Films I've watched: Haywire
May. 2nd, 2026 07:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereA box at the local antique place offered 3 DVDs for 1 dollar. The selection would have had to be abominable for me to pass that up. I grabbed an action movie, a "historical" romance and a Marvel movie, figuring to get some posts out of the trio. :)
So I watched the first of the three, Haywire (2011), which I picked mostly because it was an action thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh. The super generic title did not leave me hoping for much apart from some good Soderbergh editing, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.
Standard plot. Black ops agent is betrayed by her boss and has to go on the run. Excellent fight choreography, with very little quick cutting. The lead, Gina Carano, was an MMA fighter and it showed in her action scenes and her physical build. The fights were pragmatic, and there was a general effort made to avoid any Made of Iron cliches (a cool section involving some great Dublin parkour culminated in her falling the rest of the way to the ground, and getting seriously slowed down by it, as just one example). And of course the direction and editing was excellent. The script was tight, and didn't get bogged down trying to tug on the heartstrings with sad backstories or insert needless quips.
I also enjoyed the score (composed by the same guy who did Ocean's Eleven, which I should really rewatch), which avoided telegraphing how I should feel and often dropped away to silence during the combat scenes, helping them feel more raw. The camerawork performed the same function, avoiding spelling things out with slow motion and the like.
Can't say I was super invested in the plot itself, but it was easy to root for the heroine and I had a good time with it. It was nice to sit back and just enjoy the craft of a well made action movie. Totally worth 33.3 cents.
So I watched the first of the three, Haywire (2011), which I picked mostly because it was an action thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh. The super generic title did not leave me hoping for much apart from some good Soderbergh editing, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.
Standard plot. Black ops agent is betrayed by her boss and has to go on the run. Excellent fight choreography, with very little quick cutting. The lead, Gina Carano, was an MMA fighter and it showed in her action scenes and her physical build. The fights were pragmatic, and there was a general effort made to avoid any Made of Iron cliches (a cool section involving some great Dublin parkour culminated in her falling the rest of the way to the ground, and getting seriously slowed down by it, as just one example). And of course the direction and editing was excellent. The script was tight, and didn't get bogged down trying to tug on the heartstrings with sad backstories or insert needless quips.
I also enjoyed the score (composed by the same guy who did Ocean's Eleven, which I should really rewatch), which avoided telegraphing how I should feel and often dropped away to silence during the combat scenes, helping them feel more raw. The camerawork performed the same function, avoiding spelling things out with slow motion and the like.
Can't say I was super invested in the plot itself, but it was easy to root for the heroine and I had a good time with it. It was nice to sit back and just enjoy the craft of a well made action movie. Totally worth 33.3 cents.
