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Don't be put off by many of the poor reviews and generally low aggregated rating here. 'Haywire' is a solid action thriller, with good fight and action scenes, and good use of music, and solid direction. The pace moves along swifty and fits plenty in within the lean 93 minutes runtime. I'm not sure why so many people didn't like this enjoyable movie. To each either own, I suppose. But I think it's more than worth a watch.

Once again, I stepped into a movie with zero expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. People told me to avoid "Haywire" but I found it reasonably entertaining.

First off, I was amazed by the number of likable actors that are in the movie - Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton (where has he been hiding?) all star in co-roles. I don't know the main actress in the movie but she did a fine job, and apparently did all her own stunts.

Flick has been un-fairly compared to Angelina Jolies "Salt." Why? Because it stars a woman kicking guys ass's perhaps? I guess their plots are kind off similar too, but "Salt" was an over the top action movie. Outside of a couple of movie-style fights "Haywire" feels more realistic, but where it really succeeds is in its style. It works as a cool thriller that I found myself smiling at because off the way it tells its ex-assassin-getting-chased-again plot. Although maybe not everyone will give it a thumbs up, I will because I enjoyed it.

The problems with HAYWIRE can be laid firmly at the door of director Steven Soderbergh, who is entirely unsuited to directing what should be a pulse-pounding thriller. Soderbergh's light 'n' breezy, art-house-style direction is at odds with the kind of gritty, realistic, down 'n' dirty vibes he's aiming for here, and the result is an oddly unrewarding movie that goes through the motions, ticks all of the boxes, and yet fails to make any impact on the viewer whatsoever. Although it looks good, it turns out to be a hollow, slightly soulless exercise in movie-making.

The good thing about HAYWIRE are the martial arts scenes: they're very well filmed, highly exciting and utilise to full advantage the skills of real-life mixed martial arts fighter and lead Gina Carano. Having recently rewatched the BOURNE trilogy (in preparation for the upcoming BOURNE LEGACY), I can acknowledge they're the equal of anything in those movies. However, it's the long, slow passages in-between the action that really cause this film to stall. Soderbergh shoots them in his usual way, with jazzy music playing in the background and subdued, quick-fire dialogue, and while that worked in the likes of THE LIMEY and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, it just doesn't here.

The whole exercise feels artificial, and you get the impression that Soderbergh is trying too hard. There's no palpable tension, no sense of build-up, no suspense about what's going to happen to the protagonist. In fact, it's all rather boring, and you're left itching for the next fight scene to take place. Compare this with THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, in which I was on the edge of my seat during the non-action bits, caught up in an involved conspiracy storyline, unable to wait to find out what was going to happen next. HAYWIRE flatlines between the martial arts antics.

The script doesn't help; it's on the level of the average Seagal DTV actioner, and makes some truly odd decisions (like highly skilled/unbeatable agent Carano telling her life story in flashback to a random stranger throughout the course of the film – far better to have adopted a linear structure and just begun at the beginning instead of this wannabe clever-clever stuff). There are other pluses: the cast is faultless, and Soderbergh even elicits a rather effective performance from walking muscle Channing Tatum. But some of the seasoned performers are underutilised: Douglas, Banderas and Paxton are given little to work with, and Ewan McGregor is miscast in a wishy-washy role.

Haywire is directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an all star cast that includes Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender.

However the main star is MMA fighter Gina Carano as Mallory Kane who works in black ops and is hired to pose as he wife of a British agent and ends up being a target for elimination herself. Carano has to unravel who is trying to set her up.

The film is shot with little dialogue and a moody setting, many of the known cast has small roles and its a 'unHollywood thriller' although Carano does get to kick ass as well as getting chased mainly in the streets or rooftops of Dublin.

Fassbender and Carano's scenes standout especially their combat sequences. Its an unusual film given the director is an Oscar winner 'A' lister director who has gone back to his roots and decided to make an independent action film. By and large he succeeds and Carano looks like someone, given the right material who could breakout as an action star.

This movie stands out from any movie I've ever seen for one reason: it is the only movie I've seen where I believed the people fighting were actually fighting. I can't remember ever seeing a film where I was actually wincing and tensing up from fear that somebody was going to get hurt.

This isn't a film that depends on CGI or fast cuts or clever angles or even stunt people for the most part. The star of the film is clearly a very physical and capable woman of action, and she made me believe she was actually hurting the people she was pretending to hurt.

For that reason alone, it will always stand out in my memory. Most action films these days are terribly boring because it's all so cartoonish and exaggerated and stylized, and therefore unbelievable and fake. But this film kept the action grounded in the physical capabilities of its very capable star, and that made it anything but boring. I guess it didn't do to well at the box office, which is too bad. If this had launched a franchise I'd have been a big fan.