The title pretty much says it all. I'm talking about "Shoot 'Em Up". This post will have a few spoilers to it, I'm afraid, since I can't otherwise discuss the movie (all the important things are a bit spoilerish).

First off, from an action perspective, it's spectacular. The action sequences are really well done, and the dialogue is pretty snappy. The villain is creepy, intelligent, and infuriating. The carrots make a lovely touch to the movie. Granted, it seems like Clive Owen has been given the power to ignore how inertia should affect his body when he deems it necessary, but we expect some of that in any decent action flick these days. Now, I'm not entirely certain I approve of the subtext. Paradoxically, the movie has a strong "guns are bad" subtext to it. It would be tolerable but for some other strange things about it. For instance the senator in the movie is only cast in a negative light because he sold-out and is working with the evil gun manufacturer. The senator was selling out over a rather fanciful gun control bill that sounded like it'd create British-style gun control in America (i.e. nobody has them). The problem with this (other than it being the usual stupid Hollywood clap-trap) is that the senator was up to honest and truly evil activities himself. He was having women impregnated so he could harvest the babies for bone marrow to help him survive whatever terminal disease he had (I'd guess lymphoma, but I don't remember if the movie actually states it). That's right -- it's not a problem for him to pay women to have his kids just so that he can harvest the bone marrow from the infants, but work with the gun lobby folks to recover the one escaped baby? Now that's an issue. I'll still be adding this one to the collection; I can forgive a single Hollywood dumbass issue for an otherwise badass movie. If you like Clive Owen or Paul Giamatti, it's a must see. It leaves just the right number of loose ends, but ties itself up well. It's satisfying, but needs no sequel to follow it up, in fact, it leaves no real option for one. Instead it does better -- it leaves you ready and waiting on the next movie that Owen or Micheal Davis, the writer and director, puts out, even if it's got a weird subtext to it.

Labels: life, movies

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