HaywireMovie Reviews

Gifts + Promos

Give the gift of movies with Fandango Bucks Gift Certificates! Design your own gift card, or choose from our collection.

Buy Rock of Ages tickets to any Regal Theater Showing & receive a FREE song download!

Enter for a chance to win a wild family getaway to San Diego!

Need Help?

Avg. Critic Score: 67 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 15+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Haywire comes close to achieving Soderbergh's goal of creating "a Pam Grier movie made by Alfred Hitchcock." Read full review
83

indieWIRE | Eric Kohn
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

Village Voice | Nick Pinkerton
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

Variety | Justin Chang
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

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
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

ReelViews | James Berardinelli
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
75

USA Today | Claudia Puig
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
70

Los Angeles Times | Betsy Sharkey
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
67

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
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
50

The New York Times | A.O. Scott
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

Metacritic link View more reviews for Haywire on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Fight-filled adventure centers on female action hero.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Haywire is an action movie starring former mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano (Fight Girls). Expect plenty of kicking, punching, and beating, as well as shootings, dead bodies, and some blood. The main female character is shown in sexy outfits and poses; there's some kissing and one playfully suggestive scene, but no real nudity. Language is infrequent but includes a few uses of "s--t" and one "f--k." Alcohol is often present in a social/background way, and one character smokes a cigarette. The movie is definitely violent, but Carano could be seen as a strong role model for teen girls: She's confident and powerful and shows off a body that's not supermodel skinny.

Families can talk about Haywire's violence. How necessary was it to include dead bodies? Could the story have worked without the killings?
When Carano fights, is it violent and ugly, or graceful and beautiful? Or both? Do you consider her a role model?
What's the difference between getting revenge and setting things right? Do the ends ever justify the means?

The good stuff

Positive messages: Haywire's major theme is betrayal, followed by revenge. Although this revenge includes violence, you could argue that it's a way to set things right and to protect innocent people.
Positive role models: In real life, co-star Gina Carano was one of the world's best female mixed martial arts fighters (she's now retired). In the movie, she's powerful and resourceful and often strives to do the right thing, making her a strong role model in certain ways. Unfortunately, she also occasionally kills an opponent, sometimes in self-defense, but sometimes not.

What to watch for

Violence: Haywire has several martial arts fight scenes, which sometimes result in injuries and blood, sometimes with dead bodies. There's also shooting and some blood. Many of the fights involve men hitting a woman. A character is shot in the head (with a pillow over the face to muffle the sound). A bad guy is captured with a heavy sliding metal door. There's a car chase and crash in the woods, with a dead deer. A character throws hot coffee in another's face.
Sex: Some kissing. In one scene, the female hero playfully undoes a male colleague's belt; nothing more is shown, but the scene definitely suggests sex. She is also shown in a variety of sexy outfits and poses, though she balks at an assignment where she's meant to be "eye candy."
Language: Language is fairly infrequent but does include several uses of "s--t" and one "f--k." Characters also use "hell" and exclaim "oh my God" and "Jesus Christ" during tense moments.
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Most of the characters are seen with alcoholic drinks at some point -- beer, wine, champagne, or whisky -- but always in a social/background way. One character complains of being hung over and tries to order a beer early in the morning. Another character smokes a cigarette in one scene.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.