The power of a name

Despite Gina Carano's obvious physical talent, I found this an odd movie. There were choices about shots and lighting that seemed very low-budget to me. Many of the dialogue scenes were completely without spark.

It all just felt very flat, and I was ready to come to this board and wonder out loud how a minor release from a no-name director could possibly have signed a supporting cast with so many big names.

Then two things happened:

- I saw the name "Steven Soderbergh" at the end, and my jaw dropped.

- And I saw Ebert and others praising this for being such an effective thriller.

If this movie were directed by Alan Smithee instead of Steven Soderbergh, I think the gauze would fall away from many people's eyes. It's just a dud with some really great fight scenes.

I am absolutely not, not, not joining the sexist chorus here: I felt Carano was fantastic as a martial artist but flat as an actor. And before you bleat, "What if a man acted the same way?" I'll blurt back, "Steven Seagal." For whom I have always had the same criticism.

There are times when you want a conversation scene to quiet things down -- as a way to vary the tempo. But in this movie, *every* conversation scene is a zero-wattage recitation of lines. It's not just empty of theatrics; I think in some spots it's actually lower-energy than the way real people would talk in the same circumstances.

Really, it felt as if a bunch of stars crashed somebody's student film.