Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

This is one the best named and most over the top movies that I have ever seen. Shoot 'Em Up is the story of a drifting ex-British Special Forces agent who unwittingly gets sucked into a twisted game of American politics involving guns and 'cultured' babies. This film is completely ridiculous, including a loosely held together plot and gun fights that are so sensationalized that the word unrealistic does not do it justice. That said, if all you are interested in is watching some hilariously awesome action scenes and Clive Owen doing totally sweet shit, you will really enjoy this movie. Shoot 'Em Up was clearly not made to win anyone an Oscar, it was made to simply be an exciting, nonstop gun movie, and in that sense, it is an overwhelming success. I think the cast of this film totally understood what type of movie they were trying to make. Paul Giamatti is perfect in playing the intellectual villain who is baffled by the difficulty he is having in eliminating Owen; he is actually mildly reminiscent of Vizzini from The Princess Bride. Owen is hilarious as the unwitting protagonist who has no choice but to finish what he accidentally got himself sucked into. One of my favorite devices in Shoot 'Em Up is how comically inept the bad guys are at shooting Owen, while he never has a problem hitting his target; it reminds me of watching Storm Troopers shoot at Luke Skywalker. If you want to watch a quality gun fighting movie, you should probably rent Tombstone or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. If you want to watch a pointless film with awesome, unbelievable fight scenes, more akin to something like Smokin' Aces, I confidently suggest Shoot 'Em Up. If nothing else, this film at least showcases the amazing talents, and in particular, voice of the one and only Clive Owen. I did not consider watching this movie with my wife, but my 17 month old daughter seemed to find the action to be pretty captivating, especially the ones that involved Owen shoving carrots into peoples faces. Put simply, this movie is nothing special, and not even particularly unique. That said, I would recommend it to any of my guy friends and would happily watch it again. I give Shoot 'Em Up 2 and a half stars.