Ah, kind of half watched (I was ironing, okay) a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a while now the other night, that being Shoot ’em Up, a movie directed and written by a chap named Michael Davis (who is not exactly a prolific producer of film material just by the way).
From what I had heard about it before, the movie is essentially one long action scene and surprisingly enough, it really does turn out to be one long action/comedy slugfest right from start to finish. The plot is fairly simple…, as ripped from an IMDB plot synopsis page:
“Mr. Smith is waiting for a bus when a pregnant woman runs by, chased by a group of thugs. Smith kills them and delivers the baby, but the mother is killed. Chased by the evil Mr. Hertz and an army of goons, Smith enlists DQ, a lactating prostitute, to help him care for the baby and in the process, try to discover just who is pulling the strings from behind the curtain and who wants this baby dead… at all costs.”
…but is pretty fun nevertheless and gives us a decent enough vehicle to drive along on.
Clive Owen is his usual awesome, stony-faced British self, Monica Bellucci pulls off her standard ‘I am sexy as hell’ routine and Paul Giamatti provides an absolutely brilliantly unexpected and comical roll as the vindictive and dangerous Mr. Hertz.
The movie ties in a lot of black comedy and sexual innuendo humour with its huge doses of uber violence and gunplay and is pretty damn fast-paced, meaning it really is the absolute perfect movie for lovers of all things actiony.
That said, Davis does go quite heavily over the top with some of his gimmicks and special effects, leading to some rather ridiculous circumstances and shots that end up looking far more stupid or comical than actually effective (the parachute gunfight is a good example of this by the way).
Nevertheless, the movie is stylish (sometimes in a B-grade way though) and absolutely tons of fun, so if you are looking for a popcorn muncher of a film with plenty of bullets flying about, make the effort and catch this one – well worth a giggly watch! :)
(Note: please don’t watch this and expect anything in terms of realism or even physics for that matter. It may actually help if you watch this while drunk… or high if you’re into that.)
