DVD
REVIEW: SHOOT'EM UP
12/27/07
FILM REVIEW: “What was
that?” “No way!” You’ll be saying these phrases a few
times during this movie, but in a good way. Fans of Kill
Bill, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Grindhouse, and Sin City,
this is a must see! Move over Quentin Tarantino and Robert
Rodriguez and make room for Michael Davis. He can play with
the big boys. Oh man, this movie is crazy and loads of fun.
I had a smirk on my face the majority of the time. It is
really quite simple you see, as simple as the title itself.
This is a bang, bang, Shoot ‘em Up in your face action movie
that doesn’t hold back. Add some sick humor, some decent
performances, something of a plot to give the action at
least a hint of purpose, and dark sadistic undertones and
you’ve got a very entertaining film, however, it is not for
everybody. It is NOT an artsy film, an Oscar contender, a
dramatic masterpiece, nor is it a thought provoking or
enlightening story. It is a non-stop action movie that was
made just for the fun of it and that is what makes it so
good. Not that there’s anything wrong with artsy, Oscar
nominated, dramatic, thought provoking films, but sometimes
you just want to go to the movies to have fun, real fun.
Sure, sometimes you will want to go to an art museum, but
sometimes you want to go play video games in an arcade.
You’ll get your money’s worth with this game.
Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is minding his own business at a bus
stop when an “about-to-pop” pregnant woman comes running by
him. She is being chased by a man with a gun. Smith
reluctantly comes to the rescue and inevitably gets pulled
into this whole predicament with the mother and especially
the baby, who by the way is delivered by Smith in the middle
of a shootout. Yeah, it’s that crazy. The primary baby
hunter is Hertz (Paul Giamatti) along with his crew of guns
for hire. Not knowing why they want to kill the mother and
child, he instinctively protects them. Needing some help
with the baby, he goes to Donna (Monica Bellucci), a
prostitute who has serviced him before . . . and the chase
ensues.
Paul Giamatti as a hit man??? Well, sure, his performance is
not the best hit man ever, but he does pull it off. He can
do just about anything really. Heck, he’s going to be
playing Santa Claus this December. Now Monica playing a
prostitute is slightly more believable. Her talents lie in
the sexiness of her voice, her accent, and her looks. So
soothing. From time to time she would let loose her piercing
Italian tongue which added a little more flavor to her
character. What a sharp, sharp woman. Clive is the one that
made the most sense and it showed. He basically took his
character from Sin City (Dwight) and pumped it up a few
levels. Actually, he makes Dwight look like a wimp next to
Smith. Smith has a thing for eating carrots and wait till
you see what he can do with them.
As with most movies of this genre, the plot is overshadowed
by the action, but in this case it just doesn’t matter. This
movie is more about the action than the story even though
the action gets absurd and unrealistic at times. The action
is the core of the movie and everything else is wrapped
around it. The dialogue is cheap at times, witty at times,
and mostly brief and to the point as it should be. Even the
soundtrack oozes action. You will see things that you have
never seen in a movie or could even have imagined you would
ever see in a movie. It is a bizarre, bloody, good guy vs.
bad guy, defending the helpless, no time for chit chat, hard
core action movie. Writer/Director Michael Davis (Monster
Man, Girl Fever, 100 Girls) has undoubtedly accomplished
what he set out to do. Thanks Michael for showing us that
Quentin and Robert aren’t the only crazy directors that can
do this. I’ll close by quoting Mr. Hertz referring to Smith:
“My God. Do we really suck or is this guy really that good?”
Go see the movie to find out for yourself.
Film
Review By Cine Marcos
cinemarcos@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.35:1) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs
AUDIO:
DTS-ES
6.1 Discrete - English
Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX Surround - English
Stereo Surround - English
Subtitles - English, Spanish,
BONUS FEATURES:
For lovers of special features, the DVD comes loaded with
bonus features. It comes with 8 minutes of deleted and extended scenes,
an excellent "Making Shoot'em Up" feature covering all the
details on how the film was made. It also includes a 15
minutes animation by Michael Davis covering all the action
scenes of the film.
Feature Commentary by
writer/director Michael Davis: Watch the movie while
listening the director’s point of view.
Deleted / Alternate
Scenes: A total of seven deleted scenes all worth
watching, also contains two extended scenes; the torture
scene" and longer epilogue of the film. The deleted and
extended scenes comes with the option commentary from
write/director Michael Davis.(8:04)
Making Shoot'em Up:
this feature have 5 different options that take you from the
script up to the editing of the film. The different titles are:
Lock and Load:
Director Michael Davis and the cast talk about the film (5:38).
Armed and Dangerous:
Director and producers show the casting process and how they
came up with the different actors in the movie, also he
describes the different and original character’s
personalities and how they match the actors. (8:57)
Itchy Trigger Fingers:
Director Michael Davis and Chief Weapons Specialist
Charles Taylor talk about the gun selection for the film.
They go over the details about how guns were modified and
used in the film
(5:35)
Safety's Off: Special
Effects team talk about how the special effects were used
for the film. It was nice to see how the action scenes that
included the baby were made (8:37)
Muzzle Flash: This is
a total behind the scenes about how the film came to life.
Includes comments from production team, director and the
cast. A very nice documentary (23:28)
Animatics: A
nice 15 minutes animation by Michael Davis. Michael animated
all the action scenes from the films. This animation
sequence can be play with Michael Davis commentary. (22:05)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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