‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ full of cheap thrills

By Jacob Agner, contributing writer
Posted on September 17, 2007

While some directors aspire to make a film that critics hail as a masterpiece, other directors just like to kill, shoot, stab and blow stuff up. Thus, we have the birth of Michael Davis’ hilarious and ultra-violent film, “Shoot ‘Em Up. “

“Shoot ‘Em Up” begins with a close up of Clive Owen’s Mr. Smith sitting on a park bench eating a carrot, which happens to be full of Vitamin A, which helps shoot and kill lots of bad guys. As Mr. Smith chews on his carrot, a woman in labor limps by him screaming for help a henchman with a bad temper and a gun is chasing her. Mr. Smith intervenes by stabbing his carrot through the henchman’s mouth, reminding him to “always eat his vegetables.” He proceeds to deliver the baby in the midst of a gunfight with some more bad dudes. As the mother witnesses her newborn child for the first time, Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) places a bullet into her head, leaving Mr. Smith as the surrogate mother of a child targeted for assassination. Did I mention this movie was rated R?

Mr. Smith wanders down crowded city streets, with a child in one hand and a gun in the other. Giamatti’s Mr. Hertz is the amoral, teeth-gnashing villain that we secretly love to watch. He trails Mr. Smith with numerous henchmen that somehow keep ending up riddled with bullets. One of the first places that Smith tries to hide the baby is a bordello with Donna Quintano (Monica Belluci), a prostitute with a good heart hidden in a valley of cleavage. She accompanies him into the chaotic chases that follow.

The rest of the movie is one gunfight after another, each one more ridiculous and absurd than the last. Mr. Smith continues to disperse Hertz’ henchmen in all manners; careening down a cable wire upside down, and freefalling out of a jet plane. Anyone who tries to take this movie seriously has seen way too many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. In fact, the action is probably the lowest point it has to offer. Gunfights can only be so interesting, and after about five of them, they can be boring. Fortunately, the director realizes this and chooses to give the film a comedic tone rather than focus on suspense. The self-awareness that most action flicks lack is strongly present in this one, and Davis invites his audience to cackle at the sheer absurdity taking place on the screen.

 Credit must be given to Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti for taking on these roles. The best scenes of the movie involve their characters chatting with each other at gunpoint gritting through their lines, trying not to smile at the audacity of what just happened and what’s left to come. Clive Owen is essentially reprising the same role he had in “Sin City”, while Paul Giamatti steps outside his normal caricature and reeks of the filthy, despicable villain that loves to talk and carries a big, sexy gun in his hands.

At the same time, “Shoot ‘Em Up” is an homage and a satire to the action genre. Leave logic and the laws of gravity at the door, but don’t forget your machine gun.