Haywire
Overture Films | Release Date: January 20, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJan 18, 2012
In truth, Haywire is simply a delivery system for ass-kickings, calibrated to the specific talents of Gina Carano, a former mixed-martial-arts star and American Gladiator whose fists (and feet) of fury can rattle skulls and cave in chests. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 19, 2012
Haywire comes close to achieving Soderbergh's goal of creating "a Pam Grier movie made by Alfred Hitchcock." Read full review
85
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJan 19, 2012
That she makes it all look so effortless is part of the fun – as long as you're not unlucky enough to be the guy with his nut in the nutcracker. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJan 19, 2012
It isn't perversely genre-busting like "Drive." Instead, it feels like somebody turned down the volume on a hard rock album so as to hear the details better -- for which relief, much thanks. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJan 16, 2012
Pummeling forward from its first diner-set fight scene to a sweeping final showdown on the beach, Haywire is a literal blast. Read full review
80
NPRIan BuckwalterJan 24, 2012
This is a film built around its star, just as surely as any of its cheesier '80s forebears. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 19, 2012
Supremely economical, pulse-pounding and undeniably bewildering thriller, which plays like a blend of mid-'90s Hong Kong action flick and mid-'70s European crime drama. Arguably this movie amounts to less than the sum of its parts - but hot damn, those are some parts. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 19, 2012
There's no deeper meaning to Steven Soderbergh's thriller than what meets the eye, yet its lustrous surfaces offer great and guilt-free pleasure. Read full review
80
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJan 17, 2012
Where faux-empowering "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" confines sexual power play to the old rape-revenge matrix, Haywire is a real war-of-the-sexes tournament, briskly paced with a tickling sense of black humor. Read full review
80
EmpireSimon CrookJan 16, 2012
A fresh, muscular payback movie shot through with Soderbergh's mischievous indie-spirit. Whether Gina Carano is the new Angelina or the new Cynthia Rothrock, only time will tell... Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangNov 8, 2011
Paring down narrative and character concerns in favor of a breathtaking application of pure thriller technique, Soderbergh's latest picture is a lean, efficient exercise tossed off with his customary sangfroid and wickedly dry sense of humor. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 20, 2012
Taut almost to the point of abstraction. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 19, 2012
One of the reasons Haywire is such a pleasure to watch is that its director, Steven Soderbergh, doesn't overplay the film's hear-me-roar subversions. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 19, 2012
Beautiful in a girl-from-the-neighborhood sort of way, Carano inhabits Soderbergh's elaborate frame with wit, physicality and just a hint of ironic distance, the suggestion of someone who's not overawed by the opportunity or taking herself too seriously. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJan 19, 2012
A vigorous spy thriller that consistently beckons the viewer to catch up with its narrative twists and turns. Bordering on convoluted, it works best when in combat mode. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJan 19, 2012
The pleasure of this small, eccentric movie is the natural way Carano hurts people - by, say, walking partway up a wall and climbing onto a man's back, by sprinting toward the camera and flying into the human target standing in the foreground. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 19, 2012
Disarmingly laid back for this kind of fare, with a jazzy musical score (courtesy of David Holmes) and a sleek, straight-ahead style, Haywire may not make much sense plotwise, but it's a rollicking 90 minutes. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 19, 2012
In terms of its title, Haywire doesn't quite go there; it's more "Haywire-ish." But it's eccentric, and the on-screen violence is sharp and exciting - brutal without being either subhumanly sadistic or superhumanly ridiculous. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 18, 2012
A film like Haywire has no lasting significance, but it's a pleasure to see an A-list director taking the care to make a first-rate genre thriller. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 18, 2012
This is one of the director's mainstream efforts, although his penchant for the offbeat and oddly artistic has not been completely reined in. But there's plenty of unsparing, bone-crunching violence to dismiss the idea that Soderbergh is making an art film in disguise. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 23, 2012
Soderbergh tends to get one big idea - a thesis idea - per film and stick with it even when a touch more flexibility would help. Here it's that non-kinetic camera, which he's so wedded to that parts of the film seem underenergized, like a cheap seventies or early eighties picture you'd catch at two in the morning on Cinemax's tenth most popular channel. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJan 19, 2012
Haywire doesn't measure up to the best of the director's work - like, say, his Oscar-winning drug drama, "Traffic." But watching Carano kick, spin, flip, choke, crack and crush the fiercest of foes - mostly men about twice her size - is thoroughly entertaining, highly amusing and frankly somewhat awe-inspiring. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJan 19, 2012
There's a good deal of pleasure to be had in the clockwork precision of her hand-to-hand combat, which Soderbergh often shoots in profile to showcase her wall-climbing backflips. The story surrounding it is comparably smooth, skilled, and mechanical, though a lot less memorable. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 18, 2012
In truth, the story isn't much. Just betrayal and revenge, basically. But a couple of things make Haywire a lot of fun to watch. One is the cast. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovJan 14, 2012
Streamlined, beautifully shot and casually thrilling, Haywire's superior action fun should hopefully draw audiences eager for R-rated, no-frills fare. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 8, 2011
The script makes no attempt to assert its plausibility or realism; it is, instead, refreshingly frank about what it is, a simple, workable framework for the melees and mayhem. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJan 18, 2012
Haywire cavorts around the world - Barcelona, Dublin, upstate New York, New Mexico - with Bourne-again energy and timeline shuffles, making only cursory attempts at plot coherence Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 19, 2012
Serving as his own director of photography under the pseudonym Peter Andrews, Soderbergh picks his angles artfully and allows Carano to demonstrate her arsenal of acrobatic fighting tricks in extended, no-cheating single takes. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJan 19, 2012
Haywire, clean and no-fuss as it is, needs more action scenes to match Carano's game. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 19, 2012
Soderbergh doesn't always match his pacing to Mallory's fury. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJan 23, 2012
The movie is a divertissement; it's lightweight and almost meaningless except for the fights, which are extraordinarily violent. [30 Jan. 2012, p.79]
50
New York PostKyle SmithJan 20, 2012
Haywire is a wannabe, or rather a wanna-B, and that B is for "Bourne." As each imitator comes and (rapidly) goes, my appreciation for the best superspy franchise deepens. Even top directors - in this case Steven Soderbergh - can't figure out the trick. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensJan 19, 2012
Though Carano isn't without a certain glowering charisma, her flat line readings and apparent discomfort with dialogue-heavy exchanges make her seem like a refugee from a different, schlockier movie, the kind of low-budget, straight-to-video MMA rock-'em-sock-'em that might pop up on late-night basic cable and charm you with its rough-hewn amateurism and animal high spirits. As Haywire's long-seeming 92 minutes limped by, I found myself wishing I was watching that movie instead. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJan 19, 2012
Once the talking stops and the action begins, her professionalism is very much in evidence and exciting to watch. And yet, somehow, it cannot quite relieve the tedium of a movie that is too cool even to pretend that there is anything worth fighting about. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissJan 19, 2012
Carano is her own best stuntwoman, but in the dialogue scenes she's all kick and no charisma. The MMA battler lacks the conviction she so forcefully displayed in the ring. She is not Haywire's heroine but its hostage. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJan 19, 2012
For all its kiss kiss, bang bang, Haywire ends up feeling as hollow as the points on Mallory Kane's 9mm ammo. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 19, 2012
Steven Soderbergh has been telling interviewers that he's planning to take a sabbatical from filmmaking because he has lost his inspiration. His lack of interest is palpable in Haywire, a rote exercise in action filmmaking that is sleek and polished and instantly evaporates from memory. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundJan 14, 2012
If anything, Haywire is most closely linked to last year's "Contagion," a kindred effort in style, theme, and value-marring detachment. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJan 17, 2012
There's shockingly little thrill in watching Carano bounce off walls and pummel antagonists. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJan 17, 2012
Haywire makes no sense whatsoever, which should come as no surprise. It's the latest brainless exercise in self-indulgence from Steven Soderbergh, whose films rarely make any sense anyway. Read full review
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