Review of Haywire (2011) by Barb F — 18 Mar 2016

This is really not a good film, I can't understand the positive critic reviews it has. It's slow and cheap looking. The action chase sequences in Dublin are laughably badly paced and so cheap looking and poorly managed that its obvious they're re-using the same 3 masked extras to represent the 'dozens' of SWAT team members that apparently rocked up in one 4x4.They Dublin sequences are dull and without character. I'm guessing the Irish Film Boards money went on getting Steven Soderburgh who then called in some favours from people who liked working with him to give up their weekend for a big cheque. The big names are rarely seen off the phone or out of an office or living room (a dead give away of a short low-effort shoot). The story such as it is is inconsequential and 'builds' or rather sleep walks to a climax at what I believe is probably Bill Paxtons real house. As for Gina Carano she is just so wooden in the role of BAHF, if she doesn't appear to care about or be emotionally engaged by the conspiracy against her why should we..

On the positive side it's always good to see Bill Paxton and I liked the score.