Shoot 'Em Up
Will have audiences cheering and laughing from beginning to end.
Review by Sirus

“Shoot ‘Em Up” is a short action movie that is so heavy on the action that you won’t mind the shorter than usual runtime. The movie starts with Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) sitting alone at a bus stop, eating a carrot, when a pregnant lady comes running past him screaming. A man is following close behind her and follows her into a warehouse but before entering, flashes his gun at Mr. Smith as a warning to stay away. Being the Good Samaritan type as he is, Mr. Smith follows the woman inside despite the other man’s warning. Inside, he fights off a number of men with guns while at the same time delivering the woman’s baby. Many things happen with bullets flying everywhere and Mr. Smith is left to fend for the baby who is sought after by a great number of men. He spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out why the men are after the baby while at the same time racking up a massive body count in tons of inventive ways.

Clive Owen does a fantastically badass job as Mr. Smith, dispatching the men one after the other without so much as a flinch. The music is largely vocalized, making the over-the-top action sequences even more exciting. There is a good variety of rock that really gets the blood flowing and gives the audience the cue that something awesome is about to happen. Every action sequence in the movie is fantastically coordinated, including a few scenes with unusual settings that work extremely well. The body count in the movie is massive with tons of bloody deaths. The gore is perfectly fitting in each situation and never feels overly excessive.

The story in the movie is actually quite good and moves along at the same pace as the action. It isn’t anything deep and never gets excessively emotional but it’s perfectly fitting. The movie’s script helps the scenes in between the action shine with fantastic one-liners and funny jokes perfectly spaced. At a run time of 1 hour and 20 minutes, “Shoot ‘Em Up” is unconventionally short but it feels like anything more would have been excessive. Everything clicks together perfectly for a movie that will have audiences cheering and laughing from beginning to end. 300 may have set the bar for epic action but “Shoot ‘Em Up” really achieves the director’s goal of creating John Woo’s wet dream.

Final Score: 5/5

Second Opinion
By Dack

To quote the film; Guns don't kill people, but they sure do help. In "Shoot 'Em Up", if there is a way to get shot by a gun, you'll see it. It's non-stop, exciting, balls to the walls action. The kills are so off the wall, I couldn't stop laughing. The story isn't a major element, and like "Crank" is told during and quickly in between action. Paul Giamatti gives a exceptionally strong performance as "Hertz", showing just how many genres and different characters he can play. Almost all of the music in the film is Rock from great bands like "Wolfmother" and "Motorhead", making the action scenes even more exciting and fun then they already are. "Shoot 'Em Up" was always marketed as a non-stop action film, and it delievers just that; it's the most fun you'll have at the movies all year.

Final Score: 5/5


Third Opinion
By Kiwi

I entered the theatre expecting Shoot 'Em Up to be a serious guns-blazing film. The film starts, focuses on Clive Owen's eyes, zooms out, stays intense, slo-mo... and he bites into a carrot. We all cracked up. The entire movie is like this: Mr. Smith does physically impossible and illogical things with carrots and guns, and plays the entire thing cool with some Super John McClane invulnerability. Ten guys with SMGs in a factory? Good thing they can't aim! Go, Clive, use the guns that you rigged with lots of string that came out of nowhere! The film is totally unrealistic and hilarious, and as Dack said, if you can imagine a way to get shot, it happens... unless you think of shooting underwater. This is like Crank with guns, and in my opinion, the people who hated it took it seriously. If you want to see an over-the-top satire of gritty gun films, if you've a fan of the Max Payne series, or if you've been waiting for that one special movie with a gunfight during a sex scene or childbirth, you must see Shoot 'Em Up.

Final Score: 5/5

Overall Score: 5/5