Shoot ‘Em Up blazes out like a gritty shoot ‘em up video game.  Forget the introductions.  Just give me a character like Clive Owen, two guns that can hold a lot of bullets, and let's blow $*@# up!

The gunfight sequences in Shoot ‘Em Up is so unbelievable and hilarious you have to watch it to believe it.  You have gunfights in abandoned buildings while a woman is giving birth, gunfights at a children's park, gunfights in the sky, and gunfights while having sex.  Wait... what?  Believe me, it sounds crazy but it's sex with Italian cinema goddess, Monica Bellucci.  Just watching her alone will make any male geek like me want to see this movie.

Clive Owen plays a mysterious, carrot-eating loner with precision aiming skills and a quick wit.  He is a British nanny and he is dangerous.  I'm not kidding!  When he helps a woman deliver a baby, she is killed during an ugly shootout and now he is put to the task of protecting her baby from an unknown army of hitmen led by a sideways looking character played by Paul Giamatti.  The real treat of the movie is to see how creative Owen can kill a bad guy (or multiple bad guys).  This is not the Owen of Croupier or Children of Men but more Sin City without the silly voiceovers.  He can kick King Arthur's ass in this movie!  I often wonder why he was never cast as the next James Bond until I realized he's better than Bond.  He's dirty Bond.

It seems any movie involving Monica Bellucci, she plays a prostitute.  I don't really get it because she seriously is a great actress.  However, I don't think anybody really cares.  She owns every body part of her role.  All I can say is... lucky baby.  Enough said.

It's refreshing to see Paul Giamatti as a tough guy/bad guy role.  I can only picture him with a glass of wine but he looks intimidating with an oversized gun.  Like Owen, it's surprising after great acting roles in Sideways and American Splendor that he would choose to do this crazy movie but who doesn't want to do a little shoot ‘em up action for a bit?  And don't think he gets killed off so easily.  He is just as evil with a quick wit to match Owen every bullet of the way.

Expect to be highly amused and entertained.  I've seen a lot of Hong Kong action movies but I haven't seen a roller coaster thrill ride like this.  It's almost like watching a live action pop-up graphic novel.  Shoot ‘Em Up is no John Woo cinematic masterpiece but it's a type of movie Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez might watch when they take a break from directing and relax with a bucket of popcorn.  It's not a dumb movie... just a movie with cheap thrills.  It's all action.  And even more action.  Show some Monica Bellucci... I like it!

Movie Trivia Question of the Day: Clive Owen did a couple of short films for BMW called, The Hire, where he plays another cool hitman type character with no name.  What is his specialty?  A clue; He does a better job than Jason Statham in The Transporter.

By Victor Ho