The movie wants to be an over-the-top action film parody, while also weakly trying to tell an overly convoluted story. Clive Owen stars as the reluctant hero, performing some of the silliest action sequences I’ve ever seen. Owen’s tough guy routine is becoming stale, audiences having seen similar characters from him in “Sin City” and “Children of Men”. He becomes involved in a battle with thugs, who are trying to gun down a pregnant woman and her soon to be born child. Paul Giamatti (“Fred Claus”) commands these baddies with a frivolity that undercuts the seriousness of the fact that he is trying to kill a baby and his mother. Owen enlists the services of a prostitute with a “heart of gold”, played by Monica Bellucci (“The Matrix Reloaded”) to help him feed and protect the baby.
With the many intricate stunts, “Shoot ‘Em Up” seemingly wants to emulate “The Transporter” - a far more impressive film, that takes its subject matter much more seriously. The film also wants to be funny while shocking its audience with unnecessarily gratuitous scenes involving fondling dead bodies and having sex during a shoot-out. With a bunch of pathetic one-liners on par with a knock-knock joke, cardboard cut-out characters, violence without repercussions, and incredible leaps in logic to further the thread-bare plot, Shoot ‘Em Up” is - whether intentionally or not - a dumb film.
Rated R for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality and some language.
