Shoot 'Em Up

Clive Owen
Paul Giamatti
30,000 bullets
+ 1 lactating hooker
= awesome

OK, so it's not going to win any Oscars, but Shoot 'Em Up, the Clive Owen/Paul Giamatti action flick, does deserve to be recognized. Not for being particularly good, but for being fun.

In the opening scene, the film announces its intent. After Mr. Smith (Owen) kills the first mook by shoving a carrot into his mouth and punching the root vegetable through the back of the guy's head, he says, "eat your vegetables." At that point I said to myself, ah, so THAT'S the kind of movie I'm watching.

And that's not at all a bad thing, mind you. Movies like this, in my opinion, deserve to be judged in a category all their own. If I were to score this movie up against all the other movies out there, I'd be forced to give it a D. Yet, when scored against other movies of its kind, I'd give it an A.

You see, this is the kind of movie that you can pop in, switch your brain to auto pilot, and come out on the other end convinced it was the greatest movie ever. Other movies that I think are in this category are Cranked, Kung Fu Hustle, and just about any Jackie Chan movie ever made.

If you have trouble suspending your disbelief, you'll probably not enjoy Shoot 'Em Up. The fight scenes are blatantly ridiculous, but they are consistently so. The carrot through the back of the head is just one example of this. But if you've got no trouble accepting things such as that, this movie might be for you.

The performances are pretty good, especially for an action film. Clive Owen's always a plus. Sure, he doesn't have a lot of range (or if he does, Hollywood's not letting him use it), but it's still cool to watch him fire a gun. And Paul Giamatti makes a great bad guy. He pulls off the evil, sadistic, criminal genius very well.

Fun movie. Check it out.