Stephen Soderbergh's Haywire

Drake66

I saw it last night but I think I might go see it again to get a better understanding of the story: it was a bit convoluted to say the least. The fighting scenes were very well done I must say; Gina Carano is very talented at what she does. The Dublin scenes were very nicely shot; I was worried that they were going to be typical Hollywood blarney muck.

Opinicus

Corholio wrote: »

Didn't Fassbender purposely change accents though? He spoke British when he was working and a bit Irish when he was talking to McGregor about the job.

That's what I thought too.


Anyway it's a far from great movie but still a hell of a lot better than some of the other inane crap we see in the cinema nowadays. The way it was shot and 'chapterised' left the story kind of disjointed and I wasn't really able to get into it.

paudgenator

Saw it yesterday, thought the action scenes were cool etc. Is there seriously a Garda super squad like it showed here in Ireland?!

But left at end not being able to figure it out... just how did Banderas & Douglas fit in?

krudler

paudgenator wrote: »

Saw it yesterday, thought the action scenes were cool etc. Is there seriously a Garda super squad like it showed here in Ireland?!

But left at end not being able to figure it out... just how did Banderas & Douglas fit in?

there's an armed response squad here in Limerick alright, safe to say Dublin has a larger one

Mickeroo

I'm weary about this. The largely positive reviews are telling me to go see it but no-one on here liked it. Decisions decisions

Royale with Cheese

Believe the people here. Can't understand where the positive reviews are coming from, it's a fairly poor film which has been done many times before. But done a lot better than this. Also thought the lead actress was woeful. It felt like your average TV movie.

pixelburp

Mickeroo wrote: »

I'm weary about this. The largely positive reviews are telling me to go see it but no-one on here liked it. Decisions decisions

If you like Soderbergh's work in general & the particular style he brings to movies, you might like this. It reminded me a little of his earlier work "The Limey", but only in fits & starts and certainly didn't have the charm & cool of that older piece. Generally the best thing about it was Carano, but only to look at. That and maybe Banderas' beard.

Worth seeing just so that you can say yes, there are Hollywood movies out there that don't portray Ireland as a land of Aran Sweaters & rolling blarney hills.

Joeface

Hmmm, saw this and I'm torn .

Yes i would let Gina kick the crap out of me gladly. but I feel it was a bit lazy form Mr Soderbergh in his directing . The film is good in places and The cast really strong. but the when it comes to tying up the film i feel its a bit weak. Maybe Gina should have been sent to more acting classes before had. she has potential as actress and def has screen presence and this could have been used better. its a little disjointed.

I will give it 6/10.

krudler

Mickeroo wrote: »

I'm weary about this. The largely positive reviews are telling me to go see it but no-one on here liked it. Decisions decisions

I genuinely dont get how its getting more than 1-2 stars, Empire gave it 4! if it wasnt for the cast it'd be at the bottom of a bargain bucket in tesco as a dtv release. Its easily got the worst script any movie I've seen in a long time, like seriously bad. Its all A-B dialogue that delivered like everyone is bored out of their minds but didnt have the heart to tell Soberberg the script sucked. McGregor looks embarassed saying some of his lines.
There's a scene where she looks out over a balcony at someone running away from her and says OUT LOUD to herself "yeah...you better run" the whole cinema groaned and laughed at it. Its like Commando but with none of the 80's charm, the more seriously it tries to take itself the funnier it becomes. wait till its out on home release or download and watch it like a Jackie Chan movie, skip the bits between the fights :pac: you'll miss nothing as the plot doesnt exist, I still have no idea what the bad guys were setting her up for, its not explained at all or even hinted at, its just an excuse for a "she's out for vengeance" story.

Dots1982

krudler wrote: »

I still have no idea what the bad guys were setting her up for, its not explained at all or even hinted at, its just an excuse for a "she's out for vengeance" story.

thats not a fair criticism, it was clearly explained.

Ewan mcgregor's character wanted Gina Caruso's character dead because she was going to start up her own operation and take mcgregors clients with her.

This merged with Banderas's character and the french guys character's wish to see the chinese rebel dead.

So they decided to frame caruso for killing the chinese character. Fassbender's character would then kill Caruso in self defence.

What is extremely clunkyily done plotwise was leaving the jewellery of caruso on the chinese guy so to identify her as the killer, that was a bit stupid.

Corholio

krudler wrote: »

I genuinely dont get how its getting more than 1-2 stars, Empire gave it 4! if it wasnt for the cast it'd be at the bottom of a bargain bucket in tesco as a dtv release. Its easily got the worst script any movie I've seen in a long time, like seriously bad. Its all A-B dialogue that delivered like everyone is bored out of their minds but didnt have the heart to tell Soberberg the script sucked. McGregor looks embarassed saying some of his lines.
There's a scene where she looks out over a balcony at someone running away from her and says OUT LOUD to herself "yeah...you better run" the whole cinema groaned and laughed at it. Its like Commando but with none of the 80's charm, the more seriously it tries to take itself the funnier it becomes. wait till its out on home release or download and watch it like a Jackie Chan movie, skip the bits between the fights :pac: you'll miss nothing as the plot doesnt exist.

This.

It's got some truly terrible dialogue. Also

Banderas accent seemed to be cranked upto 'ultra dastardly villain' and not in a good way

For me, it wasn't even a fun film, because it's hard to enjoy watching good actors seem bored out of their minds as this nonsense film goes.

tunguska

Went to see Margin call on saturday but it was sold out so ended up going to see Haywire as it was either that or Warhorse(should've picked warhorse). Terrible film. I had seen Shame the night before, where the acting was incredible, so it was a culture shock to go from that to this. In fairness the girl in the lead role did her best, but she has these dead eyes, she wore the same expression when she was getting jiggy with that big Tatum lad as she did when she was beating the bejaysus out of him. The fight scenes where probably the best I've ever seen though, especially the one with Fassbender, seriously impressive stuff. But overall it was a strangely boring film with some unintentionally funny moments. The fight scene between Malory and ewan mc gregor's character was hilarious. And the part where she looks into the distance and says "You better run" had people rolling in the aisles with laughter. I dont know how the man who made Traffic could make a film this bad.
Rent it on dvd, but only for the fight scenes.

TheIrishGrover

Went to see this over the weekend and wasn't really gone on it. I'm a bit so-so regarding Soderbergh: On one hand I love Out Of Sight and The Limey and Solaris, on the other I think the Ocean films are just so smug it hurts. I can't put my finger on why it just didn't work for me. I think I just found it a bit dull and, in my opinion, I think Soderbergh just took the wrong tone a bit with it. I thought the music felt out of place: Perfect for his Ocean's films but I just didn't think it fitted this. Would have preferred a more minimal tone as per The Limey. Gina Carano was pretty good for a first timer and, given time and experience, and more to do, she could turn out to be a pretty decent actor. I'd like to see him do more work with her and hope it's not just a stunt like Sasha Gray. Of course, the rest of the cast was very good (Although, as others have said, Fassbender's accent was all over the shop)

I actually assumed that he was supposed to be Irish pretending to be British. Especially given the scene with McGregor

So, I found the jaunty style/music at odds with the serious tone of the film. Not his best but not his worst either. Rent it on DVD.

At least the Dublin scenes didn't play too much with geography: Bar a bit here and there, it was pretty spot on. It's not like she turned a corner from Grafton Street and turned up in Blanchardstown.

SQ2

This movie was actually entertaining because of how bad it was! We laughed for an hour afterwards talking about it. Not sure they knew they were making a parody!
I was really expecting a decent high energy car chase given she had picked up a Mitsubishi Evo (?) instead what did she do with it?

Reversed it in to a f**king tree!! ROFL!!

That_Guy

I saw it last night. The action sequences weren't too bad. I think I liked them a lot more due to the fact that Gina Carrano does all her own stunts.

[MMA fan hat on]Nice triangle choke at one stage. [/MMA fan hat on]

The story was awful. I'd imagine if it didn't have such a good cast it probably would've went straight to Blu-Ray.

faceman

I thought it was awful. I almost walked out.

I couldnt follow the story and the motivation for the characters. I had no attachment to them.

In its credit, I did like the attempt at reminding the audience that Gina was still human like the rest of us when

she fell off the roof

Skinfull

I saw it last night in Cineworld and a few people walked out. I almost did. It was painful! Funny in parts but not intentionally. Her Acting was so bad.. I mean... seriously. Did her manager pay for this movie? Did all the people in this have debts to pay off to the director*? Are there a flurry of sex tapes in Soderberghs vault that were used in bargaining?
Her voice was so monotone and it was like someone was holding up cue cards for her!

*Except for Bill Paxton. He, as always, was flawless.

fred252

in a word "drivel"

Gee Bag

It's 2 stars out of 5 from me. Was at the local cinema and had to pick the least-worst option. The action sequences in Dublin tipped the balance. Yer wan's acting is woeful.

On the plus side it reminded me about Ireland's first (and by default, greatest) feature length martial arts film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Deviation

You'll find a copy of it you look around

voz es

HAYWIRE

Ah this is great just read the comments after this review.
http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0119/haywire.html

I went to see it on the back of this review,

The comment that best describes this film would be one a friend wrote about it on facebk. ''I felt a tinge off Jealousy towards the end of the film of that couple that walked out after 20mins'

Gee Bag

Great stuff on the RTE website, my favourite quote

I will read your reviews avidly from now on, and base my viewing choices on the polar oppostite of what you say.

I just don't understand all the positive reviews, 82% on Rotten Tomatoes!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/haywire_2011/

FearDark

This movie was utter dog****, hard to follow, didn't give a crap about the characters...Oh god I'm not going to waste my time typing/thinking about it anymore.

Garbage.

Opinicus

Gee Bag wrote: »

Great stuff on the RTE website, my favourite quote




I just don't understand all the positive reviews, 82% on Rotten Tomatoes!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/haywire_2011/

Never pay any attention to what the critics score it. I always pay more heed to the audience score. At 54% that's about right.

p to the e

Saw this last night and wasn't impressed at all. Gina Carrano wasn't good at all but at least she has the excuse she's not an actor. Channing Tatum is Americas version of Gerard Butler, a big lump of meat that can't act for creatine.

Ewan McGregor continues his trend of destroying his career by playing annoying Americans and Antonio Banderas' accent somehow seemed put on even though he's Spanish. Michael Douglas was decent, even though there wasn't much to play with, and Fassbender was quite entertaining aswell. I think he was supposed to be an Irish man putting on a British accent.

The jazzy, off tempo beats of the score really didn't fit into the mood of the film and there was a big chance for a decent car chase that somehow ended on a par with Driving Miss Daisy. Soderbergh is known for experimenting and mixing it up in film but this was one where he really just couldn't decide whether he wanted a straight up action flick or to recreate that feeling of 'Cool' in Oceans 11 et al.

p.s. I was pissing myself laughing at the lack of junkies around Heuston Station and then

I found it hilarious that she made her escape from Wynn's Hotel dressed as a junkie. At least I presume it was a brass monkey.

paulosham

Corholio wrote: »

Can't beat the internet for not reading posts right, I said it wasn't as bad as Skyline.

Didn't Fassbender purposely change accents though? He spoke British when he was working and a bit Irish when he was talking to McGregor about the job. I wish Haywire was just mediocre, might have been at least worth going to see.

Regarding Fassbender's accent.

While his character was speaking with Kenneth he was himself but when he was with Mallory he was playing the part of a British agent, remember he was there to set her up.

Treehouse72

Have to disagree with just about every review here. I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was a lean, stylish and remorselessly entertaining genre flick that kept you engaged with interesting locations, excellent fight sequences, the crazy plot and the wonderful character actors.

There is no point in the viewer seeking depth when depth is not the point of the exercise. Executing the movie on its own terms is Soderberg's aim here, and be damned if it doesn't entertain the audience. As such, the film is all about surface. So we're not going to find deep character study. Indeed, the movie is wilfully disinterested in the inner lives of its characters. There's also little point in worrying about following the plot in a movie like this - a bunch of murky dudes all double and triple crossing each other. It's not necessary to know much more than that.

This approach reminds me of No Country for Old Men*. Exercises in the cool, efficient art of technical movie making, in genre, using a series of stock characters, situations and plot devices, but ideally seen with a new eye and executed as prettily and seamlessly as possible. On that score, I thought Haywire was a bit of a cracker.


* Reminded me of Clooney's The American too, another movie I adored for its surfaces and gleeful rejection of depth, except what it can make the viewer project depth for herself during the long silences or interminable driving sequences. Ronin it reminded me of too, with its multiple characters and Euro locations. A touch of Munich too. The wilful incoherence of the plot is reminiscent of All the President's Men.

titan18

Just after watching this and I thought it was absolutely awful. Probably the worst film I've seen in years. The acting, script, characters, even production is like something akin to a porn film only their's no sex to keep me distracted

marienbad

I knew little or nothing about it when I saw it , and I thought is was so badly made it was like a tv movie . I was shocked when I saw who directed it in the end-titles.

That said ,it did have a kind of relentless momentum and it was nice to see Dublin in such a naturalistic way.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

mikemac1

Saw it a few days ago

Shelbourne Hotel looks smashing, have never been in there

As for the film, just awful.

jpm4

Forgotten how bad this was until this thread resurfaced. What on earth were the critics thinking? A couple of other points:

I have never been so distracted a film's soundtrack in my life - completely and totally wrong for the film. It wasn't until a friend mentioned that the soundtrack was by David Holmes that it made sense - sounds like he just sent over a bunch of tracks he had been working on without ever having seen the film. Luck Guy.

It is one of the most unattractively filmed movies I've ever seen - so many scenes were drenched in a p**s yellow colour which was horrible. I mentioned this to a friend in the cinema and as I did so suddenly there was a camera close up on a glass of white wine to prove my point

Abysmal.

Sad Professor

Like all of Soderbergh's work, it's very uneven. The best thing about it are the action scenes, which are extremely well shot, choreographed and edited. There's an old-school feel them that is very refreshing. I also thought casting a professional stunt women/gladiator was an inspired choice. Carano was totally convincing in the action scenes which can't said for most female action heroes. Unfortunately the rest of the film is terrible. The pathetic excuse for a plot, the insipid exposition, the phoned-in performances from stars in walk-on parts. Sometimes I think Soderbergh isn't serious about filmmaking and just likes hanging out with Hollywood movies stars.

senordingdong

Finally saw this and find myself disagreeing with the majority, I thought it was a solid film.

I loved the fact that it was able to take place in Dublin without trying to showcase some begorah and bejaysus bull****.
But other than that I found all the important actors performing well and the script was fine. The plot was convoluted but like other convoluted plots it got explained at the end. Soderberghs style was distinct and I liked the way it added a new charm to the otherwise boring 'down-time' scenes. Then there were the fight scenes which I found to be quite enjoyable and very authentic looking.

I'd give it 3.5 out of 5

paddy kerins

senordingdong wrote: »

Finally saw this and find myself disagreeing with the majority, I thought it was a solid film.

I loved the fact that it was able to take place in Dublin without trying to showcase some begorah and bejaysus bull****.
But other than that I found all the important actors performing well and the script was fine. The plot was convoluted but like other convoluted plots it got explained at the end. Soderberghs style was distinct and I liked the way it added a new charm to the otherwise boring 'down-time' scenes. Then there were the fight scenes which I found to be quite enjoyable and very authentic looking.

I'd give it 3.5 out of 5

+ 1

I thought it as great, the fight scenes especially

krudler

the scene on the beach still makes me laugh when I think about it

SQ2

krudler wrote: »

the scene on the beach still makes me laugh when I think about it

More suited to a spoof movie, I could picture Mike Myers in the same scene!

johnny_ultimate

Bit late catching up with this one: was especially wary after hearing a lot of bad feedback. But I actually kinda enjoyed it. As someone said earlier, it's kind of an arthouse action flick. Whether it was Soderburgh's intention or not, but to me it kind of played like a parody / deconstruction of action movies: ranging from a completely nonsense plot and ludicrous exposition (I might be alone in thinking the narrative was generally purposefully nonchalant) to genuinely clever and refreshingly sparse fight scenes. Sure, there's plenty in the film that's 'bad', but I think it actually all comes together for wahtever reason to create an odd, distinctive but largely engaging whole. Carano cannot for the life of her deliver a line of dialogue, but she still is a strangely compelling heroine.

After watching the half-assed Expendables 2 recently, it was good to see a film with distinctive, visceral action scenes. Extremely physical, devoid of bombastic music (although the David Holmes soundtrack works when well for the most part, in an ironically detached sort of way) and filmed in unusually captivating hues. The editing is also extremely tight and inventive. In the Dublin scenes, it actually surprised me how geographically accurate they were. When you're familiar with a location, you often spend your time laughing at how wrong they got it. But here they mostly keep it all localised, and it flows well as a result (I can certainly buy a back alley off Dawson St. leading to the top of Grafton). Also, I appreciated how they filmed Dublin in shades of rainy grey - a nice little touch.

Look: there's plenty in Haywire that is worthy of criticism, from the acting to the script. But Soderburgh somehow manages to pull an eccentric, unique action film out of what in any other hands would have been a complete ****ing mess. Like Magic Mike (another film unfairly maligned in some quarters) it has a calculated slickness about it that ultimately enhances the strange tone and pace of the film. Haywire, though something that's hard to describe, is more than the sum of its parts.

B.A._Baracus

Movie isnt that great.
Watched half then went to bed with the intention of finishing it off sometime .... never did.

jpm4

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Bit late catching up with this one: was especially wary after hearing a lot of bad feedback. But I actually kinda enjoyed it. As someone said earlier, it's kind of an arthouse action flick. Whether it was Soderburgh's intention or not, but to me it kind of played like a parody / deconstruction of action movies: ranging from a completely nonsense plot and ludicrous exposition (I might be alone in thinking the narrative was generally purposefully nonchalant) to genuinely clever and refreshingly sparse fight scenes. Sure, there's plenty in the film that's 'bad', but I think it actually all comes together for wahtever reason to create an odd, distinctive but largely engaging whole. Carano cannot for the life of her deliver a line of dialogue, but she still is a strangely compelling heroine.

After watching the half-assed Expendables 2 recently, it was good to see a film with distinctive, visceral action scenes. Extremely physical, devoid of bombastic music (although the David Holmes soundtrack works when well for the most part, in an ironically detached sort of way) and filmed in unusually captivating hues. The editing is also extremely tight and inventive. In the Dublin scenes, it actually surprised me how geographically accurate they were. When you're familiar with a location, you often spend your time laughing at how wrong they got it. But here they mostly keep it all localised, and it flows well as a result (I can certainly buy a back alley off Dawson St. leading to the top of Grafton). Also, I appreciated how they filmed Dublin in shades of rainy grey - a nice little touch.

Look: there's plenty in Haywire that is worthy of criticism, from the acting to the script. But Soderburgh somehow manages to pull an eccentric, unique action film out of what in any other hands would have been a complete ****ing mess. Like Magic Mike (another film unfairly maligned in some quarters) it has a calculated slickness about it that ultimately enhances the strange tone and pace of the film. Haywire, though something that's hard to describe, is more than the sum of its parts.

The editing is also extremely tight and inventive

Seriously? Wasn't there a scene that lasted about 30 seconds of her reversing a car which then hit a moose or something? Felt like an eternity. Same for the bit of her walking from the Shelbourne hotel down Grafton st. - knowing the route very well didn't make it any less tedious to watch.

johnny_ultimate

jpm4 wrote: »

Seriously? Wasn't there a scene that lasted about 30 seconds of her reversing a car which then hit a moose or something? Felt like an eternity. Same for the bit of her walking from the Shelbourne hotel down Grafton st. - knowing the route very well didn't make it any less tedious to watch.

Yeah, I actually quite liked those scenes. Conjured a quietly tense atmosphere. Thought they were an interesting contrast to the frantic, visceral editing of the fight scenes.

I don't think it was a masterpiece or anything (the story, tongue-in-cheek or not, most certainly had a range of weakpoints, not least that it made little to no sense) but it was one of the more distinctive and playful action thrillers to come from Hollywood in the last few years. Seems to have split opinion, but I'd definitely lean to a more positive perspective (and would generally agree with the cautiously positive critical consensus).