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Many enjoyable movies have entertained audiences thus far in 2012 - and I'm not talking about the Oscar contenders that were released elsewhere in 2011 and finally are making it to the big screen in the Quad-Cities.

Among the pleasant surprises is Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," a remarkably brief actioner that's as much fun, and packs as big of a punch, as a well-written short story. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. After all, I've enjoyed nearly ever movie I've seen by this director, whose subject matter runs a gamut ranging from "Bubble" to "Ocean's 11" to last year's "Contagion."

In "The Girlfriend Experience," Soderbergh cast porn star Sasha Grey in the leading role of a call girl. In "Haywire," he casts as an undercover operative Gina Carano, who's known for her mixed-martial arts career and appearances on "American Gladiator."

Here's Carano, performing with big names such as Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas, and she certainly holds her own. Plus, she does her own stunts, which is noteworthy in this action-packed flick.

Carano plays Mallory, an operative who is called in for tricky operations when the government needs to stay at arm's length. We first see her in a restaurant where she and fellow operative Aaron (Channing Tatum) beat the living daylights out of each other before she ends up fleeing with a bystander's car and the bystander (Michael Angarano) as well.

Told partly in flashback, the story starts in Barcelona, where Mallory is dispatched by her supervisor, Kenneth (McGregor). She then travels to Dublin, where she is to accompany another operative, Paul (Michael Fassbender, "Shame"), playing his spouse. Let's say that things go wrong during this assignment, so she ends up fleeing down Dublin streets in an attempt to stay alive and determine exactly who is pursuing her.

Although this has kind of a "Bourne" feel to it, it doesn't share the PG-13 rating of the Bond or Bourne movies. This is a "R"-rated and justifiably so. The violence is ratcheted up at least one notch and maybe more. Mallory is a killing machine who doesn't leave her victims gasping and winded; rather, she leaves them dead.

Carano is impressive all the way around in this high-adrenaline show. In fact, I for one would like to see her, particularly with Soderbergh at the helm, in a sequel - and perhaps a franchise isn't a haywire idea.