Shoot 'Em Up

Year: 2007
Director: Michael Davis
Cast: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci

If there ever was a film that really lives up to its name, it would be Shoot 'Em Up. I know it's not much of a title, but the film is downright fun, despite the story being less than stellar.

It begins at a bus stop, where a mysterious man who calls himself Smith (Clive Owen) is sitting there chewing on a carrot. A pregnant lady suddenly runs past him, fearing for her life. Then an armed man follows suit, hot on her heels. Smith decides to get involved, and saves the lady by killing the man with his carrot. No kidding.

Then all hell breaks loose, as a group of gunmen led by a man named Hertz (Paul Giamatti) arrive on the scene and start firing. Smith helps the lady deliver the baby, but she gets killed in the crossfire. He then runs off with the child, pursued by Hertz and his gang, with bullets flying and bodies falling by the wayside. Smith takes the child to a hooker he was involved with once, Donna Quintano (Monica Bellucci). She initially refuses to help him watch over the child, until he saves her from Hertz later. Now Smith has to protect an extra person, with not much of a plan to start with.

You're probably wondering if there's a plot underneath all this. Well, there is. See, Hertz works for someone who wants the child dead. The child plays an important role for a certain US Senator running for president, and Hertz's employers do not want the senator to achieve his goal. The goal is....well you'll have to see the movie to find out more. But really, it doesn't matter. What matters is the action, and Shoot 'Em Up delivers in spades.

Director Michael Davis also wrote the screenplay, and he focuses on the action scenes most of the time, which isn't a bad thing. But hey, he even has time to fill in some classic one-liners for Owen and Giamatti to play off each other with. That being said, the action is well choreographed. You'll see Owen slide, jump, drive and dive all over the place with gun in one hand and baby in the other, gunning down the bad guys with ease. Sure, it's not entirely original, and some of the stuff that unfolds are downright ridiculous. But who cares? If you even try to make any sense out of what's happening, that's when the fun stops.

Owen once again does a great job playing the hero. He has just the right amount of charm and screen presence to pull it off. He sure does make a great action hero, and I hope we can expect more from him in the action genre in the future. Giamatti hams it up as the talkative but hilarious Hertz, who in the film, seems to get calls from his wife at the most inopportune times. He also gets the best lines in the film. Bellucci plays a damsel in distress well enough, and somehow that kinda fits with the way action films were made back then, so it's a tribute of sorts.

Shoot 'Em Up is like The Replacement Killers without the seriousness. Watch this film, but leave your logic behind when you do. It's really fun. (4/5)