This might come as a surprise, but the director of “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” and “Kafka” has made something very different from those movies: a stylish action piece. I joke, of course. Those were Steven Soderbergh’s first two films, but after helping to transform independent film — and, with it, American cinema in general — he soon turned to making stylish genre flicks. He’s now better known as the director of the popular heist “Ocean’s Eleven” and its two sequels than as the young auteur whose debut won the Palme d’Or, making him the award’s youngest-ever recipient.

His latest, “Haywire,” won’t earn any laurels at Cannes. But it might offer the most fun to be had at the cineplex this January full of alternately dark and dismal releases.