I caught an afternoon film. Guy films have always been their own breed of gore, sex, and "guy" stuff. Shoot 'em Up takes everything cliche about shoot 'em up films and makes us laugh at the entire genre. I'm a slave to Clive Owen's films. Paul Giamatti is always great. And the amazing Monica Bellucci is incredibly hot (plus she was born in Perugia, Italy, the city I studied in for five weeks). This is truly the ultimate shoot 'em up film. Everything about the was too cliche and predictable to be unintentional. Owens plays Mr. Smith, the unlikely and resourceful hero who often states what he "hates" about America. Giamatti is the hitman we never thought he could be. And Bellucci is the caring prostitute. You know you're in for a histerical movie when the first gun fight features several hitman trying to shoot at Mr. Smith while he tries to deliver a baby. A major climax in the film occurs during Owens and Bellucci's sexual climax with another gun battle-but they don't stop having sex but, as one of Owens' oneliners states, redefine blowing your load.Resourcefulness has always been a major element of shoot 'em up films. In a scene in a gun factory, Mr. Smith sets up the ultimate booby trapped guns that just require the pull of a rope to take out 10 guys with one tug. Another great scene occurs when Owen holds four bullets in his knuckles and sticks his hand into a fire, shooting the bullets into the man that should have killed him rather than taunted him.
The movie is half gun battles, half oneliners. Everything is intentionally rediculous. People either saw it as cliche or brilliant. Film critic Richard Roeper hated the film, but that's to be expected from a critic that has no taste. When the intro is simply Clive Owen sitting on a bench eating a carrot and then muttering "fuck" before getting into a gun battle, ya know that this is not a film that needs character development, plot, or abstract symbolism. The medium is the message. A british dude bitchin' about society while killing everyone around him is the perfect way to critique violent American culture.
Shoot 'em Up is quite the awesome movie. It felt like Crank and Planet Terror with the tribute feel of Kill Bill. Thanks to Army of Darkness, farce films became a more confusing phenomana. Farce could still be enteraining. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are histerical, but they functions as films even you don't get the joke. The canon of Sam Raimi has reached its climax through Shoot 'em Up. It's still a good action film, though if you don't get the joke it's more insulting than The Transporter 2 and Bad Boys 2.
