Haywire

Betrayed by her bosses, a freelance black-ops agent (Gina Carano) goes on the run

Betrayed by her bosses, a freelance black-ops agent (Gina Carano) goes on the run. Steven Soderbergh's taut action thriller that is as briskly efficient and muscular as its heroine, though the plot goes haywire with its cumbersome flashbacks. But all is forgiven whenever real-life mixed martial artist Carano launches herself into action. 'You shouldn't think of her as a woman. That would be a mistake,' her shifty employer Ewan McGregor tells her suave Dublin contact Michael Fassbender and, sure enough, Carano proves she has the chops as a fighter, delivering punishing blows to her male assailants in the film's exciting action sequences. Although the generic plot is strictly B-movie fare, Carano is a real star and the staggering A-list cast also includes Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Bill Paxton.