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Wow! Sin City is the closest film to Michael Davis' hyperactive adrenaline-fuelled minefield of neo-noir gunshots, but even Robert Rodriguez's masterpiece pales in comparison in terms of madcap plot to Shoot 'Em Up. Clive "I should have been James Bond!" Owen, a fixture in both the aforementioned films, plays Smith, a social recluse and squatter with an extensive military history. Our hero is an expert marksman who seemingly adores frequent healthy masticates on a carrot or twenty when the munchies strike. His private existence goes into turmoil when he rescues a newborn baby - the opening gunfight in question occurs whilst the mother is actually giving birth and Dr. Owen has to shoot the umbilical cord - and the rugged Bugs Bunny reluctantly gets embroiled in a complex political conspiracy. Smith teams up with a hooker specialising in lactating fetishes (an amazingly attractive but very wooden Bellucci) as he fends off an extremely intelligent and eloquent Hertz (a superbly powerful and messily unshaven Giamatti).
Now, if you think this premise sounds like a solid and yet wacky foundation for an action film you would be correct. However, one really has to witness Davis' complete effort to realise how distinctive this film is. The political conspiracy segment of the plot could well be the main arc of a major film by itself, but as we know, when a sound idea isn't fully justified on celluloid, an opportunity is wasted if you cannot fully engross the audience with a half-hearted attempt. Unfortunately for Davis, his 86 minutes of fame are spent on other trivialities away from the shady-and-corrupt-senator core direction of why the baby is so important to all parties involved, with most notably the insanely over-the-top and constant bullet-fests. Luckily, said action sequences are mostly tasty alternatives to the Marmite reactions a political agenda based story normally amplifies. If one recalls the excellent lobby scene in The Matrix, you will chuckle at how Davis seemingly wants to outdo the Wachowski brothers in a spoof-like manner whilst still producing the same white-knuckle experience. The particular showcases of Smith's masterful skills with Motorhead's "Ace of Spades", AC/DC's "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" and Nirvana's "Breed" are outstanding and are only lessened in quality overall when Davis does a Die Another Day windsurfing scene on us and creates an extremely surreal jump from a plane which dampens proceedings.
It's also hard to take the script seriously. One wonders if Davis simply wrote whereabouts the excessive shootouts would be and then filled in the blanks with quirkily eccentric and quotable dialogue, for Hertz in particular. Speaking of villainous opposition to Smith, Giamatti uses his assassin persona to increase his own never-ending range with mesmerising effect. Some of the ruthless lines Giamatti delivers with that trademark New Jersey deadpan charisma will invite thought and consequently they never fail to inherently impress. Owen is as mordant as ever, especially in his tremendous interaction with Giamatti, and Davis is obviously in overdrive to claim John Woo's throne. In actuality, the gung-ho director is reminiscent of a high school rookie basketball player trying to be drafted and accepted in the big league where the budgets and explosives are larger. For his sake, let's hope he can have a few complete M.V.P. performances instead of just a single jump shot blinder from downtown. With a little characterisation and more substance in regards to plot structure, Davis can be more than just a one trick pony.
The summary
An overblown blast of nonsense which could have so easily been a complete mess. Davis fortuitously dishes up some cracking one-liners and ludicrous action to save his project, while Giamatti is a fine quarterback of the rescue mission.
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