If you want to see a female action star in the making convincingly kicking the crap out of a succession of photogenic boys, this is the ticket to buy.
- Catherine Bray, Film4, March 22, 2012
Soderbergh has delivered a hugely entertaining revenge thriller that has no right to be so dazzlingly-realised.
- Simon Foster, sbs.com.au, March 20, 2012
Standard spy-fi fare presented in a very atypical style.
- Gary Dowell, Dark Horizons, January 24, 2012
Carano is strong, fast, relentless. She's not much of an actress yet, but Soderbergh hides her weaknesses well...
- David Denby, New Yorker, January 24, 2012
There's a good deal of pleasure to be had in the clockwork precision of her hand-to-hand combat, which Soderbergh often shoots in profile to showcase her wall-climbing backflips.
- J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader, January 23, 2012
Carano is nothing special as an actress - but darned if it matters when she's supported by a killer screenplay, a sharp cast, and Steven Soderbergh's unmistakably sly, mordant direction.
- Eric D. Snider, Film.com, January 21, 2012
If "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" was a fancy top-shelf cocktail, this is Polish vodka, neat.
- Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger, January 20, 2012
Though Carano isn't without a certain glowering charisma, her flat line readings and apparent discomfort with dialogue-heavy exchanges make her seem like a refugee from a different, schlockier movie...
- Dana Stevens, Slate, January 20, 2012
Hand it to a wily indie veteran like Soderbergh to find a fresh twist to an old genre: The fighting isn't faked, but the acting is.
- Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail, January 20, 2012
"Haywire" isn't a by-the-numbers action vehicle, it's a crafty thriller that works to undo beat-em-up clichés. In short, it's a livewire.
- Adam Graham, Detroit News, January 20, 2012
"Haywire" stays true to its low-rent B-movie principles, right down to the fast, strong and quietly competent heroine at its center.
- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, January 20, 2012
'Haywire" is a wannabe, or rather a wanna-B, and that B is for "Bourne."
- Kyle Smith, New York Post, January 20, 2012
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.
- Claudia Puig, USA Today, January 19, 2012
"Haywire" is a lean, clean production, shot and edited by Soderbergh himself and utterly free of the incoherent action sequences and overcooked special effects that plague similarly scaled Hollywood pictures.
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com, January 19, 2012
You don't love movies if the sight of Gina Carano beating up every guy in sight doesn't make you laugh, get happy and feel as if you're getting your money's worth.
- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 2012
Steven Soderbergh devised the film especially for his kickboxing champion leading lady Gina Carano, who kicks her way through a line of leading men, all coming off a poor second best.
- Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile, July 21, 2012
Steven Soderbergh continues his occasional practice of using actors as found objects in his perfectly enjoyable formula action-thriller Haywire.
- David Edelstein, New York Magazine, January 08, 2013
Mixed martial-arts star Carano puts major muscle, if minor acting ability, into this enjoyable action flick.
- Rafer Guzman, Newsday, January 08, 2013
Formulaic thriller. At least the fight sequences are cool.
- Adam Woodward, Little White Lies, January 20, 2012
Like The Limey, also written by Haywire scribe Lem Dobbs, it's the kind of film that hearkens back to lean-and-mean revenge movies like Get Carter and Point Blank.
- Alonso Duralde, The Wrap, January 20, 2012
