Shoot 'Em Up Details

What?!

Maybe I was just in the wrong mood when I watched this, but 'Shoot 'em up' has got my nod for the worst film of 2007. I probably wouldn't be so harsh if I had watched it on tv in the wee hours and it had starred 'actors' like Steven Siegal or Jean Claude Van etcccccc.... but the very fact that it features quality, top of their game thesps like Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti makes it a crying shame of a film. You could imagine it being a good fun action packed one-liner'thon but it is directed so badly with seemingly so little talent that it comes across as a massive missed opportunity. Every time a character muttered a witty retort (generally after an elaborately thought up but badly executed stunt), the line would just hang there as forced and embarrassing. I believe that the exact same script directed by someone like John Woo or Edgar Wright would have been able to make the action flow a lot better without making it look like kids playing guns in the playground. Please avoid. Monica Bellucci is still easy on the eye though...

[Highly rated reviewer]

Don't expect much

If you are in a mood for a film with a very very weak storyline, little to no characterisation, but jam packed full of action, violence and blood, then this is the film for you. However if you are looking for a film that will keep you engaged throughout, and will have you talking about it for hours afterwards, then this certainly is not for you.

To sum up the basic plot of the film, which is a very basic plot anyway, then Smith (Clive Owen) runs into trouble saving a woman and her newly born baby, and then finds himself a target by an army of gunmen headed up by Herz ( Paul Giamatti). The next 83 minutes pretty much follows Smith shooting everything that moves while he is hit with the 'Hollywood effect' and being totally immune to the misfiring goons. And there definately is a lot of shooting throughout, with a body count of about 100 and a reported 15 gallons of fake blood used throughout. The action scenes are fast, furious and include possibly the most eventful sex scene ever shown in film. The action is also backed up with a very heavy duty soundtrack including AC/DC, Motorhead, Nirvana and Wolfmother.

So when you read that, you might be thinking that it sounds a pretty decent film. Well if you take out the action scenes with the guns and death rate, then you are pretty much left with about 15 minutes of a film to build a story line which everyone knows isn't going to get you very far. The paper thin plot never really gets going and leaves the audience with a lot of blanks, with enemies tracking down Smith every 5 minutes without us ever knwoing how they are doing so. Smith also comes up with some cringy one liners that sound like they have just been taken from a cheap porn film, and the whole time having a weird theme based around carrots which is never really explained and just added for comical effect i'm guessing, although never raises a smile.

Ok, so the producers may point out that they tried to make this film as over the top as possible and they did that intensely. As a movie, the whole thing doesn't bring much, but the action sequences which really over power the film will make you breathless at points and try to be as creative as possible, even if they don't quite match up to a jackie Chan flick. But if your into films such as The Transporter and The Punisher, then definately give this a look at