Shoot 'em Up (film)
Encyclopedia
Shoot 'Em Up is a 2007
action comedy film, starring Clive Owen
, Paul Giamatti
, and Monica Bellucci
. The film was written and directed by Michael Davis
and produced by Susan Montford
, Don Murphy
and Rick Benattar. The film was released on September 7, 2007.
The following day, Smith attempts to leave the baby in a local park, hoping someone will adopt the child. However, Hertz is watching, and shoots a woman who goes to retrieve the baby with a sniper rifle. Realizing the baby is a prime target, Smith takes Oliver to a brothel to leave him there with Donna, a lactating hooker (Monica Bellucci). She refuses to take the child, and Smith leaves. Hertz arrives at the brothel shortly after, and tortures Donna for information. Smith returns, and after defeating Hertz and his men in a fight, he escapes with Donna and the baby.
Smith and Donna begin investigating as to who wants to kill Oliver, after discovering a vital clue at a metal club and surviving yet another attempt on their lives by a group of well-armed attackers while having sex in their motel room. Smith begins to cripple the competition by causing a shootout in the Hammerson Gun Factory, which happens to be owned by Hertz's boss. After escaping and returning to Donna, Smith discovers that Senator Rutledge, who is dying of bone marrow cancer, has had a number of babies made from his DNA and intends to use them to survive the necessary surgery. Smith and one of Rutledge's men- Go-To-Guy- make a truce, and Smith is taken to meet with Rutledge on the senator's plane. Smith confronts Rutledge with his crimes and holds him hostage. Hertz and Hammerson arrive and reveal to him that because Rutledge was a strong backer of gun control, they killed the mothers and almost all of the babies to force Rutledge to make a deal with them. Smith makes his way down to a cargo deck on the aircraft, kills Senator Rutledge and parachutes out of the plane. A few of Hertz's men follow and Smith kills them in mid-air. Go-To-Guy appears and tries to kill Smith, but ends up being shredded to bits by an oncoming helicopter's main rotor blades. Later Smith lands to discover the remains of Hertz's men as well as dismembered limbs of Go-To-Guy. Smith wanders off into a building and ends up out cold.
Smith awakens to find Hertz holding him at gunpoint. In the comfort of Hammerson's mansion, Hertz begins to torture Smith by breaking his fingers to learn where Donna and Oliver are hiding, but Smith endures the pain. During the torture session, Hertz taunts Smith with knowledge of his past, hinting that he had once illegally sold a firearm that was later used to kill his own wife and son. As a last effort, Hertz intends to carve out Smith's eyes with a scalpel, but Smith manages to break free, killing Hammerson and numerous thugs but failing to kill Hertz. Seeing that Smith is incapable of using a firearm due to his broken fingers, Hertz laughs at his fruitless efforts and follows him into a library to finish him off. In the library he asks Smith if he was "dead on" about Smith's identity. Smith retorts by asking Hertz to repeat the last bit of the question. Hertz starts repeating his question but Smith stops him and only lets him say, "I said am I dead" and answers, "that part you got right." He severely wounds Hertz by putting his hand in an open fire revealing the bullets he had placed between his fingers. The heat causes the gunpowder to detonate, and the bullets are fired into Hertz's chest. Hertz, despite his wounds, is not dead. Struggling to his feet, he raises his gun, but Smith manages to shoot his gun first and kills Hertz.
Smith then boards a bus not knowing where Donna or Oliver are. At an ice-cream parlor Smith sits at a table and hears Donna's voice. Turning around he sees Oliver in a baby chair and passionately reunites with Donna. The film ends as a group of amateur robbers enter the parlor, and a disgusted Smith stops them.
and other actors, the film went into production in Toronto
, Ontario, Canada between February 13, 2006 and May 8, 2006.
The final robbery scene was shot at the Satellite Family Restaurant, a traditional diner in Mississauga, to the west of Toronto.
Though Variety
initially reported a planned release during the holiday season of 2006, and initial previews occurred in September of that year, the film was eventually scheduled for release on September 7, 2007.
Audience response from a screening at 2007's San Diego Comic-Con was great, however.
Multilingual co-star Monica Bellucci
dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film.
campaign by London based agency New Media Maze. The campaign included a viral video
and website selling bogus items ranging from bullet-proof stroller
s to riot helmets for infant
s. A video was released on YouTube
in which the company claimed to test the bullet-proof stroller by shooting at it with a submachine gun
while a baby was in it. The baby was then taken out of the stroller unharmed. It was all a hoax
, but the campaign was nevertheless taken seriously by global media and the blogging community. For instance, Sweden
's biggest evening tabloid Aftonbladet
had the story as its lead on their online edition for some time.
called the movie "violent and vile in equal measure," and "too stylistically audacious to dismiss outright." Hollywood Reporter was more equivocal in its review, saying "Anyone looking for subtlety, character development or layered plotting will be disappointed, but action fans will find plenty to amuse them with this film that makes Hard Boiled
look restrained," and that the film is "all very good and undeniably fun...." Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
praised the film (giving it three stars out of four) and called Shoot 'Em Up a "wet dream for action junkies [that] leaves out logic and motivation...." Taking the opposite view, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune
gave the film one out of four stars, decrying the film's "jolly cruelt[y]," and calling the film "cruddy and vile" and "witless", and A.O. Scott of the New York Times went even further, calling the film "a worthless piece of garbage." Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun Times highly praised the film and gave it 3.5 stars out of 4, explaining: "I may disapprove of a movie for going too far, and yet have a sneaky regard for a movie that goes much, much farther than merely too far."
As of January 13, 2010, the movie-review aggregating website RottenTomatoes lists Shoot 'Em Up with a "Tomatometer" rating of 67% ("fresh") based on 156 reviews, with an average critic's rating of 6.2/10. The "Top Critics" summary on that site gives the film a 57% ("rotten") rating based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10.
The film opened in fourth place for its first weekend, earning $5,716,139 from 2,711 theaters. The film has a total worldwide gross of $26,820,641.
and DVD
formats on New Year's Day
, January 1, 2008.
The HD DVD
version of the movie was scheduled to be released shortly after the Blu-ray version, but Warner Bros./New Line's decision to exclusively support Blu-ray has led to the cancellation of all New Line HD DVD titles (along with all Warner Bros. HD DVD
titles after May 2008). The Blu-ray version of Shoot 'Em Up was delayed one week in Canada.
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
action comedy film, starring Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
, Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
, and Monica Bellucci
Monica Bellucci
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
. The film was written and directed by Michael Davis
Michael Davis (director)
-External links:...
and produced by Susan Montford
Susan Montford
Susan Montford is a Scottish film director, screenwriter, and producer. She is related to the Scottish football commentator Arthur Montford.A film fan as a child, she studied at the Glasgow School of Art where she made short films including Hairpin and Strangers. Her work was shown at the 2000...
, Don Murphy
Don Murphy
Don Murphy is an American film producer who produced Natural Born Killers and many other films, including Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.-Personal background:...
and Rick Benattar. The film was released on September 7, 2007.
Plot
The film opens as a drifter, known as Smith (Clive Owen), sits at a bus stop eating a carrot and drinking coffee when a pregnant woman busy going into labor passes by. Shortly after, a hitman pursues her and attempts to kill her in a warehouse. Smith saves the woman, only to have another group of armed thugs attack. During the ensuing firefight, the woman gives birth to a baby boy (later named Oliver) and Smith confronts the leader of the assassins, Karl Hertz (Paul Giamatti), who praises him for his efforts and decides to "return the favor". Hertz escapes as more of his men arrive, and as Smith flees he finds the baby's mother has been killed. Taking the baby with him, Smith narrowly escapes the pursuing thugs. Hertz reminds Smith of his promise- "tit for tat" and leaves.The following day, Smith attempts to leave the baby in a local park, hoping someone will adopt the child. However, Hertz is watching, and shoots a woman who goes to retrieve the baby with a sniper rifle. Realizing the baby is a prime target, Smith takes Oliver to a brothel to leave him there with Donna, a lactating hooker (Monica Bellucci). She refuses to take the child, and Smith leaves. Hertz arrives at the brothel shortly after, and tortures Donna for information. Smith returns, and after defeating Hertz and his men in a fight, he escapes with Donna and the baby.
Smith and Donna begin investigating as to who wants to kill Oliver, after discovering a vital clue at a metal club and surviving yet another attempt on their lives by a group of well-armed attackers while having sex in their motel room. Smith begins to cripple the competition by causing a shootout in the Hammerson Gun Factory, which happens to be owned by Hertz's boss. After escaping and returning to Donna, Smith discovers that Senator Rutledge, who is dying of bone marrow cancer, has had a number of babies made from his DNA and intends to use them to survive the necessary surgery. Smith and one of Rutledge's men- Go-To-Guy- make a truce, and Smith is taken to meet with Rutledge on the senator's plane. Smith confronts Rutledge with his crimes and holds him hostage. Hertz and Hammerson arrive and reveal to him that because Rutledge was a strong backer of gun control, they killed the mothers and almost all of the babies to force Rutledge to make a deal with them. Smith makes his way down to a cargo deck on the aircraft, kills Senator Rutledge and parachutes out of the plane. A few of Hertz's men follow and Smith kills them in mid-air. Go-To-Guy appears and tries to kill Smith, but ends up being shredded to bits by an oncoming helicopter's main rotor blades. Later Smith lands to discover the remains of Hertz's men as well as dismembered limbs of Go-To-Guy. Smith wanders off into a building and ends up out cold.
Smith awakens to find Hertz holding him at gunpoint. In the comfort of Hammerson's mansion, Hertz begins to torture Smith by breaking his fingers to learn where Donna and Oliver are hiding, but Smith endures the pain. During the torture session, Hertz taunts Smith with knowledge of his past, hinting that he had once illegally sold a firearm that was later used to kill his own wife and son. As a last effort, Hertz intends to carve out Smith's eyes with a scalpel, but Smith manages to break free, killing Hammerson and numerous thugs but failing to kill Hertz. Seeing that Smith is incapable of using a firearm due to his broken fingers, Hertz laughs at his fruitless efforts and follows him into a library to finish him off. In the library he asks Smith if he was "dead on" about Smith's identity. Smith retorts by asking Hertz to repeat the last bit of the question. Hertz starts repeating his question but Smith stops him and only lets him say, "I said am I dead" and answers, "that part you got right." He severely wounds Hertz by putting his hand in an open fire revealing the bullets he had placed between his fingers. The heat causes the gunpowder to detonate, and the bullets are fired into Hertz's chest. Hertz, despite his wounds, is not dead. Struggling to his feet, he raises his gun, but Smith manages to shoot his gun first and kills Hertz.
Smith then boards a bus not knowing where Donna or Oliver are. At an ice-cream parlor Smith sits at a table and hears Donna's voice. Turning around he sees Oliver in a baby chair and passionately reunites with Donna. The film ends as a group of amateur robbers enter the parlor, and a disgusted Smith stops them.
Cast
- Clive OwenClive OwenClive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
as Mr. Smith - Paul GiamattiPaul GiamattiPaul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
as Karl Hertz - Monica BellucciMonica BellucciMonica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
as Donna "D.Q." Quintano - Stephen McHattieStephen McHattieStephen McHattie is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:McHattie was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia....
as Hammerson - Greg BrykGreg BrykGreggory Michael "Greg" Bryk is a Canadian film and television actor. He is best known for playing the role of Mallick in Saw V, Vickor Harris in the 2006 film Living Death, Commando #1 in The Incredible Hulk film, Lone Man in Shoot 'Em Up, Keith Rose in Poor Boy's Game, Abel in Weirdsville, Neil...
as Lone Man - Daniel PilonDaniel PilonDaniel Pilon is a Canadian-born actor, known for his role in Dallas as Naldo Marchetta. He has also appeared in daytime soap operas such as Ryan's Hope, Guiding Light and Days of our Lives....
as Senator Harry Rutledge - Sidney Mende-Gibson as Baby Oliver
- Lucas Mende-Gibson as Baby Oliver
- Kaylyn Yellowlees as Baby Oliver
- Ramona PringleRamona PringleRamona Pringle is a Canadian actress, digital journalist, television host and multiplatform media producer.Born in Toronto, she was named after the Ramones by her punk rock parents, Michaele Jordana and Douglas Pringle...
as Baby's Mother - Julian RichingsJulian RichingsJulian Richings is an English-born Canadian actor. He appeared in over 50 Canadian films and 20 separate television series.-Life and career:...
as Hertz's Driver - Jason ResoJason ResoWilliam Jason Reso is a Canadian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring names Christian and Christian Cage...
as Senator's Guard - Tony MunchTony MunchTony Munch is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles in Land of the Dead as Anchor and in the films Cube Zero, Shoot 'Em Up and .45.-Filmography:*Red Coat Justice as Cobb...
as Man Who Rides Shotgun
Production
When writer/director Michael Davis's original concept was passed on by movie studios, he put together a 17-minute reel of animated footage, consisting of 17,000 line drawings, in order to give studio heads an idea of how the action scenes would play out. This got the attention of New Line Cinema CEO, Bob Shaye, who approved the project and accepted Davis to direct. After signing Clive OwenClive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
and other actors, the film went into production in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario, Canada between February 13, 2006 and May 8, 2006.
The final robbery scene was shot at the Satellite Family Restaurant, a traditional diner in Mississauga, to the west of Toronto.
Though Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
initially reported a planned release during the holiday season of 2006, and initial previews occurred in September of that year, the film was eventually scheduled for release on September 7, 2007.
Audience response from a screening at 2007's San Diego Comic-Con was great, however.
Multilingual co-star Monica Bellucci
Monica Bellucci
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film.
"Bullet proof baby" and other marketing
Since July 2007, Shoot 'Em Up was publicized with a guerrilla marketingGuerrilla marketing
Guerrilla warfare is about waging small intermittent attacks on different territories of the opponent with the aim of harassing and demoralising the opponent and eventually securing permanent footholds....
campaign by London based agency New Media Maze. The campaign included a viral video
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
and website selling bogus items ranging from bullet-proof stroller
Baby transport
Baby transport consists of devices for transporting and carrying infants. A "child carrier" or "baby carrier" is a device used to carry an infant or small child on the body of an adult...
s to riot helmets for infant
Infant
A newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
s. A video was released on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
in which the company claimed to test the bullet-proof stroller by shooting at it with a submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
while a baby was in it. The baby was then taken out of the stroller unharmed. It was all a hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
, but the campaign was nevertheless taken seriously by global media and the blogging community. For instance, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
's biggest evening tabloid Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...
had the story as its lead on their online edition for some time.
Reception
Film critics' views on the film were sharply divided. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the movie "violent and vile in equal measure," and "too stylistically audacious to dismiss outright." Hollywood Reporter was more equivocal in its review, saying "Anyone looking for subtlety, character development or layered plotting will be disappointed, but action fans will find plenty to amuse them with this film that makes Hard Boiled
Hard Boiled
Hard Boiled is a 1992 Hong Kong action film directed by John Woo. The film stars Chow Yun-fat as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Tony, an undercover cop, and Anthony Wong as Johnny Wong, a leader of criminal triads. The film features Tequila, whose partner is killed in a tea...
look restrained," and that the film is "all very good and undeniably fun...." Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
praised the film (giving it three stars out of four) and called Shoot 'Em Up a "wet dream for action junkies [that] leaves out logic and motivation...." Taking the opposite view, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
gave the film one out of four stars, decrying the film's "jolly cruelt[y]," and calling the film "cruddy and vile" and "witless", and A.O. Scott of the New York Times went even further, calling the film "a worthless piece of garbage." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun Times highly praised the film and gave it 3.5 stars out of 4, explaining: "I may disapprove of a movie for going too far, and yet have a sneaky regard for a movie that goes much, much farther than merely too far."
As of January 13, 2010, the movie-review aggregating website RottenTomatoes lists Shoot 'Em Up with a "Tomatometer" rating of 67% ("fresh") based on 156 reviews, with an average critic's rating of 6.2/10. The "Top Critics" summary on that site gives the film a 57% ("rotten") rating based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10.
The film opened in fourth place for its first weekend, earning $5,716,139 from 2,711 theaters. The film has a total worldwide gross of $26,820,641.
Blu-ray & DVD release
The movie was released on high-definition Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
formats on New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
, January 1, 2008.
The HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
version of the movie was scheduled to be released shortly after the Blu-ray version, but Warner Bros./New Line's decision to exclusively support Blu-ray has led to the cancellation of all New Line HD DVD titles (along with all Warner Bros. HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
titles after May 2008). The Blu-ray version of Shoot 'Em Up was delayed one week in Canada.