"Shoot 'Em Up" (2007) - Movie Review

Two things should be made clear for every one who is going to watch this movie. (a) Killing is bad (b) Babies are extremely sensitive and cannot sustain any kind of snatching, be in the midst of gun firings, heavy car collision and spinning fast in a merry go round.

“Shoot ‘Em Up” is so horrendous for most part that you might like it for being so. From the get go even before the movie came, it was marketed as a mad shooting with little to nothing towards plot. It became kind of prerequisite to have an expectation of shoot fest and nothing more. Even after all that the scenes migrate from ridiculous to extremely horrific. As you may all remember “Hot Fuzz” which did justice to the action flicks being a homage and spoof maintaining its creative original flavour. It is downright overwhelming effect of producing a stylish, slickest and dark comedic movie for director Michael Davis in this film.

The movie does not waste any single moment. Right from the get go, the killing fest starts in all gory fashion. We see a lone guy, Smith (Clive Owen) as he calls himself eating carrots, minding his own business when he sees a pregnant lady being followed by a violent guy. He goes in when he realizes that the guy is ready to kill her. Smith has total control over the situation and kills the guy. The opening shooting scene interested me. There were some thought put into the stunt to execute it in style and presence of mind. But it keeps going on and on and on and on and on…..and you just want to shoot yourself (Strike one for my sarcasm in using “shoot”).

I am always up for ridiculously entertaining movies. The first step to all movies like this is to place itself in that genre. They do it excellently. Within instances, everyone will realize how and where this is headed. They need to choose a location and can start firing bullets flagrantly. Secondly, they should not burn their fingers or in this case, shoot their foot (Strike two for my sarcasm in using “shoot” again). They should play it secure and safe. They should not overkill the advantage that’s been created. It’s been neglected, destroyed after the first 15 minutes.

The film gets the right music. Modern and grunge is the answer. And then we get to see the voluptuous Monica Belluci. Do not even start me on the shooting sequence at the end of their love making. Everyone knows where everyone is hiding. Conveniently when they do not want them to know, they do not know it. I totally forgot about Paul Giamatti as Mr. Hertz, the nemesis who in all way does not suit up the bad guy one-liners well. He has the evil crazy eyes but the dialogues do not help him. I am surprised how come talented brilliant actors like Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti take roles like this. Sure they want to have fun and deliver something different, but something with no scope for their talents questions me to ask their view on it.

I did enjoy parts of the movie. There is the material for an entertainer. There is couple of stunts which were good. I would not blame the stunt choreographer for the rest of shoot outs which sucked because a movie is a combination of everything and the shooting content alone shouldering everything in it does not help him. They had the right intention and the right view on giving it but faltered miserably in weaving it together. The good one-liners get submerged in the extreme noise of gun shots.

There would have been around three hundred killings, thousand bullets and tanks of blood out of this. The final reuniting scene is even more ridiculous. In my native language, there are heroes who do extremely stupid stunts which defy all the dynamics of gravity and elemental forces of earth. Things which were sent as a forwarded mail making fun of those by the author of that mail spoof of them in funny impossible nonsensical manner. With author unknown, the following is the spoof of one such shooting scene. Hero is behind the wall and he knows two shooters are on the other side. Hero has two guns and hence throws one gun up and shoots the trigger and kills the bad guys over the other side. Now let me tell you, there is a gun stunt which makes this one sane. I keep wondering whether Michael Davis got that mail to choreograph this stunt.