Haywire

Haywire wants to be a stylish thriller with a cool heroine, physical action and a clever plot. Instead, it’s just stylish inanity that takes itself too seriously, is too unnecessarily complicated to be a proper chill-out movie and the main character is a violent cold-blooded lesbian about whose fate you don’t really care. A strange pulp hybrid. (25/11/2012)

Gina Carano definitely had a “haywire” moment in this movie, and honestly, I think I experienced a mental glitch while watching it too. Gina is fantastic—I don’t think I’ve seen a tougher woman on screen who can kick ass from start to finish so flawlessly. Not just kick, but she runs, fights, and moves with such grace. She’s the main reason I started—and finished—the movie. That said, the film has an artsy vibe. Soderbergh doesn’t handle action in the typical explosive way, but instead with these minimalistic, almost static scenes where Gina just wrecks people. The subtle soundtrack felt more fitting for something low-key than a high-octane action flick. At times, it reminded me of The American with Clooney, but The American had a stronger story and made better use of its setting. Most of Haywire takes place in Dublin, and honestly, if I didn’t know that, I wouldn’t have guessed. It was a bit of a letdown in that sense, but Gina carried the 93 minutes with ease, and that’s what kept me entertained. (07/08/2012)

Soderbergh goes against expectations once more - although that was actually expected - and offers a simple fable in which the plot comes last. The schematics of the director's rendition of the secret agents and even more secret leaders evoke in me a mockery of the rules of the genre rather than its adoration. I'm no film scholar, so I don't have to do any digging into it. I was entertained by the clear action scenes, dominated by Gina Carano's physical abilities, and Soderbergh's unorthodox approach. So when Holmes' bizarre music plays during the hostage liberation scene, which evokes cheap spy themes, I sank into my seat and rode on a fully positive wave until the end. PS: I'd damn well change places with Fassbender in the leg choke scene. (14/03/2012)

Everything but cliché. An excellent film that you need to learn to like. Gina Carano is an incredible fighter and the action scenes are amazing, in my opinion better than in the Bourne trilogy; they are dense, believable, physical. You can feel MMA with every second. Packed with stars, but only on the surface. Soderbergh plays incredibly well with the given genre and essentially shows everyone the middle finger. Many people won't appreciate this film, but a few will really like it. (28/04/2012)

Neither fish nor fowl. Soderbergh built the film on the participation of martial arts champion Gina Carano, and she is great in the action scenes as expected. When character acting is necessary, however, she clearly lags behind. Not that she is horrible, but she does not master the more complex nuances of acting and cannot present her character convincingly. She lacks the charisma that a star in the lead role needs. Soderbergh may have hired a whole range of famous names, but they are just tagalongs. I'm afraid there won't be that many people that Soderbergh will enchant with this because this is neither art nor a B-action movie. One would expect Soderbergh, as a symbol of independent film, to sneak a whole range of other meanings into the film, but it somehow lacks that. Haywire is worth a single watch, but I wouldn't bother a second time. Overall impression: 55%. (12/11/2020)