Haywire (2011)
Violence and infrequent coarse language
Freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can't authorise and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.
| Status: | QuickPick |
|---|---|
| Run time: | 93mins |
| Origin: | IRELAND |
| Aspect Ratio: | 16:9 |
Tinker tailor Soderbergh spy
by Richard Haridy, 24/07/2012 3:07:00 PM
Mixed martial artist Gina Carano stars in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire; an action film swathed in such a haze of cold detachment it's positively glacial. From Solaris to The Limey to 2011's Contagion, Soderbergh always deconstructs genre in subversive ways and Haywire is no exception. Carano plays Mallory Kane, an independently contracted spy who jets around the world on various missions as ordered by her boss Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). After a job in Dublin doesn't go exactly as planned, Mallory learns her boss is actually trying to 'eliminate' her from the books. Of course, Mallory Kane isn't someone to be messed with, and her superiors discover she's not as easy to get rid of as they had hoped. While this sounds like a loud, fast picture, it's actually something quite different. Soderber...
Mixed martial artist Gina Carano stars in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire; an action film swathed in such a haze of cold detachment it's positively glacial. From Solaris to The Limey to 2011's Contagion, Soderbergh always deconstructs genre in subversive ways and Haywire is no exception.
Carano plays Mallory Kane, an independently contracted spy who jets around the world on various missions as ordered by her boss Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). After a job in Dublin doesn't go exactly as planned, Mallory learns her boss is actually trying to 'eliminate' her from the books. Of course, Mallory Kane isn't someone to be messed with, and her superiors discover she's not as easy to get rid of as they had hoped.
While this sounds like a loud, fast picture, it's actually something quite different. Soderbergh's big aesthetic conceit with Haywire is to strip the action scenes of all artificiality. When we get to a big fight, the score disappears, only to be replaced by the sounds of ambient grunts. He also shoots his action long and wide which is admirable in today's hyper, cut-cut-cut, world. In between the many fight scenes, Soderbergh saves his artifice for several snappy montages set to a lovely, jazzy score from David Holmes.
It may seem like this is merely an exercise in style and to be honest, it is. Soderbergh's clearly fascinated by the physicality of Carano as a fighter and Haywire's sole reason for existence is to highlight those skills. She certainly isn't an actress and her robotic intonations will be a significant hurdle for many, but if you can frame her bad acting as almost an intentional 'Terminator' style of line reading then there is much to appreciate here.
Haywire features a sensational supporting cast featuring Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum and Matthieu Kassovitz. The photography is amazing; no one does crisp, wide-screen compositions quite like Soderbergh. Haywire may be too distant for many viewers, but if you can lock into its determinedly unique vibe you'll have a lot of fun. It's a sophisticated, elegant and damn cool play on the espionage genre with some of the punchiest fight scenes of recent memory.
3.5/5
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Member Reviews (37)
37 Member
Reviews
Antony D
says
...good action and chase movie... I could follow it until the last 5 or 10 minutes, then I was confused...
Still worth watching.. Acting was average, action scenes (fighting and escaping/getting chased) were very good, realistic
very short - 93 min.. so if they had made it a bit longer it would have been better.
Bridget
says
I only got a third of the way through then abandoned hope.....eject!
says
ok
Maggie H
says
Awful ... I only watched about 45 minutes and couldn't stand any more. Maybe it got better, I will never know
Dave S.
says
It may sound strange, a respected director like Soderbergh doing his version of a Cynthia Rothrock movie, but by this stage in his career it wouldn't surprise me if he announced he was doing a version of Othello with talking bananas.
This is a very stripped-down thriller, with subdued sound effects and clean, efficient camerawork; none of this wobbly, handheld nonsense. Soderbergh lets his actors' physicality provide the thrills. The fights are brutal and well choreographed. Gina Carano is better at kicking people in the head than emoting, but that's fine because I'd much rather see her do the former.
A highly enjoyable movie that most people probably won't like. I eagerly await Banana Othello.
Joseph
says
Skipped to watch just the fight scenes because the main actress can't act and pulls weird faces during quiet scenes. How they convinced the actors that are in it to star in this movie is beyond me. Is there community service for actors?
JC
says
Remember the good old days when men were men and action movies had people who knew how to fight first and weren't encumbered with pesky things like having to know how to act. Well this is a throwback to that kind of movie, with former MMA fighter Gina Carano taking on roll you'd have expected Steven Seagal and Dolph lundgren to play if this movie was made 20 years ago.
This seems to be a thing Steven Soderbergh is trying of late, casting people who aren't actors in rolls that aren't much of a stretch for them, (see The Girlfriend Experience.) and it works better here, it's still not a great movie, there's odd choices in editing and music that randomly just runs out or repeats it's self in a way that's reminds me of early john Carpenter films.
But what do you need to know she's been double crossed after her 'last job before leaving' whatever it was she worked for and she has to fight her way through the standard set of movie bad guys, with Bill Paxton as her dad as my personal favourite. There's no surprises to be had here and it's competent enough to be watchable, The wide shots of fight scenes are a nice change from the close up shaky cam stuff we've seen too much of in action movies lately, it's not Soderbergh's greatest achievement, he's bad a basically late 80s early 90s action flick, so if you're sick of watching navy seals for the umpteenth time maybe try this.
Rocky
says
A little slow but worth the wait
Romi
says
Gritty with a strong female lead. Fine if you don't mind lots of violence.
stuart
says
boring and predictable - just not worth it
says
Couldn't watch the whole movie. The ridiculous dialogue and wooden acting made it a tedious affair. In all fairness I chose to rent it for the fight scenes but the choreography was dull. Jackie Chan could have produced something far superior in his sleep.
Janice
says
Brilliant movie. Choc full of excellent actors which keep you on your toes. This movie is definetly one to watch.
Melzy
says
What girl wouldn't try sitting through a channing tatum flick .... maybe he should stick to his light hearted rom coms etc?! Storyline is a bit confusing ... but its ok ...
DL
says
Am wondering why so many "one star" in the reviews. I actually quite like it. Admittedly, the story is a bit confusing, but the fight sequences are worth the watch.
Liz C
says
I had been looking forward to this movie but.....blah.....dreadful! Considering how many great actors there are in her it has to be round to poor direction from Steven Soderbergh. The plot is confusing and Gina Caron has zero personality. You don't care about any of the characters. Very dull!
says
Awful!
says
Many good actors but a terrible movie.
says
That's 93 minutes of my life I will never get back.
Johno
says
I'm not sure what the other reviewers were expecting but I found this not to bad (I have seen a lot worse) the acting was O.K from Gina Carano and you always get value from Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas, It held me until the end.
Jethro Gibbs
says
Am not sure if I watched the same movie as the other reviewers below, but I actually liked this movie - finally, a female action actor who looks like she can deliver (and take) a brutal beating (she is a former MMA fighter). It was a female Jason Bourne to me. Story was actually simple enough (of course, you only get the complete picture at the end). The actors, although appearing only briefly, gave good performances (some famous names in there).
Almost did not watch it due to the bad reviews below, but glad I did.
Kazza
says
I actually enjoyed this movie and most of the actors, love action / fighting movies though. So I'd watch it again, if love action then this is up your alley.
poshreany
says
didn't like this movie...
Mary-Lou
says
A good action flick.
David
says
Do not even give this a thought-----a thoroughly amateurish effort with awful acting very much like the dreadful wave of BBC tv movies we had to put up with for a while back.
says
Quite boring for an spy based action thriller. Suprised it wasnt better given the Director's outstanding history.
John
says
I really liked it. Gina Carano filled the role pretty well, only her voice work had some odd moments, but imitation can save the most average of actors.... and even so she's better than average - she’s really pretty good. I didn’t know she’s a muay thay champ or something l - even better! I liked this overall, not wasted time.
Vic
says
Too slow for me. This director does not usually does action and his signature style is not suitable for action movies. After an action sequence there goes a slow down and the story jumps and you loose the plot midway and never actually get drown into it. Feel disappointed.
says
OOh so badand ooh so slow
AY
says
The storyline was not bad, but it was just so SLOW! It supposed to be an action movie?
Aaron
says
Great cast bar the unknown lead but a very disjointed script; was expecting more from a Steven Soderbergh movie, however ok for a look if there is nothing else to do but was very disappointing all in all and I would not watch this again.
Paul
says
Never judge a DVD by it's cover. This looks much more exciting than it is, and the impressive list of co-stars get minimal screen time. And the leading lady looks a little like Ashton Kutcher (shudder).
jtbug
says
It's good. I loved the style (almost Ocean's Eleven meets The Bourne series) and the way the action was shot is definitely unique for an action film. Gina Carano is great to watch; both kickass and glamourous. Steven Soderbergh is an interesting director and I loved his last one Contagion also. If you want something a bit more intelligent than the usual big dumb action movie, watch Haywire. It's confusing at first but stick with it and it will pay off by the end.
david simon
says
At times I felt like I was watching an episode of "The Sweeney" and at times a Bond movie!? Some excellent actors in Banderas, McGregor and Douglas and an intriguing if at times a little confusing plot. Overall very enjoyable.
Daniel
says
For the actor involved this would have to be one of the worst movies I have seen, story was disjointed, plot scrabbled and acting and associated scipt terrible along with a sound track that made no sence in relation to the scenes.
Cairo49
says
Some excellent actors in this one but for the life of me I couldn't follow the story. Must be getting old! Enjoyed it though.
Colinr
says
From the preview, I expected something along the lines of a Colombiana flick, unfortunately this is B grade at best in all aspects of plot, acting, characters etc. Don't expect too much.
Steve
says
.