Movie Review Shoot'em Up

Shoot'em Up (2007) 

Directed by Michael Davis

Written by Michael Davis 

Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci 

Release Date September 7th, 2007

Published September 7th, 2007

What do you get when you mix Quentin Tarentino, Robert Rodriguez, the Wachowski brothers, Sam Peckinpah and Bugs Bunny? You get the sly, ultraviolent action flick Shoot'Em Up starring Clive Owen. Directed by Michael Davis, Shoot'Em Up is arguably the most violent movie of all time. It's also one of the biggest laughs of 2007. Part spoof and part hardcore action pic, Shoot'Em Up is the unholy culmination of the culture of violence in cinema.

Oh, and it's just damn entertaining.

When we meet Smith (Clive Owen), the ostensible hero of Shoot'em Up, he's sitting on a bus bench eating a raw carrot. Is he waiting for the bus? Is he a homeless guy? We have no idea. We can tell however, that when a frightened, pregnant woman, obviously in labor, runs by and is chased after by a man with a gun, that Smith is terribly annoyed to have his vegetable chomping idyll disturbed.

Involving himself in the situation, Smith takes out the guy with the gun. Unfortunately, that isn't the only guy with a gun who wants this woman and her baby dead. Indeed, an entire team of assassins, led by Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti), wants to make sure that mother and son do not get out alive. They do get mom but not before Mr. Smith helps her give birth, cutting the cord with a 9 millimeter shot.

This further offends Mr. Smith's delicate sensibilities and thus begins a war between hundreds of trained killers and one man with a gun and a baby.

Shoot'em Up is the most over the top violent movie in history. Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Seagal on their best day never fired this many bullets or killed this many bad guys. Nor have any of those action legends dispatched bad guys in so many unique, violent and comical ways. The violence, as directed by Michael Davis is a riff on those classic action cliches cemented in the 80's action classics like Rambo or Commando.

Shoot'Em Up at once is a loving homage to hardcore violence and an Airplane-esque send up of any film that ever tried to play this type violence as straight dramatic action. It's a difficult balancing act that is pulled off to near perfection by director Michael Davis. The director is aided greatly by cinematographer Peter Pau who gives every scene a hyper-realized stylishness.

The only problem with Shoot'Em Up comes when it tries to be about something other than being a violence delivery system. The conspiracy theory at the center of the plot is comical but treated with such seriousness and cynicism that it becomes a burden and a drag on the fun of the goofball violence that is the raison d'etre of Shoot'Em Up.

The Bugs Bunny allusions in Shoot'em Up are an endless source of humor. Whether it's Smith's love of carrots, his many endless escapes or his pitch perfect delivery of "What's Up Doc" after dispatching a bad guy. It all works to great comic effect. The carrot is a sensational, unexpected running gag. Keep an eye on the many uses of the carrot, including a visual pun on carrots being good for your eyesight.

That Clive Owen is still not a major star is a shock to me. Owen is both a skilled actor and a charismatic presence and a handsome fella. And yet he can't seem to break through at the box office. His terrific performance in last year's Children Of Men escaped both audience and awards attention. The thriller Derailed was a sleazy mistake while Closer was another mysterious failure.

Only Sin City has been proven a success but not one that Owen claims for himself (ensemble cast, popular director and graphic novel). Shoot'Em Up succeeds fully on Owen's star presence and gruff charisma. Smith is a reluctant hero at first but quickly becomes motivated and extremely violent for reasons that are entirely his own.

Paul Giamatti is a terrific foil as a comic bad guy. Though he elicits some big laughs, Giamatti ably delivers more menace than you might expect from the sensitive sad sack from the Oscar nominated Sideways or the avuncular artist of American Splendor. Giamatti knows his way around a fire arm but it is in directing his endless horde of henchmen where this character comes to life. The humorous bumbling of the bad guys and Giamatti's priceless apoplexy are golden moments in Shoot'em Up.

Violent to a degree that would turn Sam Peckinpah's head, Shoot'em Up is at once an homage to and a send up of classic Schwarzenegger-Stallone-Van Damme action epics. No film has likely fired this many bullets or dropped this many bodies and done so with as much style and wit. That is not to say that I loved Shoot'Em Up. The plot is beyond ludicrous and the various twists and conspiracies become rather irritating.

Nevertheless, the violence is so entertaining and Clive Owen is so much fun, I have to recommend Shoot'Em Up.