Why Shoot ‘Em Up Is One Of The Most Misunderstood Action Movies Ever Made

This is a scene so stupidly awesome, that Drive Angry had to recreate it with Nic “NOT THE BEES” Cage. Again, if you watched this scene, shaking your head at how unrealistic and silly Shoot ‘Em Up was and how, and I quote you now in a nerd voice “There is no way he could successfully manage to stay inside her and accurately shoot all of those bad guys,” than you missed the entire point of this movie and this scene.

It is poking fun at the idea of the  action movies that used to get in the 80’s, which featured one man, taking out whole third world countries without any help, and barely ever showing any emotion or breaking a sweat. That is what Shoot ‘Em Up is: An homage the the cartoons you loved as a child, mashed up with the action movies you grew up with. Do you see how magical that is? It is like a gift from the movie heavens, and yet, people scoff at it.

And one last thing I want to praise about this movie is EVERYTHING about the Paul Giamatti character, Hertz. He is the kind of bad guy who foams at the mouth, seemingly ready to bite a baby’s head off at any point. EXCEPT when his wife calls, at which point you can hear that he is just an emasculated house husband who lives under the reign of a domineering and (presumably fat) wife.

It is hilarious the way they play that dichotomy, right up the end of the movie, when he finally has a moment of, what we shall call clarity. He is the bad guy you love to hate, but he plays the character with such gusto and has so much fun doing it that it has me really excited to see what Giamatti will do as Rhino in the new Spidey flick.

So, if you are watching Shoot ‘Em Up, thinking you are watching an action film in the realest sense of the word, you are setting yourself up not to like this movie. But if you are sitting down, having grown up on Bugs Bunny cartoons and amazing, slow-motion shootouts from John Woo movies (with a liberal dose of video game action tossed in between), than you will love Shoot ‘Em Up for just what it is: The live-action cartoon you always wanted, but almost overlooked when you finally got it.