Shoot 'Em Up

Oh dear. Symon comments that there all we review nowadays is films about guns and explosions, and here I am about to review a film that's nothing but guns and explosions.

There are many films that require the viewer to just put their brain in neutral and just enjoy the ride. Bad Boys 2, Hot Fuzz and pretty much anything starring Tom Cruise these days to name but a few (or in Cruise's case; too many). However you need a completely new mental gear in order to watch Shoot 'Em Up. It's rather akin to ripping out your gearbox and slashing the brake lines. OK, that's enough car metaphors from me.

It's a very odd film, in that it seems to have skipped the usual process of script writing of writing a plot and then fitting action pieces into the story, passed by the process of "action film making" of having a series of stunts and gun fights and fitting an off the shelf plot in between, and gone straight for option C; forgoing any plot whatsoever.

This might sound like I'm criticising it. But in fact, I really enjoyed it. It was a total hoot! There's never a dull moment, and a lot of the scenes, particularly the gun fights, are just hilarious. Clive Owen plays a character unlike any you've seen him play before. Monica Bellucci is hotter than ever, and Paul Giamatti is just hilarious as the villain.

There's no flat gags, or bad jokes or missed opportunities here, it's just gun fight, explosion, one-liner, bit of a laugh, and back to gun fight. And it really does work!

Now I did say there were spoilers, but really, I can't spoil the plot for you; because there isn't one, in the same sense as there's no plot in 300, in that yes of course there's a plot, but who cares; we just want to see some carnage. I didn't like 300 because there's no sets, whereas Shoot 'Em Up has the virtue of having real sets, which always scores highly with me.

Someone said this film was bubblegum for the brain, which I can't really argue with. It's got Monica Bellucci in it, and I'll watch anything with her in it.

OQ: 'Eat your vegetables...'

Score: This is impossible to score on the Saxon Film Scale. I enjoyed it and I'd watch it again, and I'll buy it on DVD.

In fact, I'll have to score it by comparing it to other films:

Grossness factor: 6/10 on the Reservoir Dogs scale
Bullet fest: 8/10 on the John Woo scale
Swearing: 7/10 on the Tarentino scale
Comedy: 9/10 on the Bad Boys 2 scale
Monica Bellucci: 10/10 on any scale