rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Michael Davis; produced by Rick Benattar, Susan Montford, Don Murphy; written by Michael Davis
Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Daniel Pilon
The title could not be more right. 'Shoot 'em Up' plays less than an hour and a half, but in the end Clive Owen has shot up more people than there were bullits in all the other films this year. Even while having sex he keeps shooting them up. Logically you would think this would be an unworthy film, but if action is what you want, this is close to as good as it gets. Clive Owen is cool as in 'Sin City' (even with a carrot as his weapon) and Paul Giamatti shows his range as an actor once again (in a film where the word "acting" is almost irrelevant). This time he is close to pure evil.
'Shoot 'em Up' is basically just the premise of an action film. The hero who needs to protect something (a baby), the villain who wants it for reasons that do not matter, the woman (Monica Bellucci) as a love interest and something extra to protect. Normally the action scenes are linked together with at least some kind of story, but the filmmakers did not want to waste any time. I mean, who needs characters? I almost hate to admit it, but it is the way to go here. The film does not want to pretend to be something it is not. It is mindless, and is willing not to conceal it.
Admittedly, there have been a lot of films like this, not working at all. Those films lack not only Owen or Giamatti, but also the intelligence to understand the film is not intelligent. Besides, the action does look good. It goes over the top in every sequence (the baby is delivered during a shootout), but turns that into an advantage. I chuckled quite a lot. When it comes to popcorn entertainment, we have had some poor entries in 2007, many times because the film that it was something more than it really was. 'Shoot 'em Up' delivers what it says it will, and that is good enough for me.