Shoot 'Em Up Review

The title says it all: Shoot 'Em Up has a lot of extreme gunplay, and writer/director Michael Davis is irreverent and playful enough to show off his intentions right in the title.

The term "shoot 'em up" has been applied to a genre of video games as early as Space Invaders, but decades before that low budget westerns carried the label. A shoot 'em up provides lots of gunpowder-fueled action with just enough character and plot to hold the movie together.

Davis - whose previous film is a monster movie entitled Monster Man - obviously sees no need for subterfuge in creating entertainment. Shoot 'Em Up is a loving tribute to – and good natured light parody of – the kind of action movie that John Woo is famous for: The Killer or Hard Boiled, for example. These films feature heroes as skillful in the art of shooting firearms as kung fu stars are at using punches and kicks, perfecting their craft to the point that they are considered "gun fu" masters.
Shoot 'Em Up has a dashing hero, played by Clive Owen, who is just one step removed from Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name." Though everyone refers to him by his alias "Mr. Smith," and the villainous Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) believes he's identified his nemesis through research and deduction, we're never told for sure who he is.

What we do know is that Smith is a homeless man, but a very unusual one. When he spots some thugs pursuing a pregnant woman in distress (Ramona Pringle), he doesn't hesitate to leap to her rescue, displaying a mastery of the fine art of "gun fu" in the process. Smith helps deliver the baby in a filthy deserted warehouse while blasting down a platoon of bad guys out to kill the woman and her child. Just to show us that the director's tongue is never far from his cheek, Smith finishes the delivery as he shoots the umbilical cord.

That's the kind of bravura move that becomes commonplace throughout the film. Owen, who not too long ago was saving the world and another infant in Children of Men, takes up the challenge to protect the newborn and discover why so many people are trying to kill him. Why? That's just the kind of guy he is. The character plays on our fantasies in more than his superheroic martial prowess and miraculous trigger skills, making an effort now and then to punish such banal evils as bad drivers and trendy fashion offenders.

Davis plays around a lot with his firearm theme, from making gun control laws an important plot device to his hero's penchant for munching on bullet-like carrots. Shoot 'Em Up is both in love with guns and carries an anti-gun message. It's also clever enough to be aware of the irony in that.

Since there are mysteries to be unraveled by the twists of the plot, I won't spoil things by giving away too much here. The movie will still work well if you turn off your brain and enjoy seeing people die in interesting ways, but there is also a puzzle plot for those who need more substance. Smith picks up wet nurse prostitute DQ (Monica Bellucci) to add a romance angle – and to give him someone with which to banter – but the hero's true dance partner is Giamatti's character, the devilish Hertz, who seems to be the opposite side of the same coin. Smith is a loner operating off the grid, and Hertz is a tactical mastermind, constantly throwing fresh thugs toward Smith's eager gun sights, both men are very good at what they do.

It's become a staple of action pictures to offer good character players in showy bad guy roles, from Christopher Walken in The Rundown to Robert Patrick in The Marine. Giamatti (American Splendor) – always reliable in his ability to produce solid characters or take on difficult roles – continues that tradition here. His slimy mercenary hit squad boss is so amusing that you almost want to root for him.

The basic setup could easily lead to the type of action flick we've all seen before, but Davis wants his audience to have a better time than they might expect, so he makes everything a bit more outrageous than it needs to be, even for an action movie. The gun battles are all slightly beyond the believable, and Davis dares us to object when Smith crashes through glass windows without getting cut, rigs up ridiculously complicated death traps in seconds, and engages in midair (or mid-coitus) combat. Action movies are supposed to be fun. Shoot 'Em Up delivers lots of it.