Shoot 'Em Up [Blu-ray]

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fair Warning
Comment: The only person who will NOT
be offended and disgusted
by this film
is one who has been weaned
on a steady diet of pornography
of the more perverse variety.

I would give some examples
to illustrate my point,
but the examples are too
offensive for print
in a forum such as this.

Rather than a life-affirming
plot about the heroic defense
of an innocent newborn baby,
it is the shameless exploitation
of a baby in danger to justify
the existance of and interest in
the exploits of two of the
trashiest human beings
I have ever encountered as
"heroes" in a film.
The villian is equally disgusting.

The baby survived attack after
attack due to the assistance
of our "heroes".
That's the good news.

The bad news is that little baby
"Oscar" now has to live with his
foster parents.
Good luck with that!

Trust me.
There is no reason good enough
to ignore the negatives
and watch this film.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ammo Burner
Comment: A fun ride in the style of Peckinpah and John Woo. The smell of burning gunpowder and bullets flying. A lot of dark humor also.

Customer Rating:
Summary: THIS movie is Ridiculous!
Comment: I watched this movie the other day with my friends and it feels like some very bad video game where one guy is invincible. The plot makes no sense and the blood and gore is overdone. It is basically about some British Agent that kills around 500 people by the end of the movie mainly by a Magnum. Too much sexual stuff; definitely not for under 17. Don't waste your time.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Action Movie
Comment: This film is just filled with some unbelievable action by all of the actors. My family really, really liked this film.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A love-hate movie that I loved
Comment: "Shoot 'Em Up" is a straight-faced over-the-top parody of the action movie genre. Profoundly silly one-liners after shooting a guy? Check. No backstory about our cookie-cutter characters? Got it. An overly convoluted plot that makes no sense at all? Yep. The ability of the hero to run away from 10 guys shooting at him a close range? Check. And stunts that would kill a regular human being 10 times over, from which the hero walks away? About every 5 minutes.

Where most action movies present these elements and expect us to swallow them, "Shoot 'Em Up" goes so far over the top that it flings those elements, and others, right in the audience's face as part of its bone-dry parody. I think that's why this movie is so polarizing - whether you like this kind of thing is a matter of taste. For example, whether you find a pro-gun-control gunfighting hero to be head-scratching or funny as heck will depend completely on your sense of humor.

For this film to work, Owen and Giamatti had to own their characters completely, as ridiculous as they were, and they definitely did so. The pace has to keep moving so you don't stop and think about the details too much, and it certainly did. At 90 minutes, this film is just long enough.

The irony is that "Shoot 'Em Up," even as a parody of the genre, is a superior example of the genre. It's at least worth a rent, particularly if you have Blu-Ray - the Blu-Ray transfer is fantastic.