Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Digital Sound, NTSC, Widescreen Label: New Line Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: January 01, 2008 Running Time: 86 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Amazon.com: Every action movie has a moment so over the top you have to laugh; Shoot 'Em Up consists of nothing but these moments. A carrot-eating, lone wolf kind of guy named Smith (Clive Owen, Children of Men, Inside Man) steps in to protect a pregnant woman from a gunman--and finds himself, with the aid of a lactating prostitute (Monica Belluci, The Matrix Revisited), defending the newborn child from a sleazy contract killer Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti, American Splendor, Sideways) and his army of thugs. That's pretty much the plot, but story is beside the point. Writer/director Michael Davis (Monster Man) has a keen sense of what matters in an action movie. The rapid-fire editing is scrupulously coherent; you always grasp what happened in every shoot-out, even if it flagrantly violates the laws of physics or basic plausibility. Explaining how Smith survives a four-story fall--even if that explanation is beyond ridiculous--demonstrates both a sense of wit and a winking respect for the audience's imagination. As a result, Shoot 'Em Up is ten times more entertaining than the likes of Transformers or Rush Hour 3, movies so self-satisfied with special effects or movie stars that they forgot to be fun. (Shoot 'Em Up's only weakness is a sliver of misogyny, the one action movie cliche that it's not clever enough to transcend.) --Bret Fetzer
You would have to see me spelling my name on the snow! "Shot them up" is a smart parody, a funny evasion movie that must be seen only under these circumstances. The laughable plot simply is an artifice that works as huge back up for (How would we say?) the imaginative, amusing and certainly original sequences, car chases, aerial maneuvers and bizarre devices to face a devilish criminal web of conflicts and interests between a Senator and a bunch of ruthless gangsters. Clive Owen embodies the accurate blend of three well known personages of action since the seventies until the nineties: James Bond, Rambo and the officer Mac Lane, spiced with a touch of "Sin city."
At last instance , the movie seems to extracted from a script from Cohen brothers Quentin Tarrantino and Robert Rodriguez, , due the rampant audacious and the febrile kinetic energy displayed all the way through.
Violence and black humor in great doses, but besides, maternal love around a baby who seems to be quiet with the rock music works out as a mesmerizing feast for all those who seek to mesmerize themselves around the special effects universe.
But please; don't try to find out a minimal sense in this surrealistic movie. It's just another way to escape from the quotidian reality in which we are immersed and nothing, nothing else.
WHAT'S UP DOC? ANOTHER CARROT EATING CARTOON CHARACTER! Liking this film depends on how you look at it. This is a cartoon from beginning to end and anyone looking for realism, should look elsewhere. This is a fast paced and violent action film that doesn't take itself seriously, but does give the viewer a wild and adrenaline filled ride.
Clive Owen is well suited as the carrot eating, unstoppable killing machine who inadvertently becomes the protector of an infant who's mother is killed by dirt bags and want this baby! Paul Giamatti gives a equally colorful and humorous performance as the head dirt bag.
A intense and supercharged film with very little down time that should keep action fans eyes wide open from start to finish.
MY GIRLFRIEND LIKED IT...BUT IT REALLY SUCKED. Okay, I like over-the-top sometimes. But this was total eyecandy for stupid people. The new Bond flicks are 10 times better than this crap. Stay away, Clive is taking all he can get. The carrot thing was really dumb as well. Not cute like my girlfriend thought. Maybe this is an Action/Chick flick? Monica is just a smokin' hot mama, even at her age. But seriously,this is what the Bush Administration will be remembered for. Feed us crap, and tell us we should like it..... I like Monica.
This movie is for 12 year olds.
Painfully dumb Now, I like a good action film as much as the average male. But I have a rule--if I turn off the DVD before the film ends, the film gets one star. What stopped me here, about 20 minutes into the film, was where this baby was placed on a children's merry-go-round, the baddies begin to plunk away at it, and our hero empties a clip to make the merry-go-round go round and (once more) save the infant from harm. This is the epitome of dumb. Nothing before that sequence was any better. I suppose some people will write this off as my not being able to take a joke. Well, I'm a big Johnny To fan, and his flicks are as wild and crazy as this one. But To doesn't take the cheap way out and wink, wink at the audience. Shoot 'em up is simply stupid in so many ways.
Shoot um Up Great action film, the story line is believable, well acted by Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, and tons of quotable dialogue....loved it.