Directed by: Michael Davis
Premise: A former special-ops soldier
(Clive Owen) unwittingly becomes the protector of a newborn when he
witnesses the mother’s death by a team of assassins. With the help of
a recently pregnant prostitute (Monica Bellucci) he defends the baby and
tries to deliver the boy to safety.
What Works: Shoot ‘Em Up is a lot
of fun. From beginning to end the film is crammed with shootout and
stunts, pausing every now and then for a one liner from Clive Owen, the
child’s protector, or Paul Giamatti, the leader of the death squad.
Many of the stunts and scenarios cross the line from reality to
exaggeration, but Shoot ‘Em Up borders on being a satire of
action films like those made by Arnold Schwarzenegger throughout the
1980s and the films of Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, or Jean-Claude Van
Damme. The film has such a sense of humor about what it is doing that
the violence takes on the quality of a Warner Brothers cartoon. Paul
Giamatti and Clive Owen are very good, and casting these talented and
respected actors in their roles helps lift the film out of what might
otherwise have been a dull exercise in gunfights. Owen radiates
action-film-cool, film and he turns the character into a contemporary
John Wayne-like figure. Giamatti delivers a sinister but very humorous
performance as an antagonist who is much smarter than the stock villains
that usually populate this kind of film.
What Doesn’t: Shoot ‘Em Up is
not brilliant storytelling. Although the film picks up and amplifies the
fun elements of other action films, it also picks up their weaknesses.
Plot holes abound, characters appear in places for no particular reason,
gravity spontaneously suspends itself, and police are nowhere to be
seen. The one liners by Owen and Giamatti are not as funny as they could
be and Monica Bellucci's character does not do much in the story except
what Owen’s character tells her to do. A lot of the stunts and
characters of Shoot ‘Em Up have been seen in other places. The
chase scenes are lifted from The
Bourne Supremacy and the airplane and parachute sequence is
right out Eraser,
for example.
Bottom Line: Shoot ‘Em Up knows
that it is dumb, but not stupid, and plays up the outrageousness of the
situation. For that self-awareness, the film delivers an entertaining
popcorn film. It is, for lack of a better term, a guy movie, and it is
easy to envision a roomful of college age men enjoying Shoot ‘Em Up on a double bill with 300,
cheering on the film in between keg stands.