Shoot ‘Em Up

Director: Michael Davis
Starring: Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci, Paul Giamatti, Greg Bryk, Stephen Mchattie, Ramona Pringle, Jane Mclean
Rating: 18 (R)
Company: New Line Cinema, Warner Bros, Angry Films
Duration: 86 minutes

Action movies have a lot to ask for when it comes to their key audience. Ever since, in what my opinion was the birth of the genre, ‘Dirty Harry’ and then the later evolutions such as the ‘Rambo’ series in the 1980’s and then later on with ‘The Matrix Trilogy’, certain boundaries and rules were made and pushed to create a new experience. It has to have lots of huge sequences with special effects, quotable dialogue, sexy semi-naked ladies and a really nasty villain that makes you wanna punch someone in the face. With all these traits that needed to be followed, it made it a prime target for spoofing and rehash it to create something old yet original. This is one of the few examples of postmodernism and ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ definitely follows this up.

The story is very slim and ridiculous. A man only known as Smith saves a pregnant woman from being killed by a load of thugs. She dies after giving birth to a baby boy. Smith, with the help of a hooker called Donna, has to protect the baby from a million henchmen as well as get to the bottom of the whole conspiracy. The story, to be frank, is not important. In fact, the movie even says so itself by creating dumb connections and transitions to get the story moving along for the next action sequence… and that is what this movie is all about and this is where it succeeds. This isn’t for the classy intellectual but for the action junkies.

So how good or violent are the action sequences? Well, when the director Michael Davis wanted to pitch his movie to the studio executives, he showed them a bunch of storyboards saying ‘This film will be the ultimate John Woo wet dream’. Boy, he ain’t kidding! The shootouts and fist fights are astounding each oozing with slow motion, funky moves and lots of bloodshed, very much like the Hong Kong Cop Thrillers and the Stylist Neon-Blockbusters. And these come in the skip loads as these fights occur in almost every single kind of scenario… Gun fights on and falling out of the plane, while having steamy sex, while a woman gives birth, while being tortured, while flying down a flight of stairs… the list continues, all backed with a great hard rock soundtrack.

Two foes at gun point

Now, most of the time, I would generally see these sequences and say if this wanted to be taken as a serious movie, these scenes would be not be needed. Flash and Style doesn’t always equal greatness. But the reason why all this works is because it automatically sets itself in a complete fantasy universe from the very beginning and keeps it through out the movie, not relating to any issues or social agendas currently happening in the modern world. All the moments happening in ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ appear practically cartoon-like. The chemistry between the hero and villain almost appears like a rather warped Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd pairing. The Looney Tunes references thrown into the mix just to back this theory up . So this film has officially established itself to the audience that they are not taking this seriously, and taking you on a roller coaster ride of bullets, one-liners and madness, making all the meaningless violence and silliness seem witty and funny.

Since the whole film is taken with a pinch of salt, then the rest of the flaws can be put on the side. Mainly… the acting from the cast. Monica Bellucci as a lactating hooker is just bizarre. She is barely grasping the English language which makes the dialogue sound forced… and yet really sexy at the same time! Paul Giamatti really hams it up as the arch-nemesis of the film, acting in an almost stage actor kind of way with all the exaggerated mannerism, tight expressions and insane pronunciation of his lines… and then you have our mysterious hard-boiled hero played by Clive Owen who has enough macho testosterone and one liners to rival Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So the film is predictable and very stupid, the acting feels like it came out of a B-Movie and has some extremely cheesy dialogue. But all this adds charm to the already silly movie. Since the whole tone of the movie was made purely to almost spoof the action movie genre, it oddly works out for the best. The crazy, bloody action sequences steal the show, creating hilarious scenes and awesome moments that you will taking about with your friends over a couple of ice cold beers. It is clunky, showy and ridiculous but it does what is says on the tin which is to entertain. Sure, ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ doesn’t have anything to say or has any purpose but it is just like a roller coaster ride: a point isn’t needed,  it is over before you know it and it is insanely fun if you let yourself go. So bring out your guns and begin to fire from all barrels!

Rating: 3/5
(Heading into it guns blazing)