this on netflix or cable after it's released May 1. Critics on rottentomatoes gave it 80%, but audiences only 42. Jack and I are somewhere in the middle.