I remember somebody mentioning to me how "Snakes on a Plane" was their guilty pleasure at the theatre last year. I mean, I'm all for the guilty pleasure and those who know me also know that I am bound to see anything at the theatre. Truth of the matter is though, that "Crank" (with Jason Statham of Transporter fame) made Snakes look like the pile of shit that it was. It was quite dumb, and action-laden, and had all sorts of implausabilities, but you never felt you being taken advantage of. It was simply there to enjoy and laugh it.
"Shoot 'Em Up" was a lot like that. Though I'll admit I may be somewhat impartial due to the fact that the two leading men in the movie are Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, two of the better actors working the screen today. The basics being that a women, about to give birth, is being chased by...well..."bad" guys. Owen's character, "Mr. Smith", happens to be sitting at the bus stop in the shitty part of town as this happens in front of him. For apparently no real reason, he takes off and goes after the women, delivers the baby, and in the process manages to knock off all of the men chasing her. He does though lose the mother in the process.
If anyone saw "Children of Men" (which you should if you haven't), it is once again Owen's job to "save this baby" for reasons that he can't truly explain with his prostitute-friend, Donna, who becomes some sort of a "motherly" figure, esecially thanks to the fact that is still...er..."producing" after losing her own child. Thankfully it never gets sentimental and what proceeds is basically 80 minutes of, well, shoot 'em up fun. The jokes are cheesy without making you feel dumber for hearing them. And Paul Giamatti is beautifully over-the-top as an ex-FBI profiler gone...er...bad (i.e. deliciously evil). Like I said, if you take it simply for what it is you will have a lot of fun. 'Cause Oscar is not going to come calling here any time soon.
"Shoot 'Em Up" was a lot like that. Though I'll admit I may be somewhat impartial due to the fact that the two leading men in the movie are Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, two of the better actors working the screen today. The basics being that a women, about to give birth, is being chased by...well..."bad" guys. Owen's character, "Mr. Smith", happens to be sitting at the bus stop in the shitty part of town as this happens in front of him. For apparently no real reason, he takes off and goes after the women, delivers the baby, and in the process manages to knock off all of the men chasing her. He does though lose the mother in the process.
If anyone saw "Children of Men" (which you should if you haven't), it is once again Owen's job to "save this baby" for reasons that he can't truly explain with his prostitute-friend, Donna, who becomes some sort of a "motherly" figure, esecially thanks to the fact that is still...er..."producing" after losing her own child. Thankfully it never gets sentimental and what proceeds is basically 80 minutes of, well, shoot 'em up fun. The jokes are cheesy without making you feel dumber for hearing them. And Paul Giamatti is beautifully over-the-top as an ex-FBI profiler gone...er...bad (i.e. deliciously evil). Like I said, if you take it simply for what it is you will have a lot of fun. 'Cause Oscar is not going to come calling here any time soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment