Movie Review: Shoot ‘Em Up
“Shoot ‘Em Up” was a pretty big disappointment to me. Basically I rented it to see Paul Giamatti play a bad guy, with villians typically not the way he is cast. He succeeded and was the best thing in the film. The script really needed help, it wasn’t very good although there were a few quick funny lines by Giamatti which were appreciated. This could have been a much better movie. The action sequences were so unbelievable that it was almost funny. Its one thing to give a style to a movie but then you’d better totally deliver on it. The Robert Rodriguez film “Sin City” was styled as a graphic novel and worked very well. I think this is what the director wanted to do but didn’t achieve. This graphic novel style of moviemaking would have produced a better action film. Action sequences, costumes, lighting, design, etc. were all fine, it was just the style, direction and story that were missing.
From an acting standpoint Owen and Giamatti were as good as they could be with the script and direction they were given. The actress playing the call girl, Monica Bellucci, was not the finest actress seeming fairly weak compared to the two leads. Unfortunately this didn’t help the movie at all.
I see according to IMDB this film could be seen as action and comedy of which I feel only Giamatti reached that odd combination. I do have to say that the action sequences were unpredictable which is a good thing. If only the script were really funny or had gone that extra style step this might have been a good film.
2007. Written and directed by Michael Davis. Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci.
Rating: 
