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September 17, 2007

Under the Peg - Big Guns, Hot Babes and Heavy Metal!

by Peg-Eye Nate

The movie starts with a man sitting at a bus stop. He's just your average bum by the look of things. He's munching on a carrot when an obviously pregnant woman stumbles onto the scene, screaming in terror and panting with exhaustion. The man doesn't pay her much attention, and then a car squeals into another car. The driver chases after the woman, shouting his intent to kill her and pausing only long enough to deliver the standard, "What the f*** are you looking at?" to the man. The man wrestles with himself for a few seconds before throwing his soup away in frustration. He walks in on the thug threatening the woman, and kills the man by jamming the remains of his carrot through the back of the thug's throat, adding the remark, "Eat your vegetables." In the first five minutes of the film, we have determined the main character is inventive, a bit of a sucker for ladies in trouble, a total badass, and a wisecracker. So much for the character development: on to the gore and spurting blood!

The movie is Shoot 'Em Up, the man is Smith (Clive Owen), and this is going to be fun! Smith's goal in the movie is to protect the pregnant woman's baby from the army of hired guns sent to kill it. Shouldn't be too hard: he's a crack shot, has lightning reflexes, and is nothing if not cunning. If the Punisher and MacGyver had an illegitimate love child, that child would be Mr. Smith.

There is a balancing act involved in the creation of cinema. If the characters are too ruthless, they loose the audience's sympathy, but if they're too sympathetic, they loose an element of believability and people lose interest. With that in mind, I am prepared to give the movie's main characters the Goldilocks Seal of Approval. There's just enough character development to keep people caring about the characters, and there's no such thing as too much action in my opinion, but the still manage to stay below the threshold some would consider overboard. Still, I must issue the following Peg-Eye Nate Warning

This film is not suitable for children, overly-sophisticated adults, anyone squeamish, pacifists, art critics, or horse thieves.

Overview: There's a shoot-out every ten minutes, gratuitous nudity, and no-holds-barred language; What's not to like?
Score: Ten pegs out of Ten.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary's Thoughts, Mark My Words, DeMediacratic Nation, Big Dog's Weblog, Right Truth, DragonLady's World, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, Wake Up America, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Tracked on September 18, 2007 1:33 AM

Comments

He sounds a bit like Repairman Jack, without all the hesitancy.

"Ma'am, you made me kill a man with my lunch. I expect a sandwich in compensation."


Posted by: Tom the Pooklekufr at September 17, 2007 7:10 PM

Sounds like fun. I gave up cussing and don't watch it anymore, but I'm not a prude. When and if you're ever ready, you will do it too. lol.

I love action movies. Especially John Wayne. You may want to watch one or two of his, and then let me know which is better. Today's movies or back then. (They didn't cuss. ;) )


Posted by: Rosemary Author Profile Page at September 18, 2007 12:55 AM

I won't be seeing this one, because the premise is about the most vile thing I've ever heard.

There's a corrupt senator which keeps a stable of pregnant women around so he can harvest the babies' bone marrow to cure a disease, and he's not the villain. The villain is the Gun Lobby, headed by Paul Giamatti, who is determined to make sure the corrupt, baby-eating senator doesn't survive to win the White House by killing the baby he needs to cure his disease.

So let me get this straight; you made a movie called "Shoot 'Em Up" that glorifies violence and your message is... gun control is a good thing?

If the baby killing wasn't bad enough, the hypocrisy would keep me away from it.

Thanks, but no thanks.


Posted by: Greg at September 18, 2007 7:26 AM

Oops. I just reread a review of the movie that I apparently misunderstood.

The baby-eating senator is the villain, but he's in cahoots with the gun-lobby.

So it's worse than I thought.


Posted by: Greg at September 18, 2007 7:44 AM

I think the gun control sub-plot was put there just to make the reviewers happy. A more real moment is when Smith teaches Baby Oliver the different parts of a gun and how the safety works.


Posted by: Bruce the Human Pet at September 18, 2007 12:38 PM

You merely had to insert gratuitous nudity in the beginning of your article and it would have been enough for me to go see the movie.


Posted by: bernie at September 20, 2007 3:51 PM

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