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Critics Consensus: As preposterous and over-the-top as Shoot 'Em Up may be, its humor and non-stop action make for a very enjoyable film.
Critic Consensus: As preposterous and over-the-top as Shoot 'Em Up may be, its humor and non-stop action make for a very enjoyable film.
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All Critics (163) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (110) | Rotten (53) | DVD (11)
After about an hour, though, it all becomes a mind-numbing barrage.
One can certainly be amused and entertained by writer-director Michael Davis's hyperbolic action frolics -- I was -- but not without feeling pretty low and stupid.
...an affectionate, often very funny Simpsons parody of its whole eponymous genre. It's a live-action McBane as co-directed by Quentin Tarantino and Chuck Jones.... Shoot 'Em Up is Hot Fuzz gone to the Dark Side.
It's just gunfights strung together, without a whisper of coherence or meaning.
The most audacious, implausible, cheerfully offensive, hyperactive action picture I've seen since, oh, Sin City, which in comparison was a chamber drama.
This is seedy, morally defunct, low-IQ cinema for airheads: it's toe-curlingly violent and mostly plain nasty, but quite fun in a debauched kind of way.
Far from being a spoof on the genre, Shoot 'Em Up is an action movie with the flab removed - with no more than maybe ten minutes of exposition, you're left with a series of interconnecting money shots, each one more gooey than the last.
Merrily amoral, shamelessly watchable and outlandishly funny, Shoot 'Em Up is not for all tastes, but those with a dark sense of humor will have a ball.
Say what you will about Bugs Bunny, at least he never needed a backstory.
...it's certainly impossible to deny the effectiveness of the three central performances.
Clive Owen is ideally cast as the likeable loner (with a tragedy in his past, of course) whose self defence and killing efficiency is declared with deadpan delivery.
...painfully uncool one-liners, a flat performance from Clive Owen, a disgusting job by Paul Giamatti and a plot that reveals itself to be idiotic.
A great all out action film. Totally over the top action and violence in this rather slick, stylish film. It's a mix of Sin City, Kill Bill, Smokin' Aces and a hint of Pulp Fiction to. So if you like any of those, you'll get a blast from this and know what to expect!
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I expected crap CGI nonsense and was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I noticed about this crazy 'robocop/total recall' topping death tollathon was the action gun battles are really well done and look realistic, there's no obvious CGI effects in there and its all very gritty and cool, over the top but cool. The whole thing is really dumb lets be honest, the story is awful and the main lead, Owen, is totally miscast in my opinion, he's just not this kind of action man and can't fit the role. It is funny though, gives Arnie a run for the money with wisecracks after gunning down the latest henchman...of which there is no end of of course. There are some stupid sequences that do spoil the realism and hardcore violence, jumping out of a plane with a following midair gun battle? jumping into a car through a sunroof from off a tall building? and catapolting through a windscreen after crashing head on with a van and landing safely inside to comfortably shoot everybody!?. All of which are too computer gamey for me, but you have to expect that with this type of film, after all the title says it all. Its good for the gun battles and bloodshed, if it was Arnie I would be wetting myself with glee shame it isn't. But its good to see a good old fashioned bloodbath, and for once with little CGI shit.
This is such a great movie. Balls to the walls action. Did i mention Moncia Belluci?? Oh yeah
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