Movie: Shoot em up
Year: 2007
Genre: Action
Starring: Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci and Paul Giamatti
Written by: Micheal Davis
Directed by: Micheal Davis
Plot: Not revealed, not discussed.
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Mix Heavy Metal soundtracks with a hard core action shoot out- no counting bullets and you end up with "Shoot em up".
To me this looked like an RPG game where you keep firing away and there is no account of how many people you kill.(Though there is a game of the same name too, no connections to the movie though)
The Director Nothing credible to mention, this is probably his biggest movie to date, and as his first action movie he does a reasonably good job with the action yet a weak script.
The Actor I don’t seem to remember any great movies of Clive Owen’s that I’ve liked as the main guy except perhaps Inside Man. His last Children of God was outright boring and substance less though I’m surprised it was nominated for the Oscars in some categories. Clive plays Mr. Smith. He has no expression in this movie, he’s portrayed as a tough hero who obviously has no job, no family and lives in a deserted factory of some sort- plus he’s constantly munching on carrots. In one scene he actually sneaks up on Paul(the bad guy) and says "Wat’s up doc?" I would say he plays his role well as given to him, but his character lacks "Beef".
The "Baddie" The Beef is in Paul Giamatti’s role, he is purely entertaining and bundled with entertaining liners. My favourite line from this movie is: "You know what’s the difference between a woman and a gun? You can put a silencer on a gun" This line resulting from his wife calling him constantly to remind him to be home on time for his son’s birthday. Paul proved his acting skills in Lady in the water, though the movie was a dud(it definitely deserved the Razzies) He’s one of those actors who have a second role in every second movie but you never bother to even remember this actors name, even me I looked it up for this blog. I think this is where Paul might get roles with more meat, just as Philip Seymour Hoffman was a second role actor too, but as the bad guy in Mission Impossible 3 he rocked! Paul’s character is well thought and implemented. His dialogues are funny, bitchy and off the edge. His actions, gestures and cool personality make up for the comedy in the movie.
The Actress Monica is superbly sexy in the movie, playing the role of a lactating hooker(I didn’t even know people had such gross desires), she sounds even sexier cursing away in Italian all the time. She doesn’t have much of a role, Clive is everything in this movie. Clive and Monica have a love making scene, and in the midst of that too there is shooting- he moves around the room as she clings onto him and he shoots and shoots and shoots
The Action Clive kills hundreds of baddies in just one of many such scenes and the rescued baby is constantly clinging to him in one arm, he flies, jumps fires, rolls over with the baby in one arm. Micheal Davis keeps you glued to your seat though with high pitched super fast action his pace between scenes is fantastic. If you wanna watch an action movie without judging and criticising the unbelievable body count and the fact that with so much shooting going on around the city in 48 hours, there are no cops! You want action- this is it, the action scenes though are off the edge stuff, this is just a Lone ranger cum Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commando in the modern day. He just shoots and shoots and shoots. how appropriately titled. At one point the baddie Paul Giamatti even calls Smith(Clive) the Energizer bunny coz he keeps going and going. The Action director’s probably put all he had in this one movie, the action in this movie is on Steroids! I, for one; enjoyed such action(leaving my logic aside) after a long time, the last I think was Running scared. I like action movies to be really fast paced. Though Die Hard 4 does come into account too, but it too was a little far fetched on the action and overdone CGI. But then shouldn’t movies be larger than life?
Davis tries his best to imitate John Woo’s classic Hardboiled in which Chow Yun-Fat rescues a baby in the midst of a gunfight, but he somehow overdosed the action. I wonder what John Woo say to the scene and John Woo’s action. What I couldn’t digest: Clive’s unaccounted bullets firing and dodging and body count. Clive’s Carrots that penetrate a person’s mouth to back of head. Clive’s carrot that shoot. The jump off the plane and the shooting. Paul comes straight to Monica’s brothel and Clive’s residence.
The verdict If you could see Die Hard 4 and accept John Maclain killing endlessly then you can enjoy this action movie too. Surprisingly there are no car chase scenes, which usually come with the’package’ Special Mention: Interesting lock on Clive’s residence, he uses a rat as a key to open his door, watch it to understand.
Action: 8/10
Plot: 4/10
Overall: 7/10