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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Bang Violence

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Shoot 'Em Up on DVD

Ignoring the incredible misogyny and callousness, Michael Davis's Shoot 'Em Up works on a kind of stripped-down, pure, gleeful violence, committed by characters who aren't capable of anything else. A mysterious hero (Clive Owen) rescues a newborn baby from a gunfight and, together with a prostitute (Monica Bellucci), tries to protect it from a sneering, evil mastermind (Paul Giamatti -- who speaks in a kind of snarky murmur) and an endless parade of highly armed and disposable thugs. Davis invents action sequences so heightened and hyper-aware that they're ludicrous: a woman giving birth during a gunfight, a shootout while freefalling out of an airplane, etc. It's exciting, but leaves you burned out, rather than pumped up. Parents should definitely stay away.

AskMen.com: Shoot 'Em Up

Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie
Written by: Michael Davis
Directed by: Michael Davis
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality and some language
Running Time: 93 minutes
Date: September 7, 2007