Shoot 'em up

Clive Owen may be the biggest bad ass on screen these days. He also happens to be a tremendous actor. Watch him in Sin City and you know he can be an incredibly effective stoic ass kicker and then watch him in Children of Men and you can see just how good of an actor he is as well. This guy is the real deal. Throw in the great Character actor Paul Giamatti, International beauty Monica Bellucci and a title like Shoot em Up and I knew, I just knew I was in for one fun movie, right?


The film begins with a man sitting on a bus bench eating a carrot. A pregnant woman runs by him screaming and a man with a gun is chasing after her. The man on the bench curses and then gets up to go help the woman. And there the movie begins, a full minute goes by before the first incredible death sequence. The man, Mr Smith (Owen), helps this woman give birth while emptying bullets into quite the big amount of henchmen. Eventually Hertz (Giamatti) enters the picture and we begin the real cat and mouse action movie. The mother of the newly birthed baby is killed in the gun fire and Owen feels like he must find a way to get this baby a better life. We meet a sexy yet disgustingly naughty hooker, Donna Quintana (Bellucci)and Smith wants to leave the baby with her because the bad guys are still after the baby. More action and a little bit of exposition follow and we are able to piece together that a senator running for president has been harvesting babies because he is dying and needs a bone marrow transplant. The bad guys work for a gun dealer because the senator plans to be tough on gun control but if he dies due to no bone marrow he can't be president. That is the plot of this movie, but honestly who cares?


Allow me to begin my actual review of this movie with warning people that if you can't stop yourself from saying things like "That could never happen" just avoid this movie all together. I am not saying check your brain at the door because I think you need your brain to fully understand just how self aware everyone in this movie is to how ridiculous it all is. This is a balls to the wall, over the top, crazy, hilarious non stop action ride. Every scene involving action is incredibly creative, daring, hilarious and absolutely implausible, but it is one awesome ride. Watching Paul Giamatti really let loose for the first time is a riot to watch and of course Owen is his stoic and snarling best. Bellucci is unbelievably sexy in moments of this thing and when she and Owen finally get together it is some hot sex, punctuated by another awesome action sequence and one of the better action one-liners. The death toll in this thing is one of higher ones I have seen in recent memory and the director, Michael Davis, shows a very good eye for creating this over the top world of bullets flying in every direction. This movie almost takes place in an alternate reality where henchmen are limitless and vegetables can be used as weapons. A world where our hero can shoot a guy three times in different body parts to get the guy to aim his gun at someone else. A world where a guy can be falling out of the sky and still find a way to demolish about 10 guys.


Among the complaints I have heard about this movie is the script. Yes, a good portion of the jokes or one-liners are relatively lame, but in my opinion that was an intentional ploy by Davis to make this movie completely over the top. The comedy comes from just how far this movie is willing to go into a world of comic book like violence. I do not believe we are meant to believe 90% of this stuff could actually happen. Some people were also annoyed by the lack of character development but I would point to the title of the movie and tell them that the title says it all in this thing. I liked that we are never sure about Mr. Smith's past. Hertz thinks he has Smith's past correct but he never confirms that and I liked not knowing anything about this man who is the biggest bad-ass ever. He is what James Bond aims to be and can do what most action heroes wish they could do and if you are willing to go with this movie, I have no doubt that you will love it from beginning to end.