Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-10-2007, 11:06 PM:

Location: Carmike 8, Lawton, OK
Auditorium: #5, 7:45 show, Sept. 10
Format: Christie DLP/Doremi Server, 2048 X 852 pixels
Rating: 3 stars out of 4

Preposterous on purpose.

Clive Owen plays a carrot chewing loner named Mr. Smith. He's a little like Bugs Bunny, except Bugs never stabbed anyone through the back of the throat with his food. Smith finds himself as caretaker of a newborn infant following the movie's first of many big gunfights. Monica Belluci plays a lactating hooker and unlikely mother figure for the baby. Paul Giamatti hunts for our protagonists wielding an unweildy Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun, complete with biometric thumb print security.

The action scenes are strung together like the sex scenes in a hardcore porn movie. They're only interrupted by a few talky scenes that reveal a plot involving a baby farm, some powerful guy in need of a bone marrow transplant and political intrigue about gun control. Who cares? The plot is just as laughably ridiculous as the action scenes.

Some of the action scenes will remind you of other more serious movies with similar scenes where you grumbled "bullshit" under your breath the first time you saw them.

The sex in the movie is pretty ridiculous too. A gunfight even breaks out during the passion. The thing I can't figure out is just how Monica Bellucci managed to show nearly every angle of her heaving breasts without showing any nipples. Now that's what I call pushing the limits of a no nudity contract clause.

While satire is great in its own right it does have one nasty side effect. It breaks through the "fourth wall" of film making. The audience can never get completely immersed what's happening because the film is screaming loud and clear that it's all bullshit.

I did notice one continuity error. Mr Smith acquires a two tone SigSauer P226 in one shootout. In the following scenes that gun somehow changes in a similar looking yet different two tone H&K USP. Maybe the filmmakers even did that on purpose to see if any of us "gun nuts" were paying attention.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 09-11-2007, 02:42 AM:

I really liked this movie, it isn't serious and it isn't based in realism. Thats the great part about it. I mean come on, shooting an oil pan and then sliding across the floor like a bullet. Yet to not have any oil on your back after said event.

The one liners are great, the acting of anybody but the principles is horrible.

I will say this Monica Belluci was smoking hot in this movie. And Bobby you do actually see her nips in the scene where Mr.Smith shows up while shes with the client.

I give it a 4.5/5 I can't wait to go see it again. The GF is bugging the hell out of me to go see it. Now just need the time.

[ 09-12-2007, 01:05 AM: Message edited by: Kurt Zupin ]

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 09-20-2007, 09:44 PM:

How on earth did they get talent like Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti for this nonsense?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 09-23-2007, 07:19 PM:

I can just imagine the sales pitch for this one: A live action looney tunes cartoon but hyped up on steroids.

However most looney tunes cartoons have more continuity and make more sense then this.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 09-24-2007, 06:44 AM:

I'm sorry but I love how you guys are over thinking this movie. It wasn't ment to be a serious film, its a send up to action/gun movies. Nothing more, its not Saving Private Ryan.