Shoot 'Em Up (film)

2007 film by Michael Davis
the film genre

Susan Montford
Don Murphy
Rick Benattar
| country = United States
Paul Giamatti as Mr. Karl Hertz Smith's misanthropy derived from writer director Michael Davis' frustration when his 1989 script about Alfred Kinsey failed to materialize as a feature film. His research about Kinsey and human sexuality in general inspired the character of Donna Quintano, a gold hearted prostitute and Smith's eventual love interest.

Davis had wanted to make an action film which focused on guns and was devoid of explosions. a "gun like" version of Run Lola Run (1998). By 2000, Davis had begun writing the screenplay;

During his subsequent years as an independent filmmaker, Davis started putting together an animatic of the script's action scenes using a Wacom tablet and the iMovie app. Murphy, Montford and Benattar also saw the film's potential as a big budget production, so they sent the animatic to major film studio New Line Cinema. The role of Donna went to Monica Bellucci, who liked the script and the character: an independent woman who "does dangerous, dark dirty things in a playful way". Davis cast Paul Giamatti, who usually played "nice guy" roles, against type to avoid the stereotype of a physically imposing villain, and because he believed Giamatti could deliver the duality of the role. Before filming, Owen and Giamatti were trained in firearms. Owen resolved to perform most of them himself. It was released on CD and as a digital download on August 28, 2007, by Varèse Sarabande. A soundtrack album of nu metal and rock songs by various artists was made available on February 12, 2008.

In July 2007, Shoot 'Em Up was publicized with a guerrilla marketing campaign by the London based agency New Media Maze. The campaign included a viral video and a website selling bogus items ranging from bulletproof strollers to riot helmets for infants. A video was released on YouTube in which the company claimed to test the bulletproof stroller by shooting at it with a submachine gun while a baby was in it. The baby was then removed from the stroller unharmed. The hoax campaign was taken seriously by global media and the blogging community; Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest evening tabloid, carried the story on its online edition for some time. In November 2007, two ads that showed Owen and Giamatti holding guns were banned in the United Kingdom by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the grounds that they had "glamorized and glorified gun crime" and "were offensive and insensitive toward families directly affected by gun crime". At the time of the ruling, it was also reported that gun violence in the UK was on the rise.

Although Variety reported a planned release during the 2006 holiday season, Shoot 'Em Up was previewed in September of that year. The film was released in American theaters on September 7, 2007. Audience response to a screening at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con was positive. Overall, the film grossed $12,807,139 over six weeks in North American theaters and $26,820,641 worldwide. It was regarded as a box office failure, recouping less than its budget. The film's DVD and Blu ray versions were released in January 2008 by New Line Home Entertainment with a behind the scenes featurette titled "Ballet of Bullets", 17 minutes of animatics and audio commentary from director Michael Davis, trailers and deleted scenes. New Line released another DVD and Blu ray of the film in a two disc version in August 2011.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 67%, with an average rating of 6.15/10, based on reviews from 161 critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "As preposterous and over the top as Shoot 'Em Up may be, its humor and non stop action make for a very enjoyable film." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore during its opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "B−" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.

Peter Travers rated the film 3 out of 4 stars for Rolling Stone, calling it "eighty two minutes of hardcore pow. [ ] You'll be exhilarated – also exhausted." Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun Times scored the film 3 out of 4 stars, comparing it favorably with Sin City as "the most audacious, implausible, cheerfully offensive, hyperactive action picture [he had] seen". Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter called it a "ramped up action movie on steroids" that "makes Hard Boiled look restrained". Ebert extended his praise toward the film's acting, calling Owen's character sympathetic and Giamatti's "surprisingly, teeth gnashingly evil". Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post said the film "is just gunfights strung together, without a whisper of coherence or meaning. The fights are staged so that they all look the same, and the principle is always the same: The gunman's multiple antagonists never hit, and he never misses." James Berardinelli gave the film a mixed review, saying that while it delivered gunfights as advertised, he complained that it "pretty much consists of shoot outs and chases overtaking each other like waves rolling onto a beach, each more over the top than its predecessor". Berardinelli scored the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing that he "like[d] the audacity and its willingness to push the envelope beyond the limits of good taste. In the end, it's a little too long and uneven to recommend outright, but [he] won't deny having enjoyed aspects of what Davis is offering." In 2016, Shoot 'Em Up made the list of "25 great action films that are 90 minutes or under" compiled by Nick Horton of Den of Geek. Rotten Tomatoes ranked Shoot 'Em Up at No. (number) 111 on its list of the "140 Essential Actions Movies To Watch".