Fanboys director Kyle Newman is back with black action comedy Barely Lethal, which has now dropped its first trailer. If the name rings a bell, that might be because it was announced some time ago with its first gallery of stills hitting the web roughly a year back. A spin on the spy genre, Hailee Steinfeld stars as a young girl born into a life of training, guns and super-cool special ops stuff. Unlike most action leads with a license to kill however, Steinfeld’s teen is more concerned with the social web of high school.
Right off the bat, Barely Lethal sounds as if it plans on occupying space that could easily be filled by Black Widow and/or Hit-Girl spinoffs. Unlike that dynamite pair though, Steinfeld’s Hayley Walsh is an orphan raised in an educational environment wherein she’s taught how to be a killer. Desperate for a normal life, she fakes her death and begins attending a regular high school. She can’t outrun the past however. And, so begins a ton of shoot-outs as the life she left behind catches up with her.
The trailer presents its leading lady in a favorable light. Steinfeld is as charismatic and compelling as ever, and her veritable array of co-stars tuck into their roles with as much enthusiasm as they can muster. It might lean a little heavy on the cliches, but with Newman at the helm, there’s a good chance that the finished product will iron out any bumps.
Co-starring Jessica Alba, Samuel L. Jackson, Dan Fogler, Jaime King, Sophie Turner, and Thomas Mann Barely Lethal is expected to land in US theaters later this year.
“A teenage special ops agent coveting a ‘normal’ adolescence fakes her own death and enrolls in a suburban high school. She quickly learns that surviving the treacherous waters of high school is more challenging than international espionage.”
