Review: Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Shoot 'Em Up (2007) - ** [out of ****]
Director: Michael Davis
Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Greg Bryk,
Julian Richlings, Daniel Pilon, Stephen McHattie, Lucas Mende-Gibson,
Sidney Mende-Gibson
Reviewed by Tom Elce
(copyright Tom Elce)
BBFC Rating(UK): 18
MPAA Rating(US): R

"Shoot 'Em Up", as the title would suggest, is an action/thriller not
remotely concerned with applying depth or logic to it's decidedly
straightforward plotting. Instead, it is a sensationalistic feast of
cartoonish violence and snappy one-liners. As such, viewers going into
a screening of "Shoot 'Em Up" expecting something along the lines of
"Children of Men"--another film in which Clive Owen was charged to
protecting a child, in that case an unborn one--have sizably misplaced
themselves. This is a film more suitable to a streamline audiences,
viewers not extremely concerned with a lack of detail and reasoning so
long as the film in question provides the prerequisite thrills needed
to excuse such contrivances and filmmaking simplicity. So the question
is whether "Shoot 'Em Up" succeeds in the aforementioned artistic
trade-in and delivers the thrills required of such a piece. Curiously,
it can only be described as average in this department, too.

Smith (Clive Owen) is sat alone on a bench drinking a cappucino when a
pregnant woman (Ramona Pringle) runs across his path and into a nearby
alleyway. Seconds later a hitman, soon followed by his peers, drives
around the corner and chases the pregnant woman into an alleyway,
armed with a pistol. Naturally, Smith, a squatter with a military
background behind him, isn't about to sit idolly by as a woman is
killed. A shoot-out between Smith and the hired hitmen ensues, with
Smith escaping with the child he's just delivered while the baby's
mother lies dead. That isn't the end of the matter, however, with a
murderous man known as Hertz (Paul Giamatti) remaining in hot pursuit
of Smith. Accompanied by his co-thugs, Hertz is deadset on obtaining
the newborn baby, not afraid to kill Smith in doing so. The obvious
problem being Smith's unlikely ability to avoid Hertz's wrath. Aided
by prostitute Donna Quintano (Monica Bellucci), Smith himself isn't
afraid to dish out his own brand of violence.

Michael Davis' first directorial effort for four years is a wise-
cracking but generally unexciting experience. Davis, who also tackles
the scripting, does an excellent job directing, shooting the numerous,
satirical action set-pieces with flair and attention to detail. On the
other hand, his screenplay is flawed, witty though it may be. The
jokes come at a frequent rate (be they one-liners or visuals) but only
work to desired effect half a dozen times, whereas the writing strikes
something more of a chord when bringing a momentary dash of
seriousness to proceedings--Hertz's wonderings, and reveal, on why
Smith is so readily willing to protect a baby child biologically
unattached to him with his own life--before unashamedly flipping back
to it's more consistent tongue-in-cheek approach.

As good-guy action hero Smith, Clive Owen lacks charisma in every
aspect of his performance without quite being wooden. Owen gives the
viewer an occasional glimpse of his emotive capabilities, but is
generally resigned to turning in the stock performance enabled by his
poorly distinguished protagonist. Better is Paul Giamatti, a slimy and
dispicable main villain in the maniacal Hertz, whose motivations for
his involvement are predictably less morally sound. Hertz is a great
bad guy for "Shoot 'Em Up", and Giamatti is obviously having great fun
in the part. Elsewhere, Monica Bellucci is bizarrely bland for a
prostitute specializing in lactating fetishes.

The most inventive individual parts of "Shoot 'Em Up" are it's
mindless shoot-out scenes and unconventional methods of murder. Smith,
for example, loves carrots and, as such, utilizes them in more than
one murder as a vicious implement. Because Smith is so capable in
dispatching his pursuers, however, the film is somewhat robbed of
tension, and the viewer becomes at a loss to really care about the
outcome, since it has long since been predicted. Nor can one truly
connect with the character's on-screen, rendering "Shoot 'Em Up" an
insubstantial and utterly forgettable affair, itself not anything
worth caring about.