Scan and Pan
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Shoot 'Em Up
Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is minding his own business at a bus stop when he observes a pregnant woman being pursued by a man with a gun. Against his better judgment, he rescues the woman and helps her give birth. When more men with guns show up and start shooting at Smith, the woman is killed in the crossfire and he finds himself unable to abandon the baby. He approaches Donna (Monica Bellucci), a prostitute he knows who specializes in lactating fetishes, for help with the baby, but what they don't know yet is that the baby is the real target, and the charmingly sociopathic Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his associates will stop at nothing to kill it.
Writer/director Michael Davis (100 Girls, Monster Man) delivers one high octane, physics defying, physically impossible action scene after another, while gleefully sending up the conventions of action films. If it's all just an excuse for an hour and a half of ultraviolet mayhem, well, I say bring it on. There's more twisted fun in any one scene of this film than should be legal. The action scenes are all imaginatively staged, including some of the most amazing shootouts ever put on screen (skydiving shootout, anyone?). Davis doesn't slow things down with extraneous backstory, and rather than being a weakness it actually allows him to create a more interesting protagonist, while the dialogue is peppered with campy one liners and some of the best lines are reserved for Hertz.
Cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Woo's The Killer) gives the film a gritty look, but it's his background in Asian action films that allows him to do some crazy things with the camera to fully realize Davis' vision of a violent live action cartoon. Editor Peter Amundson (Blade II, Hellboy) keeps the pacing razor sharp from start to finish. Former Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger (Underworld) adds music that perfectly underscores the film's mayhem, complemented by a hard rocking soundtrack with songs by AC/DC and Motley Crue among others.
Move over, James Bond, Mr. Smith is the new British man of action on the scene. No matter how absurd the action becomes, the always charismatic Owen plays things deadpan straight and oh so perfectly hard boiled. Giamatti is one of the best actors working in film today. Here he chews and chews and then chews some more scenery in an outrageous performance that's frankly as good as his more serious roles. This isn't a bad actor hamming it up, this is a great actor delivering a deliciously campy performance. Bellucci shines as the prostitute with a tragic past who finds herself in the middle of flying bullets while being expected to take care of someone else's baby.
Also good are Stephen McHattie as the owner of a gun manufacturing company, Daniel Pilon as a pro-gun control politician, Greg Bryk as a government agent, Julian Richings as Hertz's driver, Ramona Pringle as the baby's mother, and Laura DeCarteret as a woman at a museum who becomes part of a hilarious diversion created by Smith.
You want ultraviolent mayhem? Shoot 'Em Up delivers ultraviolent mayhem. And then some. Just when you think it's gone as far over the top as it can, it simply raises the bar for how over the top should be defined.
[4.5 out of 5 stars]
If this extremely over the top action film was a person, I'd ask it to marry me. It's insanely brilliant in the same way that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse was earlier this year, while also recalling the best films of John Woo or Takashi Miike with its sheer audacity.
Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is minding his own business at a bus stop when he observes a pregnant woman being pursued by a man with a gun. Against his better judgment, he rescues the woman and helps her give birth. When more men with guns show up and start shooting at Smith, the woman is killed in the crossfire and he finds himself unable to abandon the baby. He approaches Donna (Monica Bellucci), a prostitute he knows who specializes in lactating fetishes, for help with the baby, but what they don't know yet is that the baby is the real target, and the charmingly sociopathic Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his associates will stop at nothing to kill it.
Writer/director Michael Davis (100 Girls, Monster Man) delivers one high octane, physics defying, physically impossible action scene after another, while gleefully sending up the conventions of action films. If it's all just an excuse for an hour and a half of ultraviolet mayhem, well, I say bring it on. There's more twisted fun in any one scene of this film than should be legal. The action scenes are all imaginatively staged, including some of the most amazing shootouts ever put on screen (skydiving shootout, anyone?). Davis doesn't slow things down with extraneous backstory, and rather than being a weakness it actually allows him to create a more interesting protagonist, while the dialogue is peppered with campy one liners and some of the best lines are reserved for Hertz.
Cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Woo's The Killer) gives the film a gritty look, but it's his background in Asian action films that allows him to do some crazy things with the camera to fully realize Davis' vision of a violent live action cartoon. Editor Peter Amundson (Blade II, Hellboy) keeps the pacing razor sharp from start to finish. Former Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger (Underworld) adds music that perfectly underscores the film's mayhem, complemented by a hard rocking soundtrack with songs by AC/DC and Motley Crue among others.
Move over, James Bond, Mr. Smith is the new British man of action on the scene. No matter how absurd the action becomes, the always charismatic Owen plays things deadpan straight and oh so perfectly hard boiled. Giamatti is one of the best actors working in film today. Here he chews and chews and then chews some more scenery in an outrageous performance that's frankly as good as his more serious roles. This isn't a bad actor hamming it up, this is a great actor delivering a deliciously campy performance. Bellucci shines as the prostitute with a tragic past who finds herself in the middle of flying bullets while being expected to take care of someone else's baby.
Also good are Stephen McHattie as the owner of a gun manufacturing company, Daniel Pilon as a pro-gun control politician, Greg Bryk as a government agent, Julian Richings as Hertz's driver, Ramona Pringle as the baby's mother, and Laura DeCarteret as a woman at a museum who becomes part of a hilarious diversion created by Smith.
You want ultraviolent mayhem? Shoot 'Em Up delivers ultraviolent mayhem. And then some. Just when you think it's gone as far over the top as it can, it simply raises the bar for how over the top should be defined.
[4.5 out of 5 stars]
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