Haywire (2011)

A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writer:

Lem Dobbs

Stars:

Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender

7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gina Carano	...	Mallory Kane
Michael Angarano	...	Scott
Channing Tatum	...	Aaron
Debby Lynn Ross	...	Diner Waitress (as Debby Ross Rondell)
Michael Douglas	...	Alex Coblenz
Antonio Banderas	...	Rodrigo
Ewan McGregor	...	Kenneth
Julian Alcaraz	...	Victor
Eddie J. Fernandez	...	Barroso
Lluís Botella Pont	...	Helpful Guy (as Lluís Botella)
Aaron Cohen	...	Jamie
Max Arciniega	...	Gomez
Anthony Brandon Wong	...	Jiang
Michael Fassbender	...	Paul
James Flynn	...	Hotel Clerk

Storyline

Freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can't authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

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Plot Keywords:

cleavage | super soldier | die hard scenario | assassin | one woman army | 

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Taglines:

They left her no choice.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

Ireland USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

20 January 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Knockout

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$23,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,425,370, 22 January 2012

Gross USA:

$18,942,396

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$33,372,606

Company Credits

Production Co:

Relativity Media, Screen Ireland

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gina Carano's voice was dubbed over with actress Laura San Giacomo's voice. Laura San Giacomo starred in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), also directed by Soderbergh.

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Goofs

When Mallory & Scott are driving, she tells him to have a drink of water in her backpack. She wants some too, but has to have him pour it in her mouth because of an injury to her arm. However, just minutes later while running from law enforcement, she is backing up at a high rate of speed, her bad arm is extended and gripping the passenger seat tightly.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mallory Kane: Shit.
[deep breath]
Aaron: [sitting down] What the hell are you doing out here? I had to drive all night. I'm hungover as shit. And you're really starting to cut into my vacation time, so can we go please?

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Connections

References Three Days of the Condor (1975)

User Reviews

Mediocre, oh so mediocre...

It's got a simple, but hugely unoriginal plot - Special Ops agent gets doubled-crossed (yawn) and proceeds to exact her revenge on those who wronged her, yeah, it sounds very much like the standard plot for your average Steven Seagal straight-to-DVD actioner - not a film directed by Steven Soderbergh!

I suspect that Soderbergh is not overly familiar with this particular genre, otherwise he might have avoided the clichéd script like the plague...

The direction for this piece is restrained almost to the point of inertia - any energy generated within the action scenes comes sorely from the mixed-martial artistry of Ms. Carano, it almost feels as if Mr. Soderbergh is embarrassed by the notion of directing an action thriller.

Soderbergh does his usual thing of peppering his films with stars and/or solid character actors, but despite the presence of the likes of Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, etc, they are underused in what are essentially expanded cameos - only MacGregor gets to shine a little, but his character is underwritten and lacks any credible motivation for his actions.

Gina Carano acquits herself quite well, especially so given the fact that she is carrying the movie on her inexperienced shoulders - that and the cold, hard reality that her character is basically a Jason Bourne clone, albeit with female genitalia...

The film also suffers from the fact that it doesn't have a climax, it just simply stops.

The restrained approach Soderbergh adopted for this film is it's undoing - short, sporadic bursts of action in an uninspired and leisurely-paced script damage Haywire badly, if Steven Soderbergh had bothered to have injected a bit more zest and flair into his direction, the film might have been redeemed somewhat and not turned into the lifeless, miserable clone that it is.

PG.