Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2012

Steven Soderbergh can do anything. His body of work spans all genres, from mainstream crowd-pleasers like Erin Brockovich or Ocean’s Eleven to thoughtful art-house efforts like Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Solaris. And when he turns to slam-bam action (The Limey), be prepared for a ride. This one’s on the mainstream side, but not without a dash of the director’s oddball indie touches. The plot is fairly standard Bourne/Bond cloak-and-dagger stuff. An elite special-ops agent is targeted for termination by reptilian superiors, eludes lethal pursuers and then goes after said superiors seeking redemption/revenge. The twist here is that the kick-ass central character is a woman—kind of a believable Lara Croft. For the lead, Soderbergh has brilliantly cast the charismatic Gina Carano, an intensely physical mixed-martial-arts babe who turns out to be an adequate actress if not exactly Oscar material, and she holds her own against names like Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas. It’s fluid, relentlessly paced, groin-grabbingly violent, imaginatively shot, dryly funny, and lizard-brain entertaining. And Soderbergh, working as his own DP and editor, gets it all done in an economical hour and a half.