Mike LeMar
This one's a little overrated; I wouldn't call it "solid". While the action scenes are clever and certainly entertaining, they're also unrealistic, like when Clive Owen's sitting by the fireplace and raises the bullets between his fingers up to shoot Paul Giamatti, he'd burn the back of his hand. That stunt would be almost impossible to pull off because if the butt of the bullets is heating up enough for them to fire, the back of his hand would be feeling the same and he wouldn't be able to take it. His cute little punch line that Paul's gotten it right that he's dead doesn't even hold true because it didn't kill him.
Idiot-Deluxe
"Find me every wet nurse, lactating hooker and mammary on tap in the city." - Paul GiamattiSome people say that this is "Gun Porn" at it's finest..... and you know, they would not be mistaken. Shoot Em' Up is certainly all that and more!Shoot Em' Up is a unique movie, a true one-of-a-kind, over-the-top and highly-stylized modern action film, which revolves around a continuous series of innovative gun fights, great quips and a heavy dose of tasteless humor. Staring Clive Owen as "Smith" who is the lead character, who not much is really known about, other than he's a good guy (and a hell of a good shot) and that his wife and kid were murdered, due to that he obviously views the world in a grim and highly pessimistic way. The plot centers around a baby that's born under unusual circumstances, for an even more unusual purpose, Smith encounters this baby in the opening minutes; basically the whole film is Clive Owen running around, killing any one and every one who try's to kill the baby. It sounds real simple when only the bare details are given, but surprisingly, for a fast-paced actioner with a run time of less then 90 minutes, Shoot Em' Up has a really interesting plot and a well developed story behind it - and that's a very rare thing among action film's, especially ones that run for less then the standard 90 minute's.Shoot Em' Up, as the title clearly indicates, involves a LOT of shooting (where talking thousands of rounds) and it's how these gun fights were staged that this movie scores it strongest points; and from a standpoint that's based upon sheer violence, this film is just about the most violent movie ever (save for a handful of titles). And even though Shoot Em' Up is a deliriously violent action film, you'll find that it's violence and ultra-high kill-count, is constantly off-set by the films grand propensity for humor; plus this movie really packs in the quips, a constant stream of them in fact, and Clive Owen "the hero" and Paul Giamatti "the villain" trade and swap quips with each other through the entire movie. Stylized, hyper-violent, gunplay and slick, deviant, humor is this movies driving force - and Shoot Em' Up pretty much does it better than ANY other movie in the genre. In fact Shoot Em' Up is such a unique and distinctive movie, that it's pretty much a stand-alone genre on it's own. There really isn't another movie quite like it and it scores off the charts for how innovative and overtly stylish it's many action scenes are. Perhaps non more so than the incredible and utterly ridiculous sky-diving sequence, during which an AC/DC song is tastelessly (and I mean that in the best way) blaring away, as an insanely awesome, mid-air, fire-fight erupts!That's another thing about Shoot Em' Up, it's hard rockin' soundtrack. Throughout the 86 thrilling minutes that this film runs, you'll hear a steady stream of rock and metal songs from some of the biggest and best known bands out there: AC/DC, Motorhead, Nirvana, The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc. Even though I don't care for all the bands they chose, it's still a resoundingly effective use of hard rockin' tunes. In fact the use of it is so bold and so effective, that it often straddles the fine line between tastefulness and garishness - but regardless of how you look at it, it's soundtrack works brilliantly.Of the fine acting talent found in this movie..... I think Giamatti's performance is even better then Owen's and he makes for an absolute, first-rate, villain. He's without a doubt the perfect combination of seedy looks (terrible looking facial hair included) and a humorously depraved personality that makes him a real hoot. I think the best scene that shows how sick this guy is, is when he cups a fell on the dead woman's bare tit (watch his facial expressions carefully here) - backseat, necro-erotic cinema! The guys a riot, flat out. As far as this movie goes, the casting decision of Paul Giamatti serves as the perfect example of the kind of results that can be achieved, when the perfect casting choice has been made; and Paul Giamatti's performance in this film, is as perfect, as the film is as a whole. Ultimately when it comes to beauty-through-violence, Shoot Em' Up is the supreme almighty.This film has that certain "maxed-out" feel to it and I think the only thing they didn't max-out, is they could have shown Clive Owen tying-off the baby's umbilical cord, WHILE SHOOTING his 9mm. Think about it! Just how great would it have been to see Clive, shooting a pistol, while he's tying off the babies cord with his free hand and has to resort to using his TEETH to finish tying the knot! Imagine the combination of Clive's stumble-specked face, baring his teeth, biting down on the end of a bloody umbilical cord, while multiple muzzle flashes create a strobe-light effect! Now wouldn't that have been hilarious. Maybe that idea was too tasteless even for this movie or maybe they just didn't think of it, who know's.Shoot Em' Up is also the ultimate example, in the case of the bad guy's not being able to shoot straight - no matter how close the target! Even more so than Death Wish 3 - if you can believe it.Am I alone in wanting to have seen more of Monica Bellucci's tits?
