Trigger-happy send-up

“Violence is one of the most fun things to watch,” Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) gleefully declares in “Shoot ‘Em Up.”

Maybe — but that’s not why “Shoot ‘Em Up” is the most entertaining film of the year.

Sure, it’s a nearly nonstop rush of adrenaline that should please even the most jaded action junkie. But it’s also one of the most ingenious films of the year. It’s at once a sendup of a genre and a love letter to it, while also being a particularly exciting example of it. The genre-busting pic is so good at the sendup that it’s also one of the funniest of the year.

The film wastes no time in getting going. It opens with a close-up of the compelling visage of star Clive Owen, who can use his face better than just about any actor around. The gloomy image turns cartoonish as he chomps with gusto on a carrot as he sits at a bus stop.

A very pregnant woman runs past, with two bad guys in hot pursuit. Mr. Smith, as Mr. Owen’s character is called, is frustrated but realizes he has no choice: He has to save her. In fact, he ends up delivering her baby in the middle of a shootout.

Mr. Hertz is just as interested in killing the newborn as the mother. Mr. Smith, baby in tow, enlists the help of a reluctant DQ (played by Monica Bellucci), a prostitute whose specialty involves her lactating breasts.

Some critics claim that “Shoot ‘Em Up” is an action film without the pesky story and character development. That’s not true. It’s just that those elements are revealed during the action.

Mr. Smith is as mysterious as his name suggests, a squatter who names a baby after a Dickens book. But instead of seeing Mr. Hertz investigate, we discover his findings when he yells them out to his nemesis during a gunfight. Writer-director Michael Davis isn’t about to slow down the action, but he’s not about to make it nonsensical, either.

Cartoonish is another matter. In some creative casting, Mr. Hertz is played to the hilt by Mr. Giamatti, more used to portraying the underdog. Here, he’s one-part villain, two-parts Looney Tunes, especially his voice.

Italian actress Monica Bellucci is perfectly cast as the Madonna-whore figure, the kind of woman who turns a trick to buy the baby a bulletproof vest. (“Makes me wonder what you’ll do to get him in the right school,” Mr. Smith muses.)

(That baby is awfully good, too. The look on his face when Mr. Smith shows him how a gun works — “This is the business end.” — is priceless.)

This is Mr. Owen’s film, however: It’s hard to imagine it working without his deadpan wit and utter coolness.

Or without Mr. Davis’ attention to detail, from the grand vision of a shootout conducted in the air, without parachutes, to the sound of AC/DC to the MacGyver-like ingenuity of Mr. Smith to the small details that reveal character without the bludgeoning dialogue of most action flicks.

“Shoot ‘Em Up” is a lot like last year’s most entertaining film, “Casino Royale.” In poking fun at an old genre in the most clever way, both films make something tired new again.

*** 1/2

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