Shoot 'Em Up

♡

I wasn't really sure what to make of this movie before I went to the advanced screening. I heard from a friend of mine at the Chicago Tribune (she's female, and you'll see why that matters in a second) and she said, "It was so stupid! It was like, BANG BANG BANG, EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE, BANG BANG BANG! Then gallons of blood and we move on." For some reason, the little boy in me that loved the scene in Predator where all of the soldiers shoot at open woods for a complete minute, got very excited. She wasn't kidding, either, that's just what this movie was. Don't worry about the plot, it's not really a concern. Don't worry about the script either, the lines are so over the top and shallow that you know a man wrote this script without allowing anyone to comment on it. At the same time, this movie is just plain fun. You will find yourself laughing from the moment the movie starts to the ending (which you won't be glancing at your watch while waiting for). There are funny lines, funny situations, and stuff that is so impossible in the real world that you can't help but chuckle. Various moments during the film, I found myself applauding along with the audience, maybe not for the film, but for how writer/director Michael Davis got our hero out of another situation. The directing, as opposed to the writing, was done very well, especially for a movie like this. If you take the directing too seriously, the script won't work, which is probably why Michael Davis did both. Clive Owen delivers another strong performance, adapting to the cheesy script and outrageous events like a participant in a prank or gag. Monica Bellucci plays the most serious role in the film, and still takes to mocking her life and situation in this movie like the rest of them. My favorite character would still have to be the sly Paul Giamatti, who is given some pretty crazy situations himself but they are coupled with the only lines of any intelligence (or longer than about four words). By the end of this movie, I was having a lot of fun watching a plot unfold that I didn't really care about. That doesn't deter the film, though, because it's kind of like a stunt show, you're not really concerned with the story. I loved it and, apparently, so did most of the audience. It really reminded me of seeing, well, a live action movie that was more like a video game (we even have coordinated colors for the costumes of the "bad guys" in the various "levels"). I'd like to use this film as an example to my (former) favorite critic Roger Ebert as a perfect example of how video games can be construed in the same light as video games, because Roger, this is clearly a movie made by a large video game fan.

I rated this movie a 10 in the context of other action movies; it's nowhere near a 10 when compared to classics like Casablanca, but in it's genre, it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. Clive Owen stars as "Smith" a guy with a past (that's slowly revealed during the crazy gun fights) who shows up as a knight in shining armor to a lady who is about to pop a baby and is being chased by baddies, headed up by Paul Giamatti. After he rescues the kid, he links back up with an old flame, DQ, played by Monica Bellucci. The movie starts out with a bang, quite literally and doesn't settle down the entire time. There's a plot somewhere in the movie, but if you think too hard, it'll disappear in a puff of logic. That being said, the gunfights and car chases are stellar. They are lots of fun, with ridiculous things going on the entire time. Just suspend your reason & logic, strap into your theater seat and enjoy the ride. Michael Davis spoke before the preview and said he was an action movie buff since the beginning and made the movie he wanted to make. As an action movie fan, I thank him!

Wow. Shoot 'Em Up is exactly what it claims to be. An action movie. Balls to the wall, no holds barred, but nothing more. And that's exactly what you get. Don't go expecting high art...SEU doesn't take itself seriously enough for that. But that's exactly what makes it work. It KNOWS it's over the top, and doesn't try to hide it. Clive Owen's Smith character is the Bugs Bunny to Paul Giamatti's Hurtz Elmer Fudd. The film takes the best cartoon elements, makes them flesh, and still kicks in that over the top craziness. Bad puns that are so bad they're good, action sequences that there just for the sake of having an action sequence, and the wildest sex scene ever...it's amazing. It's the funniest, coolest, most amazing mix of stunts, bad one liners and paper think plot lines. You get everything you expect from Shoot 'Em Up...and it's all great.

As I stated above, this movie is a fun ride. The script was probably written by a 13 year old kid who plays a lot of video games, but that's why it's great. You can just kick back, turn your brain off for 80 minutes, and enjoy. It is the ultimate guy movie. And for the one liners: as cheesy and lame as you could ask for. Shoot Em Up was made to entertain the 20 something action junkie, so if you aren't one, you will no doubt hate this flick. But for the rest of us, who all have that 13 year old immature video gamer still inside, you gotta see it. I think Clive Owen might be the first true action star Hollywood has had in a long time. One other enjoyable feature: great soundtrack. Shootout scene with Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" in the background: you can't ask for anything better. I give Shoot Em Up 8 out of 10.

I had been looking forward to this movie for months, so walking in, I had somewhat high expectations. Walking out, I felt very satisfied and that I had gotten more than my money's worth. You are going to be hard-pressed to find a movie more over the top than Shoot 'Em Up. What Michael Davis does here is take every action movie cliché (i.e. firing two guns while jumping through the air, shooting guns out of speeding cars, etc.) and takes it to a whole new level entirely. It works namely because the violence here is just so creative. Sure, it defies all logic most of the time, but I was laughing and having a rip-roaring time throughout. Clive Owen is perfectly cast as the carrot-chomping, gun-toting smart aleck hero and has no shortage of cheesy puns (that score big laughs). The rest of the cast does well, but really, it's Clive's show. The "plot" is pretty much non-existent other than about a half dozen scenes of slightly forced dialogue. The purpose behind these scenes is more to give the audience a couple of minutes to catch it's collective breath between action scenes than it is to develop an actual story. And really, if you went to this movie expecting an in-depth character drama, you picked the wrong film. At a little under an hour and a half, Shoot 'Em Up successfully delivers a perfect dosage of action, guns and puns without overstaying it's welcome. I'll be sure to see it at least a couple more times while it is still in theaters. Plus, it has Mötley Crüe's, "Kickstart my Heart". What more could you ask for?

Think about the title of the movie, because if you don't like that than just stay home. This movie lives up to its name in a fresh, fun and humorous way. Clive Owen is great as Mr. Smith, the coolest action hero I have seen in a long time. Paul Giammatti is witty and surprisingly enjoyable to watch as the bad guy. If you take this film too serious than you will not like it. Yes, it is a ridiculous film filled with non-stop action that would never be humanly possible, babies being thrown around but yet staying protected by the humorous Mr. Smith. This film was so fun and yes over the top, but if you expect anything more you probably will be disappointed. The violence was very extravagant, but what else did you expect from this title? It is the sort of violence that doesn't really bother you in a film. It's flashy and well, it's entertainment. Just like this movie, it was entertaining and I loved it.

A good movie

Given the choice, I prefer my action films to be as brutally realistic as possible, but if film-makers are insistent about going down the cartoonish violence route, they might as well go the whole nine yards, as in Shoot 'Em Up, a relentlessly OTT slam-bang actioner that starts out all guns blazing and doesn't call it quits until writer/director Michael Davis has thrown every possible crazy idea he can come up with onto the screen. This wild, anything goes approach could be compared to the previous year's Crank, but unlike that film, which was crippled by unlikeable characters, unnecessary vulgarity and a glut of irritatingly showy editing tricks, Shoot 'Em' up remains a classy and often clever piece of film-making despite its highly preposterous plot: Davis's effective direction is cool and slick without resorting to migraine inducing visual gimmickry; stars Owen and Bellucci effortlessly ooze sex appeal and charisma, whilst Paul Giamatti, as ultra-vicious killer Hertz, is utterly loathsome; there are some inspired visual gags for the eagle-eyed; and the never-ending gun-play is both brilliantly inventive and absolutely blistering. Hell, the film even manages to deliver an ironic anti-gun message whilst all the bullets are flying and people are dying. In short this film is everything Crank would dearly have loved to have been, and then some. 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

If you want to watch a comedy go and watch an actual comedy - this is more tongue in cheek than out and out comedy, the action scenes are poor in comparison to say the Bourne films or Die Hard 4.0, the over the top nature of the film doesn't work as well as say Crank, the comedy doesn't work as well as say 95% of comedy films, its just a mash up of nonsense aimed at teenagers who think just because its got a lot of shooting that it must be a great action film.. I was really looking forward to watching this, heard some good things about it (sadly mostly on here) but at the end I just wished I had watched Crank again as thats the film its closest to, and Crank is superior in every way (and that ain't gonna win no Oscars anytime soon - and not because of the writers strike either!) Just an odd film that felt like I was watching someone play an arcade game on my TV, shame it wasn't a decent arcade game tho......