Haywire

Film

Thrillers

haywire.jpg

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>4/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>2/5
Rate this  

Time Out says

Tue Jan 17 2012

Only Steven Soderbergh could produce a slick, modern, cineliterate deconstruction of the Hollywood action caper that also manages to be a rollicking good ride. With the high-style ‘Haywire’, Soderbergh takes the most hackneyed, secret-agent-double-crossed-by-her-paymasters storyline imaginable, and directs the living hell out of it. In a move similar to his casting of pornstar Sasha Grey in 2009’s ‘The Girlfriend Experience’, he drafts in Gina Carano – AKA ex-American Gladiator, Crush – as svelte, skull-smashing special operative Mallory Kane.

What follows is a feminist tirade in the mould of ‘Kill Bill’ as Mallory navigates the globe and coolly makes a string of potential assassins – Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum and a ratty, side-parted Ewan McGregor – her unwitting punchbags. The combat scenes are ferocious, beautiful and refreshingly original, with the conventional frantic editing and ear-splitting techno stripped away to leave something closer to silent ballet (with pained grunting). David Holmes’s moodily effective Martini-time jazz soundtrack only kicks in when Mallory takes to tracking down her various shady aggressors. A horribly realistic hotel room fracas with Fassbender could even be deemed one of the all-time great fight scenes.

To prove that he’s taking all the pseudo-serious expositionary dialogue with a pinch of salt, Soderbergh infuses the material with various nods to Hitchcock classics like ‘Notorious’ and ‘North by Northwest’, and the finale is a brutal comic inversion of the iconic beach canoodling scene in ‘From Here to Eternity’.

Author: David Jenkins

30

Comments

Add +

Release details

UK release:

Fri Jan 20 2012

Cast and crew

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Screenwriter:

Lem Dobbs

Cast:

Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender

Share your thoughts
  4. * mandatory fields

Comments & ratings

Rated as: 2/5 (23 ratings)

  • Ok, not bad…pretty decent fight scenes and lead Gina Carano gives a solid performance given she’s not a natural actress. She’s a tad wooden at times, but the supporting cast is pretty decent (aside from McGregor, who is either fabulous or weedy…here he’s by far the latter and utterly unconvincing as an ‘evil’ crime boss). With so many big names, many are wasted (Douglas and Banderas phone in their performances), including Paxton (looking bored) and Fassbender (aside from his epic hotel-room scrap with Carano). Still, it’s short, swift, pretty decent but the ending makes you feel cheated and undercooked. Rent only.

    Andy S Mon Mar 18
    Rated as: 3/5
    Report

  • I don't understand these comments. The review is spot on. This is a terrific film with a great script that rewards a little thought! And the fight scenes are brilliant.

    Brooks Sat Oct 6 2012
    Rated as: 5/5
    Report

  • Bland and boring. A storyline was all over the place, characters that were completely pointless and I can't even remember the ending. don't waste your time or money.

    CKL Wed Aug 29 2012
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • This is mediocre stuff at best, and downright lazy at worst. Soundtrack could have been lifted from Ocean's 11 for starters. Nothing cutting edge about it whatsoever. Disappointly shallow- no plot, no substance, no innovation. Loved the cafe fight scene but downhill thereafter. Couldn't keep my eyes off the screen, I mean Carrano. The only memory worth not forgetting! Traffic shows what Soderbergh can do - he probably can't be arsed anymore - shame.

    half time orange man Fri Jun 29 2012
    Report

  • ''A horribly realistic hotel room fracas with Fassbender could even be deemed one of the all-time great fight scenes.'' Probably one of the worst reviews i've ever read so inaccurate it's astonishing and the quote about best fight scene is clearly coming from someone who doesn't watch many action films. The film as a whole lacks any type of substance and however much you try and cover that up with jazzed up music and decent camera work (although not sure it suited the film much) you can't hide a very bad script. 'Content is key' must be one of the first things they teach you a film school and I didn't even go. Films lucky it got 2stars from me. Time Out sort it out.

    Josh Tue May 22 2012
    Rated as: 2/5
    Report

  • Big big fan of TO. But did we watch the same movie this time?

    Paul Nederveen Sun Apr 1 2012
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • FFS TIMEOUT... You've really let everyone down by this review.. AWFUL AWFUL film!

    Ads Wed Feb 8 2012
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • I've always trusted TO's film reviews so was very disappointed to end up watching such a dull, empty film. I tried to find the good points but couldn't.

    Chester Copperpot Mon Feb 6 2012
    Rated as: 2/5
    Report

  • dreadful

    USMAN LATIF KHAWAJA Sun Feb 5 2012
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • Went to see this film after reading the recommendation in TimeOut. What an appaling film, it really was one of the worst I have seen and I've seen a few. Not sure how M Douglas and E McGregor could seriously want to put their names to this. Abysmal.

    Simes Sat Feb 4 2012
    Report
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  • Hotwise
  • Cool brands
  • Star