Monica Bellucci Shoot 'Em Up

Shoot 'Em Up

Shoot 'Em Up is a 2007 action 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.

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 manages to save her, but another bunch of assailants arrive on the scene and a shootout ensues. Showing no fear, Smith picks up a gun and proves that his weapon skills are second to none. During the conflict, the lady 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". While trying to escape having failed to subdue Hertz, the baby's mother is shot dead, which leads Smith to grab the boy and evade his would-be captors. Hertz intends to get him soon enough.

A while later Smith again saves Oliver from an assassination attempt in a public park, after trying to leave him there in hopes of someone taking the infant to be put up for adoption. However, Hertz shows up with a sniper rifle and kills the woman attempting to retrieve the baby. Realizing the baby is a prime target Smith takes Oliver to a brothel to leave him there with Donna, a lactating hooker (Monica Bellucci), but to no avail. Hertz arrives at the brothel a short while later and sadistically tortures her for information with the use of his gun. Smith intervenes and shoots him in the chest.

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 assassination attempt on their lives by a group of military foot soldiers while having sex in their motel room. Smith begins to cripple the competition by causing a shootout in the Hammerson Gun Factory, who just so happens to be Hertz's boss. After escaping and returning to Donna, Smith discovers that Senator Rutledge, who is dying of bone marrow cancer and who also needs Oliver's bone marrow in hope of a donor can provide him with the necessary answer. While flying with Rutledge on a government plane, Smith uncovers Rutledge's perjury and holds him hostage. Hertz and Hammerson arrive and reveal to him that because Rutledge strongly supported gun control and as means of blackmail they killed the surrogate mothers so that Rutledge could negotiate a deal with them by dropping his defense in exchange for a living donor. With caution Smith moves through the fuselage of the aircraft, shoots Rutledge in the head and jumps off with the aid of a parachute. 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.

Smith awakens to find Hertz holding him at gunpoint and captures him. 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. As a last effort, Hertz intends to carve out Smith's eyes with a scalpel, but Smith takes advantage of the situation and kills Hertz's men and Hammerson while defending himself. 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 who 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 I am 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 bullets to detonate and lodge themselves in Hertz's chest. Hertz, despite his wounds is not dead, he struggles to his feet and raises his gun, Smith manages to shoot his gun first and kills Hertz.

Smith then boards a bus not knowing where both Donna and Oliver are. At an ice-cream parlour 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 robbers enter the store and a disgusted Smith stops them.

Cast

• Clive Owen as Mr. Smith
• Paul Giamatti as Karl Hertz
• Monica Bellucci as Donna "D.Q." Quintano
• Stephen McHattie as Hammerson
• Greg Bryk as Lone Man
• Daniel Pilon as Senator Harry Rutledge
• Sidney Mende-Gibson as Baby Oliver
• Lucas Mende-Gibson as Baby Oliver
• Kaylyn Yellowlees as Baby Oliver
• Ramona Pringle as Baby's Mother
• Julian Richings as Hertz's Driver
• Jason Reso as Senator's Guard
• Tony Munch 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 Owen 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.

"Bullet proof baby" and other marketing

Since July 2007, Shoot 'Em Up was publicized with a guerrilla marketing campaign by London based agency New Media Maze. The campaign included a viral video and websit selling bogus items ranging from bullet-proof strollers to riot helmets for infants. 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.

Reception

Film critics' views on the film were sharply divided. Variety 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...."^[15] 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",^[17] and A.O. Scott of the New York Times went even further, calling the film "a worthless piece of garbage."^[18] 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

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