Shoot 'Em Up

Running Time: 90 minutes MPAA rating: R

King Features Y'know, there just aren't enough movies featuring babies used as bone-marrow farms, a lactating Italian prostitute, guncontrol laws and a mysterious anti-hero who can dispatch an adversary by ramming a carrot through the back of his enemy's skull.

Thankfully, "Shoot 'Em Up" covers all those bases - and more. As an action flick, its style would've fit in well in this year's "Grindhouse" double-feature.

The action is fast and furious, and the pace never lets up. Each sequence is well edited and photographed, with a limited amount of that Shaky-Cam effect that seems to invade most movies in this genre nowadays.

The film stars Clive Owen as Smith, a man with a mysterious past, who is sitting on a bench at the beginning of the film when a pregnant woman runs past him, followed by a gang of armed thugs. Smith goes after the woman, and while blasting away at the armed thugs trying to kill the woman, he delivers her baby (shooting off the umbilical cord, for good measure). The baby lives, but Mama gets a bullet in her beezer and dies.

Smith takes the baby to Donna (Monica Bellucci), a lactating hooker, for safekeeping while he tries to discover the identity of the dead mother.

On Smith's (and Donna's and the baby's) trail is Hertz (Paul Giamatti), a wisecracking homicidal maniac who wants the baby dead. Smith's mission now is to find out who Hertz is working for. The trail leads Smith into a conspiracy involving a presidential candidate, an arms dealer and an underground baby mill, where newborns' bone marrow are harvested.

As I said earlier, "Shoot 'Em Up" is loaded with great action. Its major flaw is the lousy dialogue, courtesy of director Michael Davis. Davis has a great visual style, but he's no Tarantino when it comes to writing snappy dialogue.

Still, I recommend "Shoot 'Em Up" - but as either a matinee or a rental. ¦

(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.