TobiasFunke82's Blog

I left the movie theater Friday cheesing from ear to ear because I was so satisfied with the completely over the top Shoot Em Up. To onlookers it may have seemed that I just stepped out of a comedy due to my permanent grin, but the culprit was an action packed bloodbath.

Laughing at a bloodbath of bullet riddled action? Am I some kind of sick weirdo? Not at all because Shoot Em Up presents itself in such a stylized, humorous manner, that it’s quite ok to be amused by such brutality.

Clive Owen plays a nobody, a drifter, who uses food stamps and crunches more carrots than Bugs Bunny. He sees a pregnant lady about to be executed and feels the need to intervene. For the next two hours, he outlandishly kills over 200 bad guys, plays the role of father figure to a newborn, makes love to a prostitute (while killing a bad guy brigade) and continues to heartily eat his vegetables.

As if the movie could not appeal to me more, the only thing that stops a crying baby is Heavy Metal music. The newborn is soon equipped with an Ipod full of metal and a bullet proof vest to protect him from stray bullets. Many of the scenes incorporate Heavy Metal classics from Motorhead, Motley Crue and AC/DC, which provide the perfect accompaniment to imaginative gun battles that will leave you thunderstruck.

The constant humor and vicious performances by Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti makes Shoot Em Up one of the three best movies of the summer. (The other two being Superbad and Knocked Up and I have yet to see 3:10 to Yuma).

So if a movie is so twisted and superb, why did such an immediate classic only rake in 5.5 Million this weekend? People, go see this witty depiction of gratuitous violence that will without a doubt leave you cinematically fulfilled.