“Guns don’t kill people, but they sure help!” —Hertz
Today’s quick review: Shoot ‘Em Up. Smith (Clive Owen), a carrot-munching sharpshooter, steps in to save a pregnant woman from armed thugs. The woman dies after giving birth, leaving Smith with a newborn baby that a deranged hitman named Hertz (Paul Giamatti) has been hired to kill. With the help of Donna (Monica Bellucci), a lactating prostitute, Smith must keep the baby safe while trying to unravel the mystery of who wants it dead.
Shoot ‘Em Up is a tongue-in-cheek action movie packed with violence and lowbrow humor. The premise is dead simple: Smith must shoot his way through dozens of henchmen to save the life of a newborn child. Shoot ‘Em Up uses this premise as a springboard for an absurd plot and non-stop action. However, the film’s explicit content limits its appeal. Many viewers will find it too vulgar for their tastes, hurting its status as a carefree romp.
Shoot ‘Em Up takes the action genre to new extremes. Within the first five minutes, Smith shoots through an umbilical cord and drives a carrot through a man’s skull. This proves to be a tone-setter. The movie contains every gun stunt conceivable, ranging from the clever to the idiotic, and Smith solves almost all of his problems with bullets. The gunplay is fast and loose, and what it lacks in plausibility, it makes up for in imagination.
However, the high-octane action is offset by the film’s vulgarity. Apart from the usual swearing and violence, Shoot ‘Em Up indulges in crass jokes, explicit sexual content, and other forms of filth. The epitome of the grimy side of the film is Hertz himself, a personally repulsive and morally bankrupt character. Those unwilling or unable to overlook the vulgarity should stay far away from Shoot ‘Em Up.
The explicit content ties into another aspect of the film: Shoot ‘Em Up verges on deconstruction. It embraces the excesses of the action genre and subverts them. The sex is more perverse than alluring. The violence is as absurd as it is thrilling. Smith is not just a loner but an antisocial bum with a hair-trigger temper. Hertz is not just a villain but a monster. Shoot ‘Em Up is laced with irony, although most of it is blunt.
Try out Shoot ‘Em Up if you’re an action fan with a high tolerance for filth. Shoot ‘Em Up is a twisted love letter to the action genre that has narrow appeal. Those who enjoy it will get a lot out of its sheer ridiculousness, but most viewers should give it a miss. For an over-the-top action movie that tries something similar, try Crank. For the first-person equivalent, try Hardcore Henry. For a cleaner, more stylish action film, check out John Wick.
6.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for inventive action hurt by the film’s grime.