"Shoot ‘Em Up" takes the fearless, mysterious, quipping lone ranger -- Clive Owen -- and pits him against 100 unknown, unnamed, unrelenting assassins. We are seeing this more and more in the action genre, but it seems that the key to success in this developing sub-genre is taking cue from Tarantino a la ‘Kill Bill’ and making an attempt at injecting levity.
Director Michael Davis does just this. We soon see that the majority of influence for this film comes right from the sketches of “Looney Tunes.” This not just in the carrot-munching hero Mr. Smith (Clive Owen), but also in the set-up: chase, booby trap, small fight and the pesky rabbit always wins.
When Smith sets up a maze of such booby traps inside a gun factory using everything from machine guns to carrots to duct tape, we can’t help but be reminded of Roadrunner and Coyote and his Acme dynamite.
While "Shoot ‘em Up" shamelessly draws from the golden age of cartoons, it also extracts stylistic noir elements providing darkness to the comedic elements of the film and balancing the spoof.
It all begins at a grungy backlit bus stop. Smith sips coffee and stares exhaustedly into space. A screaming woman in the late stages of child birth running raggedly from an assassin streaks in front of the bus stop. As this scene unfolds, Smith internally debates for a moment whether or not he should get involved. He does.
He is instantly thrown into a one versus 100 situation-that we soon realize will last the duration of the film. We instantly become infatuated with this sharpshooter, as we see him deliver this woman’s baby with one hand and picking off hit men like dominoes with the other.
With little exposition or information on any character, curiosity piques when the unknown mother is killed, and our villain, Hertz (Paul Giamatti), continues his hunt -- now, for the minute-old baby.
Smith attempts to leave the baby on a merry-go-round in a New York park, when he soon realizes he is being followed and Hertz wants this baby dead or alive. A guilt ridden Smith, fires back and a shoot-out on the playground ensues.
Plan B: Smith takes baby to a lactating hooker (Monica Bellucci), who reluctantly agrees to take care of the infant. A love affair follows and the two instantly label themselves surrogate parents to baby and name him Oliver.
While Davis beefs up the plot with a sickly Democratic presidential hopeful and oddly enough, some hefty commentary on gun control, it all seems abbreviated and serves as some sort of interruption to the over-the-top and hilarious fight scenes that make the movie so entertaining.
One such scene takes place while free falling from an airplane. It is at this point in the movie that you might ask, “Am I really still enjoying this?” Most likely, the answer will be “yes.”
Owen effortlessly plays a mystifying champion over baby-killers. It is no surprise then that Bellucci’s character almost immediately falls in love with him. If you can get past the gratuitous close-ups of Giamatti, he does play a convincing villain; the kind you love to hate, but also kind of love.
