Some movies don’t care about plot or character or important messages, some movies just want to see $#!T blow up really good. Such is the case with Shoot ‘Em Up, a film that spends more time firing big guns than firing off big ideas. The question then becomes: do the filmmakers deliver the hardcore action or do they waffle and only meet us halfway? Fortunately for action junkies, Shoot ‘Em Up is a highly kinetic rush with guns blazin’; like drinking your daily recommended amount of Red Bull in one go.



The set-up is simple: Clive Owen plays “Smith”, a homeless nobody (seemingly), but highly trained in the fine art of combat. Paul Giamatti plays Hertz, a “clean-up” man, really just glamorized assassin wearing a business suit. Hertz and his men are out to kill a baby and its mother when Smith intervenes, protecting the baby after the mother is killed. Monica Bellucci is DQ, the hooker with a heart of gold that becomes the baby’s surrogate mother. This bizarre family unit is forced to dodge every hitman within the city limits as the filmgoer is taken through a bullet-ridden 85 minutes with no pause.



Fairly straightforward, no? Frankly, if yo is no goodu’re in that kind of mood, you really don’t. And that’s okay because some times a movie can just entertain and Shoot ‘Em Up surely leaves one entertained. I think that this was the kind of movie that Joe Carnahan wanted Smokin’ Aces to be, but couldn’t quite get it there because of the numerous characters that need elaborate set-ups and back stories for explanation.



Is this purely about the cartoon violence factor? You better believe it! In the very first scene, we see Owen’s Smith munching on a carrot at a bus stop. Do you really need any other kind of visual cue than that? Smith is Bugs Bunny and Hertz is Elmer Fudd. When Hertz remarks, “Is this guy really that good or do we really suck?” it’s the post-modern spin on “Of course you realize that this means war.” From the use of a carousel to create a moving target to the climactic mid-air, freefall gunfight, Shoot ‘Em Up is a series of improbable situations that make Roger Rabbit look like Robert De Niro.



And just because the movie isn’t about acting doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the actors, and I certainly think that Shoot ‘Em Up has helped me to understand why Clive Owen turned down James Bond, and perhaps why he might not have made such a great Bond that people think that he would have. The man’s too funny. Not ‘ha ha’ funny, but he’s definitely not straight man enough to play the tightly buttoned 007. Sharp tongued anti-heroes, possibly always remarking “You know what I hate…” before, say, stealing the car of guy illegally parked in a handicap space, are better suited for Mr. Owen’s talents.



As for Shoot ‘Em Up, its enjoyable if not terribly original or redeeming in terms of lessons learned or moral guidance. Always presuming of course that you don’t life your life as a former Black Ops sharp shooter looking for trouble on the streets of a major metropolis, but if that were the case your life is already a movie.