Oh what a thrill this was! Shoot ‘Em Up is one hell of a good time and represents all that is good about modern filmmaking, injecting cold shots of hard steel into a tired genre and rebooting action films in similar ways to the excellent and diabolically overlooked Jason Statham film Crank which I reviewed earlier. Shoot ‘Em Up does it all right from start to finish, winding the clock for a quick and concise 87 minutes and letting it rip with ball-breaking precision, knocking down every single holy artifact of the action film genre in every single way and blasting new ground with its expert blend of action and comedy.
Michael Davis, the British director behind the campy horror film Monster Man, is the man behind this masterpiece. As far as I’m concerned, nobody is sending up American action or horror films better than the Brits at this point. With this year’s hilarious Hot Fuzz and now Shoot ‘Em Up, British films are successfully sending up all that is wondrous about American action films and simultaneously breathing new life into a tired genre. Davis is on point here and may well be one of the directors to watch, as he creates such an overwhelmingly offensive and flashy piece of pulp cinema that I think Tarantino would be jealous.
Shoot ‘Em Up stars Clive Owen as Smith, a squatter with an extensive military background and a strange fondness for carrots that puts him in a role somewhat like a gun-toting Bugs Bunny. Owen is deadpan brilliant here, tossing off one-liners that would make Arnie jealous and popping up just about anywhere with precision action sequences that are so earth-shatteringly brave that it’s hard to believe what Davis and Co. are trying to do. Smith basically gets involved in a tremendously intricate political plot here – phooey to those who say this film has no plot – and has to save a baby and a hooker (Monica Bellucci) from a rushing gang of thugs led by the devious Hertz (Paul Giamatti).
The plot involves such a hyperbolic statement of American political party ideals that it’s utterly laughable and, according to most reviews I’ve read, utterly over the heads of many people that have seen the film thus far. While it is “mindless violence” on one hand, it is also a shockingly profound political statement on the other hand. In the film, Davis introduces us to “Republican gun nuts” that essentially tote lines like “Guns don’t kill people, but they help” and are willing to stop at nothing to protect their precious gun laws. This means that they’re willing to kill babies and go after anyone and everyone that stands in the way of their right to bear arms. This hilarious send-up of actualized political stances effectively nutshell the party stance ad hefty exaggeration. From there, we move to the “Democratic position”, in which harvesting babies is okay when it’s primarily for the purpose of saving a senator’s life. It’s really an incredible political statement of the two extremes in politics and Owen’s Smith character falls right in the middle, as do most of the voting public according to polls. The film tackles issues like gun control and the “right to life” with such a snarky set of rules that it becomes obvious that there is much more than “mindless violence” to Shoot ‘Em Up. The violence is pretty much just a subterfuge meant to lampoon the arrogant violence nature of culture and Davis pulls it off beautifully.
Now let’s get down to brass tacks here. Any film that begins with a baby delivery amidst glorious gunfire in a warehouse and continues on with the baby being put in all sorts of harm is going to be taken to be pretty tasteless. Any film that continues a sex scene with all sorts of violence going on around it is going to be taken to be pretty tasteless. But what does this all mean? Is Shoot ‘Em Up simply cashing in or is it meant to be ridiculous? Well, Giamatti reportedly talked about laughing his way through all of the hilarious sendups and Davis seems pretty content referring to his film as being rather funny. So why are so many people taking Shoot ‘Em Up so seriously? Maybe that’s more of a cultural question that is actually answered within the film’s runtime. Maybe Shoot ‘Em Up actually tells us more about ourselves and what’s “shocking” than we want to realize. Sure, we can debate the sanctity of life in pretty ridiculous terms in the political arena and alienate mothers and unborn children, but put a baby in a gunfight and it’s “offensive.”
Another aspect of the film that is important to Davis and is apparent onscreen is the element of family. Shoot ‘Em Up takes quite a gander at conventional and unconventional families, allowing Owen’s Smith to develop his own ideology of family throughout the film. There’s a reason there’s always a baby in a gunfight and there’s a reason Bellucci’s character is a whore. The reason for this is to develop an idea about the construction of the family, to piece it together, and to have Owen’s Smith get some form of healing through the violence. There is no holding back here, as Bellucci’s character has a necessity beyond just looking good between the violent moments. Instead, she gains a sense of redemption and earns her way back to a respective life. She begins as a fetish hooker with lactating breasts and finishes starting a new life with a new family. It’s baptism by bullets, essentially.
So there you have it. When you see a reviewer telling you that Shoot ‘Em Up is merely mindless violence, make up your own mind. When someone starts harping about the lack of plot, see it for yourself and come up with your own opinion. The basis of Shoot ‘Em Up is to deliver an entertaining shot to the heart that invokes the John Woo gods of the world and spins them like a top, allowing the violence to serve as a valuable centerpiece to a film that is, all at once, ridiculous and charming as all hell. It’s brilliant fun.
8/10
