Haywire Review

As directed by Steven Soderbergh and scripted by Lem Dobbs, Haywire doesn't pretend or aspire to be anything other than a high-octane, low-concept pulpy action flick with the most bare bones and generic of plots: A covert operative is double-crossed by their agency after pulling a job, and spends the rest of the film globe-trotting and kicking ass to find out who and why. It's no more complicated than that.

What makes Haywire that little bit different is that it marks the movie debut of MMA star and American Gladiators vet Gina Carano, who plays the lead role of Mallory Kane. Soderbergh has provided Carano with quite the star-studded male cannon fodder: Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas.

Haywire's plot is merely a weak framework to hold together a string of pretty sweet fight scenes and stunts. But if you were to recast Haywire's lead with a male actor in the exact same story, it wouldn't be much different than most direct-to-video action fare starring Steven Seagal or Wesley Snipes. Even Jason Statham movies have more meat on their bones than Haywire does.

IGN Talks to the Stars of Haywire

Should Haywire to get a pass just because its director's name is Soderbergh and it stars a woman in the generic hero role usually played by men? While Soderbergh classes things up more than the usual director might have here, he's nevertheless fashioned an action flick as derivative and predictable as any Seagal or Van Damme vehicle from back in the day.

The male supporting players serve the material ably enough, albeit in roles that are just as much thumbnail characters as the female lead. With his godawful Supercuts hairdo, McGregor is suitably slimy as Mallory's betrayer. Bill Paxton is fun in a small role as Mallory's former Marine-turned-author dad, while Douglas and Banderas bring some gravitas to their respective "suit" roles. Michael Angarano is literally just along for the ride as a frazzled kid in the Shia LaBeouf vein.

Besides McGregor, Tatum and Fassbender are the standouts amongst the men, with Tatum playing the closest thing to the "good" bad guy in the movie and Fassbender giving fans a real solid idea of what he might be like as 007 should that ever happen. McGregor, Tatum and Fassbender ably fulfill their mutual function here, which is to make Carano look passable in the dramatic scenes. Conversely, Carano helps make the guys look passable in their action scenes.

Soderbergh's shrewd enough to know what Carano's strengths and weaknesses are onscreen, and for a first-time movie lead Carano acquits herself capably enough in the smattering of "acting" moments in the film. She never embarrasses herself in them, which is more than some of her male predecessors can say. Still, she's really there to kick-ass and she, of course, does that in spectacular fashion, from the opening diner bout with Tatum to the hotel suite brawl with Fassbender and the climactic showdown at the house. It just would have been even better had the film invested Mallory with some personality. Hopefully, if Carano makes more movies in the future they will provide her with more of a character to play. Overall, Haywire is fairly decent as far as action movie debuts go.


Jim Vejvoda is the Executive Editor in charge of IGN Movies. He's also the only porn legend to also be a Rhodes scholar. You can follow him on Twitter at @StaxIGN.

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