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When director Michael Davis set out to make this movie I think that his first objective was to make an action movie that had never been done before. In essence I think that he took out the old action movie cliche bag and dumped it out and replaced it with his own new bag of tricks. The first time I laid eyes on the trailer to this movie I thought that it looked like any other mindless action movie, lots of guns, a thin plot, and some over the top special effects. Let’s just say I was wrong, and I’m glad.
First lets look at the cast. Clive Owen was born to play an action hero. I just never new he could do it over the top and in a weird sort of way make fun of the whole genre at the same time. This is a hard tight rope to walk without coming off as condescending. Monica Bellucci was a stretch for me in this one, but after seeing this movie I can see why she was cast for the part. She is a very exotic actress and to have someone that seems to play such deep parts in a movie such as this one was a little confusing at first. I feel she held her own in this one and had a great performance. Now this brings us to Paul Giamatti, another strange pick for an action movie bad guy. Last time I looked Giamatti was the go to guy when you were looking for a loser type that everyone can root for to make something of himself or to save the day. This is definitely not his usual role but he was great. His facial expressions and the way he delivered some of his lines was downright menacing. He played the role of the demented villain convincingly while remembering that this movie was no where near serious.

From the opening scene to the ending credits this movie was over the top and out of control, in a good way. I don’t want to give anything away because this movie just has to be experienced. Let’s just say if someone pulls a carrot on me with the intention of using it as a weapon I’m going to take them a little more seriously. Shoot ‘Em Up knows its an over the top action movie and it plays on this perfectly. It disregards every law along the way. It laughs in the face of the law of gravity, it completely forgets about the law of physics, and it spits in the face of every civil law that exists, and it does it with style.

I had a great time watching this movie. Usually while watching something like this I get upset when something is so over the top that it is not physically possibly. During this movie I was just hoping that the next stunt they pulled would trump the previous one. Between the great one liners and the various new ways that you can use a gun to kill someone that has never been done before in a movie I was mesmerized. If you would like to see what Die Hard would look like if Bruce Willis was completely invincible and didn’t have to adhere to any of the laws of gravity or physics, then go check this one out. B+

Movie Quotes:

• “My god. Do we really suck or is this guy really that good?”
• “Guns don’t kill people! But they sure help.”