wilsonblogclassic® Originally posted Saturday, September 12, 2009

Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen is another in the genre of gunfire and explosion filled, testosterone fueled, male adolescent fantasy action films all in a similar vein to Smokin' Aces, which I recently reviewed. The biggest difference between that film and this one is that here Writer/Director Michael Davis makes no attempt to take himself seriously, this movie is just silly action fluff and director Davis never implies otherwise. The shooting starts very early in the film and doesn't really end. Nearly every movie gunfight cliché that you could think of is written into the script and then taken to the extreme. The rules of common sense, logic or physics are not needed or welcomed because they would just slow down the story. The "story" is about a mysterious gunman named Smith (Owen) and his efforts to save the life of a newborn baby from a fanatical hired gunman (brilliant character actor Paul Giamatti) who is intent on killing him. Monica Bellucci is Smith's hooker girlfriend who is along for the ride and is at least nice to look at in the brief down times when everyone is reloading. I must admit that I liked this movie. I guess that means I'm not over my male adolescent fantasy phase yet. Maybe in the next forty years...