Shoot ’Em Up

I’ll say it right out of the gate: Shoot ’Em Up contains some of the best gunfights you will ever see in a movie. There are sequences in this film that put gleeful, original spins on the old guns-a-blazing Hollywood mainstay. In these moments, the movie is tons of fun. Almost worth watching. Unfortunately, director Michael Davis doesn’t want to stop at pushing the envelope with innovative bullet exchange. He wants all facets of his movie to go the extreme, and like Smokin’ Aces, the movie often goes too far and becomes an annoyance instead of an entertainment. It wallows in a kind of visual squalor for much of its running time. Clive Owen is pretty cool as a carrot-chomping avenging angel protecting a baby, while Paul Giamatti is a little too gross for his own good as the bad guy. The movie is full of baby poop and lactating hookers, two things high on my list of stuff I don’t want to see. Ever.