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Critic Reviews

Steven Soderbergh continues his occasional practice of using actors as found objects in his perfectly enjoyable formula action-thriller Haywire.

-David EdelsteinFull Review

Mixed martial-arts star Carano puts major muscle, if minor acting ability, into this enjoyable action flick.

-Rafer GuzmanFull Review

Carano is strong, fast, relentless. She's not much of an actress yet, but Soderbergh hides her weaknesses well...

-David DenbyFull Review

Gina Carano has a face that can hold a Hollywood close-up and a fist that can hold your nose until it comes clean off.

-Roger MooreFull Review

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.

-J. R. JonesFull Review

Carano is nothing special as an actress - but darned if it matters when she's supported by a killer screenplay, a sharp cast, and Steven Soderbergh's unmistakably sly, mordant direction.

-Eric D. SniderFull Review

If "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" was a fancy top-shelf cocktail, this is Polish vodka, neat.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

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...

-Dana StevensFull Review

Hand it to a wily indie veteran like Soderbergh to find a fresh twist to an old genre: The fighting isn't faked, but the acting is.

-Liam LaceyFull Review

"Haywire" isn't a by-the-numbers action vehicle, it's a crafty thriller that works to undo beat-em-up cliches. In short, it's a livewire.

-Adam GrahamFull Review

"Haywire" stays true to its low-rent B-movie principles, right down to the fast, strong and quietly competent heroine at its center.

-Ann HornadayFull Review

'Haywire" is a wannabe, or rather a wanna-B, and that B is for "Bourne."

-Kyle SmithFull Review

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.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

"Haywire" is a lean, clean production, shot and edited by Soderbergh himself and utterly free of the incoherent action sequences and overcooked special effects that plague similarly scaled Hollywood pictures.

-Andrew O'HehirFull Review

You don't love movies if the sight of Gina Carano beating up every guy in sight doesn't make you laugh, get happy and feel as if you're getting your money's worth.

-Mick LaSalleFull Review

As with any great action movie, what we're really here to see is the star showing off whatever skills got them on screen to begin with. And Haywire never disappoints.

-Ian BuckwalterFull Review

"I don't wear the dress," explains Mallory Kane as she ponders the details of her next job. If she did, she'd probably strangle someone with it.

-Chris VognarFull Review

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.

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

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.

-Wesley MorrisFull Review

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.

-Joe MorgensternFull Review

From start to finish, serious fun.

-Steven ReaFull Review

While she can't out-act Angelina Jolie, Carano definitely looks comfortable onscreen. And she's a lot more credible kicking butt.

-Colin CovertFull Review

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.

-Richard CorlissFull Review

Carano is cool and in control, even after running, in real time, several blocks and pummeling a guy in an alley. But "Haywire," clean and no-fuss as it is, needs more action scenes to match Carano's game.

-Joe NeumaierFull Review

It is self-consciously and aggressively trivial, a feast for formalists who sentimentalize the gloriously cheap B-movies of the past.

-A.O. ScottFull Review

Haywire comes close to achieving Soderbergh's goal of creating "a Pam Grier movie made by Alfred Hitchcock."

-Peter TraversFull Review

Carano may not be a born or a natural actress; she is, however, an undeniable and heartening rebuke to the skinny-Minnies Hollywood favors over real women with curves.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

Carano is wonderfully athletic, which is just as well, because she spends most of the film being wonderful athletic.

-Roger EbertFull Review

Right up to the film's comically abrupt ending, it's all about Mallory's strength, speed and uncanny ability to survive. A dismissive cop, early on, refers to her as "Wonder Woman"; turns out he's not kidding.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

Haywire is really just a vehicle for Carano to demonstrate her action chops, which she does with a vengeance, set to David Holmes' buoyant and badass score.

-Peter HowellFull Review


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