SHOOT ’EM UP

US, 2007, 86 minutes, Colour.
Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen Mc Hattie..
Directed by Michael Davis.

Despite every inclination not to and every injunction in my head to loathe this film, I could not help but like it. Certainly, others may not. Even more certainly, many others did not. Having disliked Sin City and, even much more, the two Grindhouse films, Planet Terror and, especially, Death Proof, I was wary of graphic novel adaptations which end up like live cartoons.

As can be gathered instantly, this is a shoot ‘em up cartoon. Audiences straying into the cinema or starting the DVD will know immediately whether they will like it or not. Clive Owen (not a great actor for comedy), obligatory black coat, carrot in hand or munching it, comes across a young woman who is about to give birth. She is being pursued by thugs who start a ding-dong shootout. Clive, with one hand on the gun and the other on the carrot, reminds biblically inclined viewers of the refrain, Saul killed his thousands, David his ten thousands (which doesn’t sound like a PG section of the books of Samuel). Actually, not all are dead because they have to make their way back to the Mr Big to report what has happened and be ready to meet Clive again. In the meantime, the mother is dead, so Clive has to replace his gun (not the carrot) and pick up baby with the other hand.

This all has a guilty pleasure ironic appeal.

And so it goes. Mr Big is played by Paul Giamatti with all stops out and over the top, exasperated as his henchmen bite the dust and Clive continually frustrates him. But, there is an even Mr Bigger who, it seems, is running a scheme to harvest children for organ supplies, especially to Mr Biggest who is… but that would be giving it away.

Clive visits a prostitute whose professional skills enable her to suckle and look after the baby. The pair and baby are then pursued throughout the film with lots of set pieces that should make Quentin Tarantino jealous and remind him of his successful origins not his latest witless escapades. And, after all that, it is happy ever after!

Shoot’em up clearly does not ask to be taken literally or too seriously. Rather, it is a clever parody of the action film, using the exaggerated deadpan style.


1. A serious plot and serious characters? Yet, the tongue-in-cheek screenplay? The over-the-top action? Over-the-top characters and their behaviour?

2. The title, expectations – and expectations fulfilled?

3. The American setting, the British character, Mr Smith, referring to himself as a British nanny? No background, yet his skill with guns, with fighting?

4. The comic strip tone, action panels, character panels, gun panels, the shoot’ em up scenes – and frequency? Colour, light and darkness?

5. The range of locations, the ordinary city, yet the sinister look, sitting at a bus stop, going to alleyways, warehouses and darkness, staircases, roofs, leaping from roof to roof, sex clubs and rooms, criminal headquarters, car chases, shootings in the streets, the pawnbrokers, alleyways, the headquarters of the arms dealer, the plane, action on the plane, skydiving and action, the bus and its destination, the location for the final confrontation, torture, the corridors, the fireplace? In the final scene at the diner? The musical score?

6. Clive Owen as Mr Smith, his rugged face, at the bus stop, eating the carrots and the carrots throughout the film, the pursuit of the pregnant woman, his exasperation, following, the fights? Helping the woman deliver the baby, shooting the placenta? The confrontations, the shootouts, the woman being killed, the baby, his wanting to leave it, taking it, going to the club, seeking out the prostitute, offering her money, to look after the baby, to feed it? Her refusal? His return, the confrontation with Hertz, the escape? His care for the woman who died, care for the baby, going to the pawnbrokers, on the bus with the baby and taking his sock off and putting it on the baby’s head? The continued pursuit, the range of shootouts, his skills, his ability to kill?

7. The situation with the woman, pregnant, pursued, the birth of the child, her being shot, in the car with Hertz, his touching her, dead, the burial? The revelation of the other pregnant women, sperm donor, the need for the child, compatibility for transplants? The revelation of the election of the politician, his gun-control plans, his needing the child?

8. Hammerson, his gun company, hiring Hertz and the thugs, to kill the women, kill the children, no transplant for the politician, sabotaging his plans for gun-control?

9. Hertz and his presence and performance, face, glasses, height, maniacal laugh? The intensity of the pursuit, his former work with the FBI, forensic behaviour? His driver and his associate and their playing up to him? The range of men, the attacks on Smith, the many deaths? Hertz and his confronting the prostitute? His being shot but his protective vest? Asking for more men, with Hammerson, thinking they had conquered Smith?

10. Smith, putting the prostitute on the bus with the baby, attacking her client in the alleyway? Not wanting to know where she went? The destination on the bus, Wherever?

11. Going to the gun headquarters, setting up all the rifles? The men attacking him, his going down the aisles, setting off the guns, shooting? The confrontation with Hammerson, spurting the blood from his wounded hand, his death?

12. Hertz, torturing Smith, wanting the information? His henchman? Smith’s attack on Hertz? The chase, the pursuit, the bullets between his fingers, the fireplace and firing, blowing as the extinguisher on his finger? Hertz and his defiance, the final killing?

13. Smith, on the bus, at the diner, reunited with the prostitute and the baby?

14. An ironic graphic novel action film – with ironic black humour?