Shoot 'Em Up

Order Blazing Guns! from Amazon

Movie reviews seem to have a tendency not to start off via a crappy joke, this is an unfortunate circumstance we shall ease up a little by accounting one, right here. Two cowboys are sitting in a saloon. One of them cautiously nods to a mean looking character while mumbling under his nose: "SEE that hombre there? Maaan, I SURE hate his GUTS!" "WHICH hombre?" - the other cowboy asks, scanning the crowd in a confused manner. "So many people around everyone, I truly can't figure out which one of them you mean." The first cowboy drinks his beer, then methodically guns down every single person in the establishment, leaving alive just the mean looking bloke he holds so much a dislike for. He turns to his pal, and, consecutively to blowing gunpowder off his colt, offers the following question: "See him NOW? Well, THAT'S the hombre I HATE so much!"

If you found yourself enjoying this quite crappy yet hopefully somewhat funny joke, then I would urge you to give Shoot 'Em Up the quite appropriate shot, as director Michael Davis latest delivery surely is well prepared to entertain all viewers whom happen to possess the average awareness level of a sedated sloth, thereby picking up on the delicate hint the movie's title quite cheerfully delivers. As an insane bulletride and respectful yet welcomely cocky tribute foam to the action movie genre, Shoot 'Em Up is your ideal choice for a film that does not take itself seriously, and also for a film being damn pretty enjoyable at not being serious.

Although it seems easy enough to regard Shoot 'Em Up as a comedy, it does deliver a quite decently developed narrative buildup of government level conspiracy and tiny, yet elegant hints of social commentary. Let's face it though: not many will likely remember or pose massive interest at the focal plot elements of the story itself, as the average bodycount per minute here is easily up to 10+, and that does not include wounded individuals. Suffice it to say that the film's organic buildup is a quite decent comic book script with a keen readyness to pull another card to 19, yet it's main agenda remains to deliver hilarious action sequences at every single focal element of the storyline. Sounds good, yes?

It certainly does sound good, and it is equivalently works good, too. The synopsis concerns a pregnant young lady chased by villains, and a weary looking bloke called Smith, who happens to be a witness to this mere atrocity, and decides to help out the lady who is about to give earthy life to her toddler. As it is unravels quickly, Smith is not particularly the most welcomed customer at prize shooting facilities, as he is easily capable to take out multiple packs of baddies via his tremendous gunslinging abilities and acrobatic skills. Personified by Clive Owen, the character of Smith is clearly and welcomely reminiscent of the early Mad Max, as Clive Owen himself looks quite similar to Mel Gibson in this film.



The movie quickly makes a strict statement of what kind of further events we shall anticipate by boosting a shootout at the very start, introducing both the protagonist and the main baddie character, Hertz. Rendered by Paul Giamatti, we should delightfully reckon the archetypical Frustrated Main Meany via this funnily familiar sketchbook figure, formed by Giamatti with both in the possession of the necessary skill set and a precise understanding of what the character is all about.

This reference I tend to use here to sketchbook characters certainly does not intend to imply that sketchbook characters or the roles of Shoot 'Em Up are necessarily and inevitably shallow, rather, they are very easy to relate to and it is quite unproblematic to grasp a clear sense on their personal motivation factors, as well. That is the case with all the characters introduced in Shoot 'Em Up, except for Monica Bellucci who delivers quite decent of a performance as female sidekick to Clive Owen and also offers a tint of character presence that is out of the - nevertheless, certainly welcomed - sketch figure register.



The others though are quite decently personified, well thought of and cared for sketch figures whom fortunately have none other functions and business than wage a war amongst each other with blazing guns and a mad environmental inventiveness on Smith's side. The main appeal of the film is it's urge and willingness to serve us action oriented surprises we never yet had the chance to witness, hence this mere intention welcomely reaches for and claims right to defy all laws that physics or common sense seemed to hold to this day. In this regard, it is absolutely safe to say that Shoot 'Em Up does try to elevate the idea of action-oriented visual entertainment to the highest possible peaks that Michael Davis's imagination could currently conceive.

And what he could come up with in this here effort, hardly ends up flat during that little less than 90 minutes the film rolls for, although there are definitely less peak moments present than everyday-movie-shootout-sequences, the latter though usually being spiced up by a clever usage of environment or some crazy-ass acrobatic special move you already had chance to see in video games like the Max Payne series or the Matrix movies. Sure, they are OK, yet they are the average, common dialect now that action-for-entertainment speaks in, and there is evident need to introduce development and fresh special moves to enrich the action genre. As we accounted this briefly earlier on, Shoot 'Em Up does deliver these surprises.

Q: Does it deliver GOOD surprises?
A: Hell, YES!

Q: Does it deliver ENOUGH surprises?
A: Hell, you CAN'T deliver ENOUGH surprises!

Nevertheless, there are a couple of - we should emphasize: couple of - truly inventive gunslinging and firefight tricks shown and utilized here as memorable eye-and action candy, yet we will have quite a dose of average shootout action as well, and believe me: when the fifth baddie gets simply shot and simply collapses, suddenly: you simply lose interest. Simply: simple as that. The genre needs surprises and needs lots of them, Michael Davis certainly knew it and introduces a neat pack of those. Not quite numerous to fill the roll time up without somewhat flat moments of delivered action left in, yet his effort definitely deserves major recognition as a work to point out how gratefully and enthusiastically the genre drinks in pretty much anything that consorts content to entertain the eye and all the other cognitive receptors. Be sure to give it a shot!

ONE thing is STILL bugging me, though:

Where. Were. The. Bloody. Shotguns.

If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: Planetseed
If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: Buy me Beer