Girl Fight

Haywire is, partly, the same-old same-old, and partly, it's the same-old updated. It stars Gina Carano as a secret agent who has been betrayed, and will stop at nothing to get her revenge on the people who betrayed her. That's the same-old.

The updating, I guess, comes from Steven Soderbergh is directing. He sets most of it in a cute flashback, with Carano telling the backstory to a young guy whose car she has commandeered. He's just an ordinary civilian, her age (young), which makes the frame story seem more like a youth comedy road trip than a thriller.

Then there are the action scenes in the flashback, set to electronica instead of gunshots and explosions, which is a nice distancing effect.

Then there are the supporting actors, including Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan MacGregor and I don't know who else. So we have a kick-butt girl for the guys in the audience, but plenty of candy for the ladies as well.

All in all, fun, interesting action movie. I had only one objection: I didn't believe that Gina Carano could fight. Sure, you can do a lot with rehearsal, fight choreography and film editing, but she just seemed too scrawny and cute. Probably used to be a model or something. (Looks her up in IMDB.) Hm, no, she's apparently a mixed martial arts champion. Huh.

So, now I don't what to think. Did Soderbergh mess up the fight scenes? Was I not reading the scenes properly? Is Carano a good fighter, but not as good a stunt fighter? I guess I need to watch it again to find out, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. So, anyone else have an opinion?