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Shoot ‘Em Up

Review By: Rick Mele
RickMele@TheCinemaSource.com

About midway through Shoot ‘Em Up, the high-octane action comedy from writer/director Michael Davis, there is a particularly telling bit of dialogue. When asked by one of his henchmen why he doesn’t sit the next gunfight out, baddie Hertz (played with cartoonish aplomb by Paul Giamatti) replies, “Because violence is one of the most fun things to watch.” It’s one of many moments in this highly self-aware film where its principal actors deliver a conspiratory wink at the audience, but you’d be hard-pressed to pick a better motto for the film.

Indeed, at the very core of Shoot ‘Em Up lies the conceit that, well, it’s just so damn fun to watch action movies. Thankfully for the audience, however, Davis doesn’t just stop there. Apart from choreographing some of the most inventive action scenes ever to grace the silver screen, Davis has infused his first big-budget feature with boundless enthusiasm and, better yet, a brain to match.

Inspired by a scene from action master John Woo’s Hardboiled, Shoot ‘Em Up opens on Mr. Smith, the “angriest man in the world.” Clive Owen (Children of Men, Closer) does his best Clint Eastwood, playing an apathetic anti-hero reluctantly forced into duty when he witnesses a pregnant mother being chased by a gun-wielding tough. After a tense shootout while delivering her baby (in which Owen severs the child’s umbilical cord using a gun), a stray bullet kills the mother, forcing Mr. Smith to go on the run with the now-orphaned child.

But a newborn needs nourishment, so Smith goes to the only place he knows he can find help – Donna Quintano, a lactating hooker played by Monica Bellucci (a phrase I never imagined I’d use in a review). With the two becoming a rather odd pair of surrogate parents, it’s up to Smith and Quintano to keep Baby Oliver safe and find out who wants him dead, and why.

What follows is an hour and a half of almost non-stop action, with witty one-liners flying almost as fast as the bullets. Owen’s trademark deadpan perfectly suits the dour Smith, who is a grittier version of James Bond (yes, even grittier than Daniel Craig's). Beneath his steely exterior lies an unquestioning sense of duty, minus the clichés that might trip up a lesser film. Paul Giamatti is a real scene-stealer as the head hitman, relishing his chance to take this role and run with it, a complete 360 from his excellent award winning performance in Sideways. And Bellucci (perhaps best known by this crowd for her performance in The Matrix) is good, though not great, as the hard-nosed Italian matron.

This is clearly a passion project for writer/director Davis who, before this film got the greenlight, had all but given up on ...