"Haywire"_ A straight-up action picture may sound unusual coming from Steven Soderbergh, but as he's repeatedly demonstrated throughout his career, he's keen to experiment with every genre imaginable. And if you look closely here, you'll find it reveals glimmers of some of his greatest hits, including "The Limey," "Traffic" and the "Ocean's" movies. By comparison, it feels like minor Soderbergh: zippy, hugely entertaining and well-crafted as always (since he once again serves as his own cinematographer and editor), but not one of his more important films. It does, however, mark the auspicious film debut of MMA superstar Gina Carano as special-ops bad-ass Mallory Kane. Carano had never acted before, and not only did she do all her own stunts, she had to do them in a way that she wouldn't injure her male co-stars, including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum. Her dialogue delivery may seem a bit stiff ? and she has acknowledged that Soderbergh made some tweaks to her voice in post-production ? but she has tremendous presence: an intriguing mix of muscular power and eye-catching femininity. Mallory must figure out who double-crossed her, and why, after a mission in Barcelona. Soderbergh wisely emphasizes Carano's strengths. He lets the elaborate fight scenes play out ? lets us see every kick, punch and body slam ? without a lot of needless edits and even without any music. You may feel as if you've been worked over as well. But in a good way. R for some violence. 93 minutes. Three stars out of four.
? Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Miss Bala"_ Gerardo Naranjo may have made the least-glamorous movie ever about a pageant queen. And that's what makes it so beautiful. With long, fluid takes that create a mesmerizing tension, the Mexican director and writer initially draws us into a world of youthful optimism, one which ends up being wildly unpredictable and increasingly desperate. Sadly, it couldn't be more relevant in depicting the brutal violence plaguing Mexico's northern border areas. At its center is the gorgeous, leggy Stephanie Sigman, a former model making her striking film debut. Sigman stars as Laura Guerrero, a young woman who hopes to be crowned the next Miss Baja California. (The title is a play on words: "bala" means bullet in Spanish.) When Laura goes to a club with her best friend, she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, as gang members shoot the place up while targeting some DEA agents who are partying there. Laura escapes briefly but she's seen too much, and ends up becoming their captive pawn. The group's leader is the wily Lino (a subtly menacing Noe Fernandez), who's been terrorizing northern Mexico with his minions while working the angles across the United States border, as well. Lino at first forces Laura to run a few errands, but the tasks become more and more dangerous. R for language, some brutal violence and sexuality. In Spanish with English subtitles. 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.
? Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Red Tails" ? The famed Tuskegee Airmen get the John Wayne-style heroic rendering they very much deserve, but also a hackneyed and weirdly context-less story that does them a disservice. George Lucas' pet project has the laudable goal of proving all-black movies can be a success, but "Red Tails" reduces a historical story of deep cultural significance to merely a flyboy flick. The film, directed by TV veteran Anthony Hemingway, superimposes the tale of the black World War II pilots on a dated, white genre of 1940s patriotic propaganda. "Red Tails" is blatantly old-fashioned, just with a change in color. It focuses entirely on aerial combat in Europe, skipping all that pesky backstory of black men braving the segregation of Jim Crowe America and, against the odds, rising up at the Tuskegee Institute. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard play higher-ups, but the film is centered on a band of pilots, particularly the brash, talented Joe "Lightning" Little (David Oyelowo) and his alcoholic captain Marty "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker). The script, by John Ridley and Boondocks cartoonist Aaron McGruder is swaggering but hopelessly corny and curiously avoids really fleshing out the Tuskegee Airmen's other battle front: racism at home. The dogfights, though, are elegant and clearly staged, set against a majestic European landscape. PG-13 for some sequences of war violence. 125 minutes. Two stars out of four.
? Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer.
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