A bold attempt at pushing the envelope of using guns to kill bad guys and avoiding the same by a good guy. Unfortunately, there's the problem of too much of a good thing. After a while all the fresh, new, and exciting approaches to killing somebody while avoiding the same fate begins to feel unreal and boring. Paul Giamatti offers up a nasty bad character who isn't able to soften his edges with his sometimes great comical lines sufficiently to avoid his character to become grating and repelling by the end of the movie. Clive Owen seems to survive several times to often and instead of a Kill Bill Vol. One experience it descends into just a media event showing how as many ways to kill as possible, obviously taking killing scenes from a number of other movies like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). There are the required love scenes and the humanity scenes yet by the end of the movie Clive Owen's character still seems as mysterious as ever. Six out of Ten Stars.

Shoot Em' Up is the type of movie that you're either going to be disgusted, and offended by. Or you are going to love every minute of it. I loved every minute. Mostly because I don't think the movie went an entire minute without a gun firing or a carrot being used in an odd way to cause death. This flick was funny throughout and had some memorable scenes. The acting was definitely above average, but no one's getting an oscar here. If you're looking for non stop fast paced hardcore gory action movies. Look no further, Shoot Em' Up is it. But if you're looking for a movie with a detailed plot, then stay away! But for action fans this is a definite must see. 8 out of 10 for me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Blswylde,

quote:

Blswylde
Enthusiast
Posted 09 September 2007 11:02 AM Hide Post
Shoot Em' Up is the type of movie that you're either going to be disgusted, and offended by. Or you are going to love every minute of it. I loved every minute. Mostly because I don't think the movie went an entire minute without a gun firing or a carrot being used in an odd way to cause death. This flick was funny throughout and had some memorable scenes. The acting was definitely above average, but no one's getting an oscar here. If you're looking for non stop fast paced hardcore gory action movies. Look no further, Shoot Em' Up is it. But if you're looking for a movie with a detailed plot, then stay away! But for action fans this is a definite must see. 8 out of 10 for me.

While I enjoy a good action movie with plenty of fighting, shooting or by other means, for me, a movie needs more than just a series of action scenes that attempt to be more creative in ways of killing people and avoiding to be killed. Such a movie seems to me to become more of a videogame than a movie. The BOURNE IDENTITY AND SUPREMACY movies also possess a pervasive mystery to them on a more sophisticated level, an essential part of the movie instead of a background surface on which justify the kiling. The relational dynamics between people, the intellectual interplay and psychology involved seems to me to make a movie more densely rich and both emotionally and intellectually enjoyable. Even 300 had a strong basis for its use of killing and a lot of it there was. KILL BILL had a lot of fighting but it was balanced, varied, and also contained a substantive and lavish story on which to justify the violence on the screen. SHOOT 'EM UP isn't a bad movie, it did contain a lot of creative and new approaches to shooting and defending one's self that I thought were truly on the cutting edge. Overall the movie was a decent one that did include a storyline that kept the movie from becoming simply a mindless exercise for repeated violence sake that I could get in an arcade game. Unfortunately, for all the violence, the myriad ways of violence couldn't hold up the movie all by itself.

yes i agree, Kill Bill is one of my favorite movie's ever, i just say that this movie is just for people that like hardly any story and just loves gore and action, I'm completely with you about the story though i love all the movies you listed a lot more than Shoot Em' Up, it's just that Shoot Em' Up is for action fans only

quote:

Blswylde
Enthusiast
Posted 10 September 2007 05:47 PM Hide Post
yes i agree, Kill Bill is one of my favorite movie's ever, i just say that this movie is just for people that like hardly any story and just loves gore and action, I'm completely with you about the story though i love all the movies you listed a lot more than Shoot Em' Up, it's just that Shoot Em' Up is for action fans only

Yes. I agree. I did enjoy, actually was impressed with the way Shoot Em' Up handled many of the violent action scenes and even the clear rip-offs weren't such that they really detracted from the movie. It was just unfortunately that the movie couldn't have been more balanced, I would have then felt that it was one track to being a really good movie. The actions scenes were some of the most fascinating and in comes cases quite experimental (not everyone work perfectly) - thus this movie stands out for its pushing the edge and finding a new level for action scenes, that in itself is a relatively rare comment that few movies can take credit for. Too bad it wasn't for more than the action.

I've yet to see this movie. Initially I was intrigued, in much the same way as what strikes me as the most similar looking movie in recent history that nobody's mentioned yet, Smokin' Aces (which I haven't seen either.) Has anyone seen both and could help me out?

Secondly, it's got Paul Giamatti, my love of whom truly pulsates like a larva. So I'm pretty much guaranteed to like it that much.

I imagine my closest point of reference would have to be 300 too, since I actually saw that. I enjoyed that one, not way a lot but it was good fun (though it did feel a hell of a lot like a video game, flood of one kind of enemy, boss character, repeat.) I predict my father will rent it sometime in the near future and I will watch it then.

And as kind of an aside, the first action movies that really stuck with me were Aliens, The Terminator and T2: Judgment Day. So while I can accept a movie like 300 or possibly Shoot 'Em Up for "what they are" (good blow ups) I'm always a little disappointed when that's ALL they are, because I know action movies can be more than that, and it seems like a lot of people forget that.

I've have seen SHOOT 'EM UP and SMOKING ACES. What I remember of SMOKING ACES, I enjoyed better than SHOOT 'EM UP. SMOKING ACES had this more serious playful attitude about it and didn't take itself quite as seriously as a movie, allowing the audience to make more exceptions to plot, character, and substance. Yet, in a way, the plot as it unfolded was pretty obvious and yet consistently played out. There was a lot of variety, a lot of action, and it was both serious and comic. I felt it was well done. I'd go see SHOOT 'EM UP (at least for the action technique used in the movie and Paul Giamatti's performance, even though it became a little too much by the end) and then SMOKING ACES as a sort of sweet deseret.