Shoot ‘Em Up

Posted by Ty Nelson (roner34@sbcglobal.net) on September 8, 2007

I guess when a man kills another man by shoving a carrot in his mouth, then through the back of his neck you know what kind of movie you’re getting into.

Shoot ‘Em Up starts with a sequence probably never seen before in movie history. As a pregnant woman is being chased by bad guys with guns, a man waiting for a bus, the enigmatic Mr. Smith (Clive Owen), decides to get involved. Of course the woman goes into labor during the gunfight. Our hero must take out about ten bad guys while trying to deliver the baby. The child is born and Smith caps it off by cutting the umbilical cord by shooting it. The woman dies and Smith makes it his mission to protect the little guy. Along the way he enlists the help of a lactating hooker (Monica Bellucci).

The bad guys are lead by Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti). Who Hertz works for and why they want the baby dead is a mystery at first but after being revealed is actually kind of a clever plot device.

This is a film meant to be taken with a grain of salt. There is no greater meaning behind the scenes here. No message to get, no lesson to learn. It is simply an orgy of action and violence. Clearly inspired in equal parts by Bugs Bunny and Quentin Tarantino.

Sure the action gets a bit tedious by the end. But writer/director Michael Davis wisely keeps the running time a few minutes shy of an hour and a half. The plot, what little of it there is, moves along like a Grand Theft Auto-type video game. Gun battles and bad jokes for twenty minutes at time, a five minute cut scene (to advance the story) and then it is back to the blood and guts.

Most of the acting is over the top. Bellucci does little more than look good and over-act. Giamatti goes all out to ham it up as the villain and has fun with lines like:

Mr. Hertz: My god. Do we really suck or is this guy really that good?

Owen plays his usual understated type. Looking and sounding like he has something better to do yet always coming off as cool. I just wonder what is up with him playing the baby protecting hero in two movies in a row.

Shoot ‘Em Up feels like the kind of movie that was written by a teenage boy who just wants to make a movie that includes all the things that make life worth living. That joy translates into the movie but quickly gets tiring. Once the viewer gets past the craziness and accepts it for what it is the imagination of the violence gets monotonous. The film goes to the well too many times with stuff like the carrot eating. It is scenes where the movie truly turns convention on its side, such as when Smith tries to pay for ammo with food stamps, that the movie really works. S.E.U starts with a bang, but soon goes limp.

The Upside: Owen, Giamatti, Bellucci: The Holy Trinity of cool!

The Downside: Shoot ‘Em Up is a one trick pony.

On The Side: If you like Looney Tunes cartoons, Kill Bill Vol. 1, or the comic book Preacher, you might like Shoot ‘Em Up.

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