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Shoot 'Em Up
New Line Cinema


6.7

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 49 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality and some language

Starring Clive Owen, Monica Bellucci, Paul Giamatti, Greg Bryk, Stephen McHattie, Ramona Pringle, and Jane McLean

Mr. Smith is a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Comedy \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Michael Davis
DIRECTED BY:	Michael Davis
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 1, 2008 Theatrical: September 7, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	80 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The most audacious, implausible, cheerfully offensive, hyperactive action picture I've seen since, oh, "Sin City," which in comparison was a chamber drama.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is likely the fastest-moving intentionally funny action movie ever made. It's as if the 21 Bond movies and four "Die Hards" had been distilled to remove their body fat (that is, character development, buildup, rest stops, etc.) and left us with only the killing and the punch lines.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Its pulpy violent excess will tip over...into slightly more excessive excess. That's its silly, scuzzball joy.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Anyone looking for subtlety, character development or layered plotting will be disappointed, but action fans will find plenty to amuse them with this film that makes "Hard-Boiled" look restrained.

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

Extremely violent guilty pleasure of a thriller.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The season's first guilty pleasure, Shoot 'Em Up is a joyously silly, R-rated, John Woo-in flected Looney Tune, with Clive Owen as a carrot-chomping, gun-toting Bugs Bunny matching wits with Elmer Fudd-ish assassin Paul Giamatti.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's funny without being toothless, adrenaline turbocharged without being mean and utterly deranged in the best sense of the word.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This wet dream for action junkies leaves out logic and motivation --you know, all the boring stuff.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

For sheer audacity and adrenaline-fueled carnage, Shoot 'Em Up hits its target pretty much dead on.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

The presence of the two actors and the film's mordant sense of humor buoy the downtime between bloodbaths and genre fans may find enough to love here.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

It's all meant as gory good fun, but once the novelty wears off half an hour in, the rest of the film is only meant for people who absolutely agree with Giamatti's character about that violence thing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There's a little bit of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in Shoot 'Em Up, although this production isn't as smart or as slick.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Absolutely not for feminists, lovers of period films, and anyone whose sensibilities are bruised by over-the-top stuntwork, it's a cocktail made up of three parts testosterone to one part brains.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Intermittently amusing.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The saving grace in an exuberantly graceless movie is Clive Owen. This actor is bulletproof. Even in a sick-joke jamboree like Shoot 'Em Up, he mows down the competition and gets his laughs without losing his composure.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Despite all the flying bullets, which are admittedly entertaining at times, Shoot 'Em Up doesn't offer enough bang for your bucks.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

The whole thing feels like watching somebody else play a video game. Director Michael Davis obviously was more interested in crafting a series of gunfights than a coherent story arc.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Violent thrills and massive blood spills are the essence of the absurdly over-the-top action flick that is Shoot 'Em Up.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

A furious 90-minute trailer of a movie that exceeds the speed limit for action films established by Quentin Tarantino's recent "Grindhouse."

Premiere Karl Rozemeyer

As a bonus, it contains, at least, the best death-by-carrot scene in the history of film.

Variety Peter Debruge

Good taste is the first fatality in this gonzo thrill-seeker, sure to offend mainstream dispositions, yet too stylistically audacious to dismiss outright.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

For the most part, this is strictly kiss kiss, bang bang, yawn yawn.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Shoot 'Em Up is not only the title of Hollywood's latest descent into nonsensical mayhem but pretty much sums up the entire inane plot as well.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It sets a tone, all right. A lot of gamers (sorry, "filmgoers") may well enjoy writer-director Michael Davis' ultraviolent lark. It's not meant to be taken seriously. But films like this are worth taking seriously because they're genuinely cruddy and hollow and, yes, vile.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's just gunfights strung together, without a whisper of coherence or meaning. The fights are staged so that they all look the same, and the principle is always the same: The gunman's multiple antagonists never hit, and he never misses. John Woo at least had fun with this sort of thing 20 years ago. And Giamatti? What the heck is he doing here?

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture is just a catalog of strained camera moves and preprogrammed gags, with no wit or style.

Slate Dana Stevens

Owen, Giamatti, and Bellucci--all fine actors at the peak of hireability--must have been coming off a collective coke bender when they agreed to be in this murky, straight-to-video-looking piece of crud.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A worthless piece of garbage.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Adam H gave it a10:
I loved this movie. If Die Hard or a Bond movie is magic, then this is a Bond movie directed by Penn & Teller. It's not serious and there in lies the beauty.

Tupac S. gave it a9:
this movie was tight, you can't expect to go into every movie thinking its going to be a mind boggler, sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the movie without thinking much. def a guy movie and some girls if open minded enough will enjoy this "movie"

Chad S. gave it a7:
Smith(Clive Owen) is Bugs Bunny's translator. Thanks to "Shoot 'Em Up", the next time you see that "wascally wabbit" torment Elmer Fudd, you'll remember the carrot to the eye, or the carrot to the throat. When Bugs bites into his taproot, it's the closest he'll get to firing a live round. "What's up doc?" probably means something along the lines of, "Why you hatin', Elmer?" To defend the violence in "Shoot 'Em Up", the advocate for this whimsically sick film would have to utilize the "it's only a cartoon defense". Gamers, to paraphrase Carly Simon, will "probably think this [film] is about [them]", but they'd be wrong. You can die in a video game; a cartoon character, on the other hand, is impervious to death; that's why Smith chomps on a carrot in the opening minutes of "Shoot 'Em Up". Thankfully, the filmmaker isn't hypocritical about the blood, semen, and yes, breast milk; to the very end, the movie is unapologetic about its body count, and other crimes effectuated in the name of bad taste. Gun lobbyists like to defend their right to bear arms by saying that guns don't kill people, people kill people. "Shoot 'Em Up" illustrates this mentality when Smith kills another man with heated bullets discharging from the palm of his hand. Stupid, right? So why does this geek show work? Its participants, chiefly, Clive Owen, never cracks a smile, never lets on that he know how entirely ridiculous this whole enterprise really is.

Brett P. gave it a9:
All right, lets get one thing straight here. This is not a thought-provoking drama, where, there's a plotline, and character development, and all that stuff that usually makes movies great. This is a B-movie, Grindhouse-esque, where people get shot. A lot. Sometimes with food. However, if you realize this, you will have a great time. I simply had to turn my left brain off (which, for me, wasn't that hard.) Clive Owen is a great actor, one of my favorite ones, and so is Paul Giamatti. But, you could go in never having seen these guys before, and you'd leave feeling just the same as everyone else. For a cheap thrill, it's perfect. To put it bluntly, "stuff gets shot." And, be honest, on a Saturday night with your buddies, what more do you want?

Tom D. gave it a0:
Horrible movie, I watch probablly 100 movies a year and this is clearly at the bottom. I thought Sin City was great this was just odd and pointless. Why do people like this? I'm not opposed to violent movies but mindless ones...

John Q. gave it a0:
Not only one of the worst action flicks ever made, but possibly one of the worst movies ever made. Odiously bad. The thought that anyone thought this could be compared to the fight-scene virtuosity of Hard Boiled, or the quirky wit of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is just ridiculous, and makes me wonder if they actually saw those movies. Avoid at all costs any copies of Shoot 'Em Up, unless your intention is to do us all a favour and set them on fire.

Andy B. gave it a0:
One of the worst movies I've seen in a while!!! I like Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, but they picked the wrong movie to act in!!!! Why people would enjoy this is beyond me. Unless you like action flicks that are, terribly acted, have terrible one liners, no character development, no story line, terrible action scenes etc....Than this is definitely for you. Why people enjoy these campy movies, I'll never understand. I don't go to see an action movie to laugh. If I wanted to laugh at an "action" movie, I'd turn on the USA network and watch "Toxic Avenger"!!!!

Shoot 'Em Up New Line Cinema

Shoot 'Em Up
New Line Cinema