Haywire
 
     

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Director: Stephen Soderbergh
Year:  2011
Rating: 6.0

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One of the last directors you might expect to make a Girls with Guns film is Steven Soderbergh, but here we are. It is fairly lightweight with a plot that seems very familiar. A female agent (Gina Carano) who belongs to an independent contractor that hires out to the government for dirty dangerous jobs rescues a man in Barcelona. Afterwards this organization attempts to kill her for reasons unknown. And the rest of the film is a running narrative of escapes and fights as she tries to figure out why she was set up.

So the film to a large degree rests on the action and it is fairly decent if not overwhelming - quite realistic in a number of one on one brutal fights. Nothing fancy; nothing over the top - just physical banging away. These days that is unusual as most action scenes seem rather absurd though often fun. The fights are at times grueling. Actress Carano is a martial artist and does all of her own stunts. Since this film she has appeared in Fast & Furious 6, Deadpool and Heist.

For a rather basic genre film this certainly collected a number of big name actors. Soderbergh calls and they come - Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton and Channing Tatum. I should mention that I really enjoyed the soundtrack from David Holmes that is at times nicely funky during action scenes.