'Shoot 'Em Up' starts new year off with a bang
Happy new year! Some new DVDs arrive on this first day of 2008, so let's take a look.
"Shoot 'Em Up" -- Just to give you a sense of what "Shoot 'Em Up" is, here are a few highlights from the first five minutes:
• Mr. Smith, the character played by Clive Owen, kills a man by shoving a carrot through his head.
• A few minutes later, Smith delivers a baby and cuts the baby's umbilical cord … by shooting through it with his gun.
• Shortly after that, Smith escapes from the bad guys, the newborn in his arms, by jumping from one rooftop to another. He punctuates his escape by shooting at the letters in a neon sign across the way until the remaining letters spell out an expletive.
OK, you should now have a pretty good idea whether this movie is your cup of tea. "Shoot 'Em Up" takes elements from past action movies -- John Woo and Quentin Tarantino are huge influences -- adds a large dose of ironic humor and then cranks up the speed until it all attains the frenetic pace of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The story is simple: Smith and DQ, Smith's hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold friend (played by Monica Bellucci), must protect the baby from rabid-dog assassin Mr. Hertz (heh heh), played with delicious gusto by Paul Giamatti. Hertz wants the baby dead because of its connection to a promising presidential candidate, but that hardly matters because the story here is just an excuse to string together a series of highly stylized action scenes, each one more over-the-top (and absurd) than the last. I found the movie to be entertaining, primarily because of the magnetic performances by Owen and Giamatti. Writer-director Michael Davis has a knack for staging kinetic action scenes, but his script isn't quite as funny as he thinks, which keeps "Shoot 'Em Up" from becoming a B-movie classic. The DVD comes with a Davis commentary and a better-than-average making-of featurette that includes the animated storyboards Davis created to pitch the film. (R; New Line, $27.98)
"The Tudors: The Complete First Season" -- Showtime's new drama about the reign of England's Henry VIII is packed with enough sex, betrayal and murder to interest even those whose eyes glaze over at the word "Renaissance." Jonathan Rhys Meyers (he was the weaselly main character in Woody Allen's excellent "Match Point") has earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of the lustful, egomaniacal monarch, and he is surrounded by a solid supporting cast that includes Sam Neill (as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey) and Jeremy Northam (as Sir Thomas More). The show looks fantastic, and while the tangled web of 16th-century allegiances and families can get confusing, the writers do a good job of keeping the show moving forward. "The Tudors" won't make anyone forget "The Sopranos," but this absorbing drama for adults survives the comparison. The four-disc DVD set includes all 10 first-season episodes and some featurettes about the production. (Paramount, $42.99)
Look ahead at 2008: It's a new year, which means new DVDs to look forward to! Here are a few of the titles coming up:
• Paramount will release the "Zodiac: Two-Disc Director's Cut" DVD ($36.99) next week. "Zodiac" was one of the best movies I saw in 2007, and I can't wait to dive into this feature-packed DVD.
• On Jan. 15, MGM unveils "She's Gotta Have It," the landmark 1986 debut from filmmaker Spike Lee, never before available on DVD.
• New Line releases "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" on Jan. 29. This documentary about rival "Donkey Kong" champions is funny, touching and suspenseful.
• It's been 25 years (yikes!) since "Tootsie" made everyone laugh at the movie theater. On Feb. 5, Sony will release an anniversary edition of this classic comedy.