Review: Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
SHOOT EM UP (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars
I've seen countless action movies and countless action movie parodies/
send-ups and they all inevitably cancel each other out. How many
different ways can there be to show bullets being fired from a gun?
Exploding vehicles? Car crashes? Not many, and yet something like
"Shoot 'Em Up" arrives and makes it seem all new again by infusing a
cartoonish mentality.
Right at the start of the movie, Clive Owen is sitting on a bench and
eating a carrot in what is perhaps the only quiet scene in the entire
movie. Before long a man is hellbent on murdering a pregnant woman,
and they both run past Owen. Feeling a sense of duty, Owen chases the
guy, impales him with a carrot ("Eat your vegetables"), almost saves
the pregnant woman, shoots her umbilical cord since she has just given
birth, and evades certain death by using oil slick to slide away and
shoot everyone in sight. Now Owen is stuck with a baby! He runs around
town evading more bad guys, pumping them full of lead, and keeps
running. Eventually he secures help from a prostitute, DQ, played by
Monica Belluci who plays her cliched character with far more elegance
and flair than perhaps required.
Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) is the head villain, insistent on capturing
Owen and trying to stay one step ahead. The minimal plot has to do
with a Democratic presidential candidate who hires Mr. Hertz to find
the baby since the candidate is dying of cancer and needs the bone
marrow from the infant! I don't want to give away the twist since the
idea is sure to drive most conservatives up the wall, screaming in
hysterics! All pregnant women better watch out for Mr. Hertz and his
minions!
"Shoot 'Em Up" is a delirious, wildly overactive action movie spoof -
the only known category this movie could be placed in since it can't
be taken seriously. It is more appropriately a live-action cartoon,
which seems to borrow from John Woo, Tarantino and the Coen Bros. and
mixes it all up in a blender, with an extra dose of caffeine.
Interestingly, "Shoot 'Em Up" doesn't feature mindless action - it is
action with wit, purpose and clever imagination. I love the parachute
sequence where gravity has some limits and the hero flies around like
Superman (albeit with more pizazz than Brandon Routh). The gun battles
are ferocious and in-your-face but not mind-numbing as say "Last Man
Standing," an unwatchable Bruce Willis western remake of "A Fistful of
Dollars" that featured more gun battles than an average Clint Eastwood
western. Whereas "Last Man Standing" and possibly any number of trashy
cop flicks/neo-noir thrillers from the last two decades like "Last Boy
Scout" focused on sickeningly and repulsively violent carnage and a
high body count, "Shoot 'Em Up" has flair and a definite sense of
style at work, upping the ante on the absurd and the ridiculous.
Consider the scene where Owen leaves a baby on a carousel. The hit men
arrive and Owen sees them, so he shoots the carousel so it can spin
around and, well, you get the idea! And how many movies show a woman
with a baby hiding out inside a tank in a museum? How many show
inconceivable booby-traps developed by the sullen hero in the matter
of seconds before the enemies arrive? Or how many more would dare show
Owen making love to Belluci while shooting the enemies that lurk
around the corner?
Though occasionally repetitive and wearying, "Shoot 'Em Up" is
entertaining and chock full of blood-splattered ultraviolence yet
always delivered with a wink. It is cartoonish to the extreme and more
over-the-top than a Starbucks mocha latte with whipped cream. Come to
think of it, the movie is like drinking a latte - you'll drink it,
feel energetic, then mercilessly drained and then, just maybe, you may
want to repeat the experience.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
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