Shoot 'Em Up – Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews

Shoot ‘Em Up (Blu-ray)

New Line Home Entertainment / 2007 / 86 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: January 1, 2008
List Price: $35.99 [Buy it at Amazon.com ]

The Movie:

Shoot ‘Em Up is a very liberating experience. It has no redeeming social values, and the storytelling is one-dimensional. Plot develops out of action, not the other way around. Characters are simple archetypes and dialogue is strung together through lines of witty banter and one-liners. But the title spells everything out for us. It is a shoot ‘em up the likes we’ve never seen before. Director Michael Davis constructs one implausible set piece after another that goes full-tilt for eighty straight minutes.

It begins simple enough. Clive Owen is Mr. Smith, a scruffy loner who is sitting comfortably on a bench. But when he sees a pregnant woman being chased by some crazed lunatic with a gun, he throws down his coffee and is drawn into a convoluted albeit ridiculous conspiracy that involves guns (lots of them, duh) and government legislation. Smith is a boy scout of a hero who is willing to help a damsel in a dress, even if it means disrupting his beta-carotene intake. That’s right, our hero has a sweet tooth for carrots. Guess that makes him a wasscally one.

Minutes in, Smith is delivering a baby, cutting the umbilical cord with the help of a gun barrel, only to become the newborn’s reluctant protector. He seeks refuge with the help of a prostitute named DQ (Monica Bellucci), who is has a unique lactating gift – milk does the body good after all. In pursuit are Mr. Herz (Paul Giamatti hamming it up all the way) and his army of rent-a-villains. Hope it was money well spent, because Smith unleashes a ballet of bullets in John Woo-stylized sequences of testosterone nirvana. What should be implausible is always possible. The staged action set pieces most likely fulfill some ridiculous to-do list Michael Davis has kept in a hideaway desk for years. Shoot-outs during copulation. Check. Shoot-outs while jumping out of a jetliner. Check. Car chases and death by carrot. Check and check.

Shoot ‘Em Up is chaotic and excessively violent but 100-percent fun. And the acting, what little there is, flourishes because of Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti’s involvement. They play everything straight and don’t see this as cartoon fun. Experiencing Davis’s gunplay opus again got me thinking, if Clive Owen was chosen to play 007, we would have never ever seen him as the angriest man in the world: a carrot-chewing, bullet-firing antihero. Giamatti in the villain role seems like an unusual choice, but he’s great as the Elmer Fudd to Owen’s Bugs Bunny. Especially amusing is the break from muzzle flashes as he takes calls from the wife and tries to explain to her that he’s busy at work and that he can’t talk right now. His Mr. Herz is a likable assassin/psychopath with a wicked sense of humor – something that is lacking in most villains. He matches Mr. Smith pun for pun.

Michael Davis delivers the goods and he doesn’t let up for eighty minutes. Bam, bam, bam, that’s how it feels. He crams so much into a short timeframe that you won’t be disappointed that the movie is less than an hour-and-a-half long. At no point will you be looking at your watch; you won’t be bored. With more than ten different action sequences involving numerous parties, it’s safe to assume that more people die per minute than in any other action movie you’ll ever see. Loads of action, a strong body count (100 easy), and more bullets than there are words on the page. Testosterone feel depleted? Grab some carrots, a glass of milk and enjoy.

The video:

It wasn’t until November that New Line entered the next-gen realm with its release of Hairspray on Blu-ray. Considering its track record for standard definition releases, a top quality transfer was to be expected. Hairspray had a spectacular picture and so does Shoot ‘Em Up. Presented in a 1080p/VC-1 encode at the film’s original 2.35:1 aspect ratio (great for wide areas of gun violence), the film is dark, but on purpose. Davis considers this an urban dystopia full of violence and misery. The level of detail and color are excellent. Deep blacks in the articles of clothing, not to mention the oil slick sequence. No compression or digital artifact issues to speak of.

The audio:

Building a film around gunfights and action, you better bring it in the audio department. New Line delivers with a vengeance with 7.1 channels of DTS-HD Master Audio. The sound is seamless. Bullets whizzing by echo through the side and rear speakers. The dialogue is clearly audible even with the excessive use of 200 different kinds of guns.

Special Features:

Since writer/director Michael Davis had been dreaming of making this feature for ten-plus years, he is more than willing to reveal how Shoot ‘Em Up got made. He starts with a feature-length audio commentary. Davis is definitely not a man of small words, as he entertains us for the movie’s duration. So enthusiastic, this is his baby. It is a journey of self-fulfillment. He speaks of the color schemes, how casting of Owen and Giamatti came about, and how dark, wicked humor makes the movie so much fun.

Deleted/Alternate Scenes – a total of nine (viewable individually or together and with or without Davis commentary), they mostly expand on scenes already in the final cut. The scenes are fairly short. Best of the bunch is seeing Mr. Smith explain why he hates gum chewers and doing something about it; a 360-degree revolution with Smith blasting away some baddies; but most of all, Smith evading suits with guns and making his own escape up the side of a building.

Animatics (21 minutes total) – it is later revealed in some of features that Davis had done 17,000 animations for his 15-minute short about Mr. Smith. He did this to help sell the movie to prospective studios. With optional commentary from Davis, we get to see 17 animatics, 13 of which made it into the film. The filmed versions are also available to watch as a means of making comparisons. Other ideas that were drawn, but not used include ideas for the film’s opening titles.

Ballet of Bullets (53 minutes total) – is a five-part documentary that covers much of Davis’s audio commentary, only with the added visual flair of behind-the-scenes footage. Davis is once again vocal about his forty million dollar fantasy, and his comments are interspersed with those from cast and crew. The featurettes of the documentary covers a specific aspect of the movie’s production (and each has a catchy title that fits with the overall tone of the film).

Trailers – Following the documentary is three trailers for Shoot ‘Em Up. We get the U.S. trailer, the red brand trailer that you couldn’t see in theaters, and a remix version for Addictive.TV. All are as fiendishly ridiculous as the finished product.

HD Extras:

Special to this Blu-ray release is an enhanced visual commentary. A picture-in-picture option allows viewers to see behind-the-scenes footage and interviews/commentary while the movie is playing. The comments are spliced together, and are culled from the Ballet of Bullets doc with some other material thrown in.

The Inside Pulse:

Ridiculous, mindless fun. A Guilty pleasure that’s a blast in the truest sense. Michael Davis brings everything: the kitchen sink, hundreds of guns and more than enough ammo. His Shoot ‘Em Up is awash in wall-to-wall action that doesn’t stop. With excessive violence and no substance, it is a high-calorie snackfest. How this didn’t have a bigger audience I’ll never understand. It is geared towards men who crave action. And to be honest, you get more action here than you do in the overly long-winded Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. This Blu-ray release pulls a hat trick as we get great audio and video and extras that are worth your time. I’m telling you, stock up on carrot sticks and breast milk and paint the town red – with blood.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Shoot ‘Em Up
CONTENT

9.0
THE VIDEO

9.0
THE AUDIO

9.0
SUPPLEMENTS

8.0
HD EXTRAS

5.0

OVERALL
9.0
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!