Shoot Em Up will blow you away

I received passes to go see "Shoot Em Up" last night, and I have to say this is just the palate cleanser I need before all the "artistic" and "Oscar caliber" films I'm seeing in the next few months. "Shoot Em Up" is a whole lot of good craziness.

The movie is one long manic, lunatic, funny running gun battle. It goes over the top, with Clive Owen is a man named Smith, who saves a baby and finds himself acting as protector while the child is being hunted by Paul Giamatti and his endless supply of flunkies. Both actors are in on the joke with this movie - it's like watching Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd going at each other with handguns. It's not an Oscar winner, or a contemplation on morality. It's about guys trying to kill each other with lots and lots of bullets. The action is cranked up to ludicrous speed. The movie as a whole is sly, relentless, and darkly funny, winking at the audience as if to say "Yes, we know its ridiculous and implausible, but it still looks cool". Smith easily has the sympathy of the audience, finding time while mowing down hitmen to deliver his own brand of justice to pony-tailed posers and those drivers dare change lanes without signaling.

The dialogue is littered with one-liners and innuendo, and only Clive Owens has the gravitas to deliver these lines straight faced, such as after dispatching a hitman with a carrot "Eat your vegetables". Clive Owens, Monica Bellucci (as a lactating call girl - hey, baby's got to eat) and Paul Giamatti are all accomplished actors, and they have fun with this film. They never act like they're above being in this sort of movie, but jump in with manic energy, keeping the pace pounding forward. There is a plot, but it's incidental to the action. Even the characters remark on the weirdness of it all. Everyone knows that this is a cartoon come to life.

Director Mike Davis really delivers on the action sequences, which are top notch and have a perverse sense of logic to them, like the comic fallout of a gunfight that takes place while free falling from an airplane. And the soundtrack is hard rocking with Nirvana, Motorhead and Motley Crue thrown into the mix, keeping the beat as every body and bullet casing hits the floor. I defy you to not throw the horns.

It's a perversely funny ride, and I'd recommend it if you like your action and laughs firing from both barrels.

Apple - Trailers - Shoot 'Em Up

IMDB - Shoot Em Up

Rotten Tomatoes - Shoot Em Up (70% Fresh)