Haywire (2011)

Steven Soderbergh's attempt to make a spy film must have been inspired by watching his friend Matt Damon star in the Bourne films.  Gina Carano is Mr. Soderbergh's female Bourne and while she does a solid job acting in her first role, there's nothing in her character as betrayed spy that's interesting enough to want to follow.  The big problem: how exciting can an thriller be when the hero is so strong and the villains so weak?  Not once did I think she was in any real danger.  She's Gina Carano.  Unless he was dealing with a real badass villain, I might have worried for her but not these guys.  I love Ewan McGregor and I consider his work on this film to be fine, but I didn't believe for an instant that he was her match.  The fight scenes are somewhat disappointing.  They lack originality, which I guess is lame coming from someone like myself who knows very little about hand-to-hand combat, but I felt the fight scenes in Columbiana were more brutal and eye-opening than in this film.  Again, maybe if I felt Gina might lose I'd start edging my seat but a skinny Michael Fassbender is laughable.  The plot is okay and I love Soderbergh's refreshing Spy-Noir style, but it's still a mediocre attempt at something we've all seen before on a television show called Alias. Grade: C+