Recent Reviews for Shoot 'Em Up
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MCT:July 6, 2008Gotta watch this again. Took it to be kinda lame tongue in cheek action romp when I first saw it in the theater. After seeing "Wanted" recently a friend suggested that it was just the thing that "Shoot 'Em Up" spoofed so brilliantly. It's like movie-bocce. Watching one movie knocks another down several pegs. I wonder what other films have done that for me?
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MCT:July 6, 2008A solid action packed thrill ride that is not for those who desire a complex story but for those who just love well, shoot 'em ups.
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MCT:July 5, 2008Rated: (R)
Directed by: Michael Davis
Genres: Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Drama
Casts:
Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Belucci
"Eat your vegetables."
"You know what I hate?"
- Clive Owen as SMITH -
Even I cannot believe hear myself saying this, but obviously, Paul Giamatti and Clive Owen were either hurting for money, or desperate for a role involving a partially nude female. I know it sounds sarcastic, but whatever. If you want an over-the-top shooter that could be considered a fun, guilty pleasure, this isn't it. I feel grateful to not watching this on the cinema nor buy the DVD. It's like a Children of Men déjà vu at some sort, only worse. Again, Clive Owen struggle to rescue a baby.
Classic opening scene, the usual heroic bang-bang. Not a good one, though, it tended to be all gibberish and too..unhuman. And this part, déjà vu of Christopher Reeves' Superman. This is nothing like THE Clive Owen dashing performance he delivered in Robert Rodriguez masterpiece Sin City as Dwight McCarthy. So proposterous and totally dull. Ms. Belucci's delivers despicable performance in every scene by showing off her 'things' . She needs to learn how to look sexy without trashy. But hey, honestly, isn't the one and only reason any director would hire her?
You know what else is more pathetic? Jumping off a plane and do a bang-bang on the sky, way falling down. I knock myself out, laugh out loud at just how wacky those scenes are. Seriously, if they change the movie genre into comedy or anything more pathetic, I would give 4 and a half stars.
And also there's this repetition, "You know what I hate?" phrase which quite hard to miss. Seriously, you know what I hate? Witless, soulless, heartless movies that mistake noise for bravura and tastelessness for wit.
Mr. Hertz: "Oh yes sirey Bob, it certainly has been a pleasure. But before we part ways, tell me one thing - I am dead on about who you are, right?"
Mr. Smith: "Say that again?"
Mr. Hertz: "I said I am dead..."
Mr. Smith: "[interrupting him] Stop. That part of it you got right."
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MCT:July 4, 2008
There are some classic moments in this, such as Smith screwing the chick whilst shooting a bunch of bad guys "Talk about shooting your load". and paul giamati is thy perfect evil dude.
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MCT:July 4, 2008Amazing film, a spoof of lots of things, and the stuff you can do with a carrot amazes me XD
Great fun! -
MCT:July 3, 2008I love this awesome spectrum of action. a great flick to watch if you love action, clive owen, or mamory prostitutes
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MCT:July 1, 2008If you don't understand that this movie is MEANT to be so ridiculous, you won't enjoy it. "Shoot 'Em Up" is not only an effective parody of the genre from which it takes its title, but an absurdly fun action flick by its own right. Clive Owen was the perfect choice for the lead in this movie, as he and Paul Giamatti deliver very silly lines with perfectly straight faces. I should also mention that it has of the most hysterical visual jokes of all time.
The cinematography is high caliber, the fight scenes are over-the-top insanity (Clive Own delivers a baby in one, has sex in another, and in yet another fights while falling from a plane), the plot is absurd, and the final 'Hero owns Villain' scene defies words. Take it with many grains of salt and laugh your ass off. -
MCT:June 28, 2008
I'm a British nanny and I'm dangerous! brilliant! This movie is jammed packed with action and one liners! loved it. (Don't expect any background story or character building. Just good ol' ACTION!)
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MCT:June 28, 2008
This is what I call gun pornography!
My friend said that I shouldn't take the movie seriously (and you shouldn't), he said "It has a lot of shoot-outs, blood and bling bling ;) and probably the most wicked shoot-out ever" the little boy in me got very excited.
Don't worry about the plot, it's not really a concern. Don't worry about the script either, the lines are so over the top, cheesy and shallow that it's clear that the script was written by a guy :D
Clive Owen - the guy with the gun, a very trigger happy Bond with the old fashion of Schwarzenegger plus a bad whit for humourless jokes, Monica Bellucci the hooker (that's sounded more like a Russian slut - oh god is my accent THAT bad?) and... a BABY.
The action was of high quality but the setting was somewhat tedious. So there was action with no acting, a silly storyline and Monica Bellucci.
New York Daily News | Jack Mathews
This is likely the fastest-moving intentionally funny action movie ever made. It's as if the 21 Bond movies and four "Die Hards" had been distilled to remove their body fat (that is, character development, buildup, rest stops, etc.) and left us with only the killing and the punch lines. -
MCT:June 28, 2008
You get what the title says, a shoot 'em up movie. The film is full of gratuitous violence, sex, cheesy lines, a barely there plot, and crazy action. I was throughly entertained.
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MCT:June 27, 2008
How in the world can anyone take a film called "Shoot Em Up" seriously, for god's sake, its right there in the title, and that's exactly what it is. This is an action film for people who have watched thousands of action films. Not a single murder goe...(read more)s by where Clive Owen's character doesnt make a lame quip or joke, which thanks to his and the directors impeccable timing are hilarious. I watched this in theaters and laughed myself silly, and I rented it again with the same results. The plot, are a bunch of loosely connected political conspiracy ideas, which satirize the conventions of action films.
The action film obsession with scantily clad women with large mamory glands comes to life with the lactating Italian prostitute(Monica Bellucci is almost always a prosititute). The action film cleche of "saving the children" is here as a baby who only stops crying while listening to heavy metal(a better metaphor for action fans in general cinema has not seen). The silent tough guy, is Clive Owen who wears the traditional black trench coat, muscle gloves, ensemble which are pretty much standard issue for the 90's. The comical bad guy is Paul Giamatti (whose a pretty decent, if cartoonishm, villian). Action films obsession with firearms and firepower, are here to as most of the conspiracy plot and that of the main character revolve around gun issues. None of these ideas are played out tastefully, after all this is an action movie, but the satire is there should the bullets stop for a few minutes giving you time to think.
Clive Owen in the last two years has made two of the best action films in the past decade, one was the heart-stopping "Children of Men", the other which is as over the top as the COM was realistic is "Shoot Em Up". It's not as wonderfully stylized as "Kill Bill", but it is a vastly entertaining, bullet a minute, very, very funny film. What point was there besides to satirize and pay homage to action films of the past, there was the point of the the carrot as it was driven through the skull of first anonymous bad-guy killed in the film, to which Owen's character remarks "Eat Your Vegetables." -
MCT:June 26, 2008
ridiculous, i have to admit i enjoyed from start to end. giamatti and owen did a great job with thier roles. but this is not oscar matireal. title says it all. still good fun.
wyatte -
MCT:June 26, 2008
This is THE action movie, you watch it to see shooting & violence & maybe a boob or two. don't expect more from it
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MCT:June 25, 2008
The most fun, pulpy, and hilarious action film I have ever seen, Shoot 'Em Up is ridiculously filled with action and intensity to the point that you barely have time to breathe through the last hour or so of the film. This is exactly what a pulp action film should be, gritty, funny, outrageous, and just entertaining.
Watch this with a group of your guy friends (the girls might not dig it so much) and I guarantee you'll want to break something when it's over. -
MCT:June 25, 2008
Silly fun which doesnt try to take itself serious. Shoot em up knows it's audeience, and it delievers what the audience wants. The result is a mildly entertaining film which lets you walk away with a smile and not much else
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MCT:June 24, 2008
Great fun. As the title suggests, there is lots of shooting everything and everyone up. It defies all sorts of logic (firing a gun strong enough to blast the shot across the hall without any recoil, 50 henchmen who couldn`t hit him even with a rain of bullets despite there being no cover, the list goes on) but I assume this movie intended to make fun of these sorts of sharp-shooting super agent one man army genres.
Generally enjoyable with a bitty bit of tragedy in the main characters' pasts mentioned in passing. They attempted to give Paul Giamatti`s character some kind of depth in a couple of scenes but it led to nowhere and meant nothing in the end.
That last phone call pushed the ridiculous serves of vigilante justice a bit too far for me but then it`s clear this whole movie was just a show of blasting and body counts.
Don`t think about it. Brush off the deaths (they`re merely side-effects of the action, you`re not supposed to feel sorry for or sad about any of the dead people) and just have fun with it. -
MCT:June 22, 2008
Hilarious! This movie is cheesy, but in a good way. They KNEW they were being cheesy and they used that to make it funny. Non-stop action with some incredibly unrealistic awesome scenerios. If you like action and comedy, this is a must see.
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MCT:June 22, 2008
A reinvention of the action genre. This film was fresh, original and wild, filled with humour, both light and dark. A real intimacy with muzzle flash after muzzle flash, it almost became a dance. Bloody fantastic.
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MCT:June 17, 2008
If you're looking for a film that's action-packed and filled with puns, then this one's good to go. I found that most of the situations in this movie are simply impossible and could never happen. But that's what makes it so funny, right? Let's just say that this movie is like an R-rated Chuck Norris movie. It has plenty of action and has enough one-liners to go around.
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MCT:June 16, 2008
i liked this film. it really does have action all the way though it! not to mention all the great acting by Clive Owen. as a fast paced movie it lacks reality, i mean, most of the scenes are CGI graphics. quite violent especially in the werehouse. quite alot of action involved in this film.
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MCT:June 15, 2008
It's funny you know, but before I checked the filmography of Michael Davis ( the director of this film ), I truly felt like I was watching a Jason Stratham movie the whole time. It turns out, Michael directed, none other than, the Stratham hit, "Crank". The villains in this film, led by a highly educated, and yet most dangerous criminal (Paul Giamatti); pursued pistol range champ & ex-Black Ops serviceman, Mr. Smith (Clive Owen), along with his love interest (Jane McLean), and a newborn baby; all over the city with the same tenacity of those who relentlessly chased Mobb Deep & Bruce Willis everywhere in "16 Blocks". Yet, the whole feel of this movie's location shoots, wardrobe, and makeup were very much "Pulp Fiction-esque". The action was clearly on the scale of both Jason Stratham "Transporter" movies and it was a TRUE rollercoaster ride of "one gun shoot out after another", intermixed with a multitude of extremely hilarious Paul Giamatti one liner's such as "My God, do we suck or is this boy really that good" and "The leader who stays in the rear ... takes it in the rear, after all violence should be frontal". The best scene in the movie was, the scene in which McLean's character was in mid-sexual climax, when an unexpected gunfight ensued, and Mr. Smith kills every last assailant all of which while McLean is still climaxing on his "love stick", and get this ... Smith remarks, "Talkin? bout shooting your load". THIS MOVIE ROCKS and get's an "A+" in my review book.
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MCT:June 13, 2008
DQ: "Who are you?
Mr. Smith: I'm a British nanny, and I'm dangerous. "
Shoot 'Em Up is the Crank of 2007. It's the kind of film whose entertainment value can't be underestimated. The pleasure taken from this experience comes from watching a souped up modern-day Western, where a mysterious stranger rides into town, minding his own business, but his innate qualities of helping the humble and the oppressed almost always brings him adventure uncalled for. Trouble looks for him, and he has the opportunity to show everyone, and the audience, just why he's so damn dangerous.
And dangerous is how Clive Owen played "Mr Smith", a pseudonym given to him as he's a one-man army with no name, no allegiance, and a mysterious past. Nobody knows who he is and what his story his, but we know him as he gets sucked thick into the action, and follow him through his adventures of staying alive and dishing out vengeful justice on those that stand in his way. He chomps not a cigar but a carrot like an Energizer bunny that refuses to give up, and makes Paul Giamatti's Hertz look like Elmer Fudd in trying to get lead pumped into the bunny.
It's an out and out action film played out like a violent video game. And gratuitous violence doesn't just cut it, it has to be stylized as well while you marvel at Mr Smith's near invulnerability, as expected and a given for any hero in this genre. Bear in mind though, that it doesn't take itself too seriously, with many of the stunts and set action pieces here bordering on the incredible and the ridiculous, but hey, who's complaining? It sure does bring a chuckle or two in its attempts perhaps at ramping up such sequences for the action fan boys. But if you think Hong Kong actioners look too staged and choreographed, then this one may not be your cup of action tea.
High in its body count thanks to the deadly skills of Smith and countless of extras, Shoot 'Em Up is not just about guns guns guns - it has (thank God) its fair share of sex too, thanks to sex siren and Diva Monica Bellucci as a prostitute. As the saying goes, there's nothing more appealing to an audience (at least an honest, non-pseudo-intellectual one) than sex and violence, and what was pretty audacious, that perhaps had to be seen to be believed, is how the film managed to marry both together, in a pretty laugh out loud scene that brings to mind any typical treatment that a Hong Kong Category III will adopt.
It's an adrenaline rush from beginning to end, and a loud and noisy film that's to be filed under guilty pleasure. Clive Owen is believable and utterly cool as the loner anti-hero - who needs the tuxedo, martini and Aston Martin? - while Paul Giamatti is clearly having a blast as the shady unforgiving mercenary, having enough wickedness and menace while doing so. While it has a slight anti-gun message, truth is, we're here for the senseless violence it offers instead. At least I was, and I had fun. But that's it, no need to make it more than a fun action comedy. -
MCT:June 11, 2008Lots of shooting which I suppose is to be expected. It seemed a little over the top at times in terms of violence. Clive and Paul are brilliant in it though.
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MCT:June 10, 2008
Okay, what the hell?
More or less interesting. Cast is okay. Action is okay. But everything is just too much comic-ish and unreal for my taste. -
MCT:June 9, 2008
Shoot 'Em Up is a purely stylistic action movie that sometimes works just as well as a comedy. I can't help but laugh at some of the things they put in this. I'm pretty sure it set the record for people killed while holding a baby. It's definatley creative and ambitious in it's action sequences. It tries to have a plot, but is easily ignored because of the visuals. Worth it if you want some mindless entertainment and a lot of shooting.
