"Haywire" may be the worst movie I've seen in years

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NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
haywire-2011.jpg


(Ironically, I love this poster)

I'm quite keen on Steven Soderbergh movies, so I thought I'd give this a shot. I now know why he doesn't direct action movies. So anyway, what's wrong with it in my view?

Music - I usually love Soderbergh's predilection for smooth jazz and such, David Holmes's collaborations with him have resulted in some of my favourite OST's, but it was just an awkward fit here. And most of the action scenes played out in complete silence.

Editing - again, I often like his "jump cut" editing style, but here it simply served to introduce a layer of ambiguity to the scenes, it just didn't work.

Acting - Gina Carano evidently can't command a leading role. She was wooden, and barely believable. She's a bad ass I guess, but her delivery left a lot to be desired. The rest of the cast was fairly decent I guess, but no one looked like they really wanted to be there.

Action - meh, what a thoroughly boring action movie. The fights were passable I guess, but everything else was dire. The goons seemed to stand and wait for our plucky heroine to ready herself; in one scene, they blatantly stop firing at her for a few seconds while she removes some handcuffs. It's kind of embarrassing. And a car "chase" down a snowy track would've seemed dull 50 years ago.

Anyway, it's garage. Not offensively bad or anything, just, almost passively lame.

Stick to crime thrillers Steven.
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
Discotheque said:
Meh film but I have to say the fight between Gina Carano and Fassbender was fantastic.
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Possibly the highlight, yes.

But what the fuck was that fight
on the beach at the end
?
I remember hearing, "the thrilling fight at the end has to be seen to be believed!" You know what, maybe I would've seen it, without the fucking jump cuts!
 
T

The Return of

Banned
Discotheque said:
Meh film but I have to say the fight between Gina Carano and Fassbender was fantastic.
Click to expand...

That was the only good fight, but either way I'm glad that people dislike this film as much as I do.

One thing I really hated about this film was the sound design. It was really inconsistent I felt and they didn't know what they were aiming for. Like the punches in the fassbender fight sound completely different from the other fights in the movie. Other fights in the movie the punches sound realistic/muffled. Same thing with gunshots, it was really weird for me. Maybe it was my theater, but it ruined the experience for me.


Either way the movie is terrible though.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Tguy said:
That was the only good fight, but either way I'm glad that people dislike this film as much as I do.

One thing I really hated about this film was the sound design. It was really inconsistent I felt and they didn't know what they were aiming for. Like the punches in the fassbender fight sound completely different from the other fights in the movie. Other fights in the movie the punches sound realistic/muffled. Same thing with gunshots, it was really weird for me
Click to expand...

yeah man sound design was all over the place in the film. I think Soderbergh's still good though. Magic Mike was dope and Contagion was aiight, made me paranoid.
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
AgentOtaku said:
lol, no

Film is awesome, sorry you didn't like it OP
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Opinions and stuff, but I think your in the minority here. Just with the "lol, no" comment.

I guess "lol no" at him being a hack is fair, but the movie is trash.

"In this threads opinion."

:D

Edit: I think it was when that firefight basically gets paused so she can get her cuffs off, I actually said out loud, "my god, this movie is fucking tripe".
 
T

The Return of

Banned
Discotheque said:
yeah man sound design was all over the place in the film. I think Soderbergh's still good though. Magic Mike was dope and Contagion was aiight, made me paranoid.
Click to expand...

I didn't know it was the same director as those movies. I recall going to see Contagion with this chick I was dating. Man when we left the movie theater, we were a bit like ehhhh on kissing each other the entire night rofl. Shit definitely had me paranoid
 
A

AgentOtaku

Member
Yeah, it's cool if people don't like this particular film (it's pretty divided actually), but anyone saying the man who has made the following films is a hack is just ridicuous:

Traffic
Che
Magic Mike
Out of Sight
The Limey

I also loved one of his other recent films that's pretty divided as well, The Girlfriend Experiment
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
Don't forget Solaris, Buffalo Soldiers and hell, Oceans Eleven is fairly decent.

And dat David Holmes love...

Edit: BS isn't him, it's that David Holmes throwing me off!
 
R

RJT

Member
The action is great (dat Fassbemder fight...), and the movie is pretty decent, other than the shitty script and horrible acting from the lead role.
 
A

AgentOtaku

Member
You gotta admit one thing though

...Bandares beard in the beginning was FUCKING BOSS!!!

Even he couldn't quit playing with it lol
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
Also, where did her dreadlocks suddenly appear from at the end? Seems quite a complicated and lengthy beauty process to do in an impromptu manner under poorly aimed, intermittent gun fire.
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
Haven't seen this, but it makes me furious when movies like Haywire and Jack Reacher gets more exposure than something like Dredd 3D which completely bombed commercially, but is one of the best action films that I've ever seen.

I think I am beginning to become more inclinced towards action films that either a) don't waste the viewers time(Dredd, The Raid) or b) are more like a drama with 2-3 stunning action scenes in it (think Heat, Collateral, Oldboy).


I realize now that doing the 40 minute setup, like in Die Hard 1 ain't easy. In fact it's very very rare for a action film to have such an appealing setup, acting, direction and script, to then carry itself effortlessly into pure action. Django recently was another exception, were there was a hell of a lot of dialog funneled by crazy gangsta rap scenes of grotesque violence, but it was so far-and-between.
 
K

KingofGourds

Member
Soderbergh is pretty hit or miss with me, but the great thing is it's so obvious well beforehand if I'm not gonna dig one of his movies that I can just skip it and pretend it doesn't exist.

Haywire was one of those I knew I wouldn't be a fan of.

Unfortunately the movie press - the internet side of it anyway - were positive enough on it for me to go against my gut and give it a shot.

I wouldn't have minded if it was just plain ol' bad, but it wasn't. It was just dull. Sure there were some nice moments, but it takes more than Gina Carano choking some guy out with her thighs to get me to overlook a shitty narrative.

This is pretty much a forgotten movie, right? Totally inconsequential to anyone involved, except for maybe Gina Carano whose "acting" career it killed right out of the gate.

If I recall they also had to dub Carano's dialogue with another actor because her delivery was so wooden - yikes.
 
S

Sojgat

Member
PjotrStroganov said:
Switched it off after a few minutes. Her acting and the way she was made to look bad ass turned me off immediately.
Click to expand...

I just really loved how unconcerned Tatum's character seemed, and then it just explodes into this quick brutal fight. All the diner patrons are coming to the aid of this woman who's getting wailed on by this seeming nutjob, it's great. Her wooden acting wouldn't have mattered if the rest of the movie was that good, but it wasn't.
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
Yeah, Holmes scored the Oceans Trilogy and Out Of Sight.

You should check out "Rip Rip" from Out Of Sight, it's super funky!
 
S

starchild excalibur

Member
I liked it more than I expected to going in. I see it as a nice counterpoint to the ultra-shaky "gritty-ness" of most modern day action films like Bourne and such. It's not as spectacular to watch, but I can't help but feel that was the point. It's a different kind of action film.

*shrug*

I wish he'd stop DPing all of his own shit, though.
 
T

Trent Strong

Banned
NinjaBoiX said:
Possibly the highlight, yes.

But what the fuck was that fight
on the beach at the end
?
I remember hearing, "the thrilling fight at the end has to be seen to be believed!" You know what, maybe I would've seen it, without the fucking jump cuts!
Click to expand...

Every action movie I've seen in like the last ten years is full of jump cuts. Jump cuts, shaky cam, extreme close-ups, etc. They're all shot like Haywire.
 
Evolved1

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
The worst part about this flick... she just could not act. Not even a little bit.
 
I

injurai

Banned
It is pretty bad...

However it has some of the best fight choreography of late. I have to give it props there because everything has a realistic weight to it. It doesn't fall into all the unrealistic tropes that every movie unfortunately has.
 
I

iddqd

Member
injurai said:
However it has some of the best fight choreography of late. I have to give it props there because everything has a realistic weight to it. It doesn't fall into all the unrealistic tropes that every movie unfortunately has.
Click to expand...

This was enough for me to be OK with the film.
The way she kicked looked so much better and "real" that I was able to ignore the rest
of the noise.
I hope for more of her low kicks in the for sure to be amazing Fast 6.
 
A

alterno69

Banned
Loo,i just saw a trailer for this and it looks like a mix between a boring Bourne clon and one of those cheap wrestlers movie, so bad and she clearly can't act to save her life.
 
T

The Culture Vulture

Member
Does GAF like or dislike Contagion? Watched it again a couple of days ago and I think it was well done for what it is.

As far as Haywire, I survived the whole thing but didn't care for the movie. The plot gets into those really bad espionage tropes and the final beach scene is quite ridiculious. But far from the worst movie I have seen in years.
 
X

xenist

Member
Soderberg a hack? It makes me sad there are no user tags on Neogaf. I could tag a bunch of people with "Disregard any and all opinions about movies" then.

Soderberg a hack. Seriously, you guys crack me up sometimes.
 
spandexmonkey

spandexmonkey

Banned
To each their own I suppose, I really enjoyed it. Loved the fights, he did a good job of pulling the camera back to let you see the moves (instead of that Bourne style super close up blurry mess). Was refreshing to see a woman who looked like she could kick your ass. Kicking Fassbender through the door was amazing. Story was simple, like a classic 80s action flick, not overburdened with useless plots.
I'll agree the ending did feel rushed.
 
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