Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Smith	Clive Owen
Hertz	Paul Giamatti	½
Donna	Monica Bellucci
Hammerson	Stephen McHattie
Lone Man	Greg Bryk
Senator Rutledge	Daniel Pilon
Baby's Mother	Ramona Pringle
Hertz' Driver	Julian Richings

Review

I think Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti joined this project thinking they were going to have themselves a good time. And I have no doubt that they had. Michael Davis is the British writer/director who looks up to Quentin and Guy Ritchie and desperately wants to outdo them both with this part ironic, part ultra-stupid action flick. In many ways, there is no doubt that he succeeds. Shoot 'Em Up is more excessive and perpetual than most of its peer, and for good or worse, it is absolutely possible to enjoy a fair chunk of it all. Clive Owen is so relentlessly one-note in the lead that he could have kept going for another two hours without blinking. Fortunately for us, however, Davis is wise enough to relieve us after 86 minutes. That is long enough considering the logical insults and painful one-liners we have to sit through here. The former I can live with; the latter is a disappointment in this sub-genre, and is definitely one aspect where Shoot 'Em Up doesn't come close to emulating anything by Tarantino.