Shoot 'Em Up

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.