Shoot 'Em Up is a cavalcade of bullets. You have to go past the veil of smoking guns to find an interesting style of dark humor done in a nonchalant and gory way.
The good. Lots of action. A beautiful woman. An unstoppable good guy.
The actors. Clive Owen, though a limited actor, is at his best here as the stoic effective killer with a good heart. Paul Giamatti's ruthless and cunning bad guy could not have been played by anyone else, that's how good he is. Monica Bellucci is again consecrated as the impossibly seductive femme fatale with the charming accent.
The bad. Seeing through a body. Not realistic enough body part props from time to time. And the film's intro is too abrupt and seems a bit flimsy or clumsy compared to the rest. The audience could have benefitted from being easy into this world of blood and violence.
The ugly. The skydiving fight.
The result. A brain dead action flick with its own sense of style. Not everybody will like the way it's built, though. However, the exchanges between Owen and Giamatti as well as those between Owen and Bellucci are elevating this film enough to make it watchable multiple times.
6*/10
