Let's be real for a second. Most action movies try way too hard to be "gritty" or "grounded." They want you to believe that a retired super-soldier could actually take down an entire cartel with a pocket knife and a scowl. Then you have Shoot 'Em Up. Released in 2007 and directed by Michael Davis, this movie doesn't just jump the shark—it guns the engine, hits a ramp, and backflips over a dozen sharks while eating a carrot. It's a film that knows exactly what it is. A live-action Looney Tunes cartoon for adults.
If you haven’t seen it lately, you’re missing out on one of the most unapologetic pieces of cinema ever made. It’s loud. It’s crass. It’s basically 86 minutes of sustained gunfire.
Honestly, the plot is almost secondary to the mayhem. Clive Owen plays Mr. Smith, a man who sits at a bus stop, minds his own business, and then ends up delivering a baby in the middle of a gunfight. He uses the umbilical cord to trigger a pistol shot. Seriously. That happens in the first five minutes. From there, he teams up with a prostitute named DQ (Monica Bellucci) to protect the infant from a hitman played by Paul Giamatti, who seems to be having the most fun any human has ever had on a film set.
Why Shoot 'Em Up Failed at the Box Office but Won the Internet
When it hit theaters, it tanked. It made about $26 million against a $39 million budget. Critics didn't really know what to do with it. Was it a parody? A genuine action flick? A mistake?
The truth is it was ahead of its time. Before John Wick refined the "gun-fu" genre into a sleek, neon-drenched ballet, Shoot 'Em Up was doing it with a dirty, industrial aesthetic and a sense of humor that bordered on the deranged. It didn't care about realism. It cared about "cool." It’s the kind of movie where the protagonist jumps out of a cargo plane and engages in a mid-air shootout without a parachute for way longer than physics should allow.
📖 Related: Why American Beauty by the Grateful Dead is Still the Gold Standard of Americana
People call it a "guilty pleasure," but there’s no guilt involved. It’s pure craft. Michael Davis reportedly spent years hand-drawing thousands of storyboard frames to sell the vision to New Line Cinema. He wanted to recreate the energy of Hard Boiled but with a distinct American cynicism.
The carrot is the key. Smith eats carrots constantly. He kills people with carrots. It’s a recurring gag that stems from Davis’s love for Bugs Bunny. Smith is Bugs; Giamatti’s Hertz is Elmer Fudd. Once you see it through that lens, the movie stops being a "bad action movie" and becomes a brilliant piece of experimental slapstick.
The Giamatti Factor: A Villain for the Ages
We need to talk about Paul Giamatti. Usually, he’s the guy playing the neurotic intellectual or the downtrodden everyman. In Shoot 'Em Up, he is a foul-mouthed, family-oriented contract killer who pauses mid-massacre to take calls from his wife. It shouldn't work. It really shouldn't. But Giamatti leans into the absurdity with such vitriol that he becomes the perfect foil for Clive Owen’s stoic, carrot-chomping hero.
The dialogue is ridiculous. "My gun is bigger than yours," Hertz sneers. It’s all very 2000s, dripping with a sort of post-Matrix bravado that felt dated by 2010 but feels weirdly nostalgic now.
👉 See also: Why October London Make Me Wanna Is the Soul Revival We Actually Needed
The Action Choreography is Actually Genius
Don't let the silliness fool you. The stunt work and the way the scenes are blocked out are top-tier. Take the playground scene. Smith is trying to protect a baby while sliding down slides and navigating merry-go-rounds. The camera moves with a frantic energy that mirrors the kinetic nature of the script.
- The Bone Music: The soundtrack is a heavy metal fever dream.
- The Gunplay: Smith uses traps, strings, and sheer ingenuity to win fights when he's outnumbered fifty-to-one.
- The Baby: The kid is surprisingly chill for being in the middle of a war zone.
The "Realism" Debate and Why it Doesn't Matter
I've seen forum posts where people complain about the "physics" of the skydiving scene. To those people, I say: You're watching the wrong movie. Shoot 'Em Up is a film where the hero shoots the fingers off a guy by firing through the gaps in a staircase. It’s a film where the hero has sex with a woman while simultaneously killing a room full of assassins.
It’s an exercise in style over substance, but the style is the substance.
In a world of sanitized PG-13 superhero movies where the stakes feel lower than a basement floor, there's something refreshing about a hard-R action flick that just wants to show you something you've never seen before. It’s visceral. It’s greasy.
✨ Don't miss: How to Watch The Wolf and the Lion Without Getting Lost in the Wild
The Legacy of the Carrot
Looking back, this film was a turning point. It signaled the end of the "bullet time" era and the beginning of a more hyper-stylized, stunt-heavy period of action cinema. It paved the way for movies like Crank and Hardcore Henry.
It’s also one of the few movies that uses its protagonist's quirk—the carrot eating—as a functional plot device rather than just a personality trait. Smith needs the beta-carotene for his eyesight. He uses the vegetable as a weapon. It’s ridiculous, but it’s consistent.
The movie also handles its runtime perfectly. 86 minutes. That's it. No filler. No unnecessary subplots about the political state of the world or the protagonist's tragic backstory involving a lost dog. We know Smith is a good shot, he hates people who don't use turn signals, and he likes carrots. That's all the character development we need to enjoy the ride.
How to Appreciate Shoot 'Em Up Today
If you're going to revisit this or watch it for the first time, you have to turn off the "critic" brain. Stop looking for plot holes. Start looking at the framing. Notice how Michael Davis uses color—lots of grays and browns to make the muzzle flashes pop.
- Watch the storyboard comparisons. Many DVD and Blu-ray releases have the original sketches Davis used. They are almost identical to the finished film.
- Pay attention to the background. There are dozens of visual gags hidden in the signs and posters.
- Check out the "making of" segments. You'll see how much of the gunplay was done with practical rigs.
The next step is simple. Go find a copy on a streaming service or dust off that old DVD. Watch it on a Friday night with the volume turned up way too high. Don't look at your phone. Just let the absurdity wash over you. Once you're done, go back and look at the "Gun-Fu" scenes in modern cinema; you'll see the DNA of Shoot 'Em Up everywhere, from the tactical reloads to the environmental kills. It’s a masterclass in how to be "too much" in the best way possible.