Film

Shoot 'Em Up

Clive Owen delivers a baby mid-gunfight and then spends the rest of the film shooting people while holding it, using a carrot as a smoke and a prop, in a movie that treats gun violence as pure slapstick. It's gleefully, defiantly stupid — a live-action Looney Tunes short stretched to feature length with real ammunition. Great for anyone who wants their action movie to wink at them constantly rather than take itself seriously for even one scene.

TMDb rating6.5

If you liked this

Crank2006

Same year, same appetite for absurd, breathless, rule-breaking action delivered with a straight face and a total disregard for plausibility. If Shoot 'Em Up's tone clicked with you, this is its hyperactive cousin.

But Even more relentless and even less interested in coherence — it makes Shoot 'Em Up look restrained by comparison.

Crank poster

Smokin' Aces2006no page yet

A pile-up of hitmen, gimmicks and gore played almost entirely for dark comic value, with the same love of overcooked action-movie machismo undercutting itself.

But The ensemble cast is stuffed with subplots that never quite pay off; less focused than Shoot 'Em Up's single-idea sprint.

Wanted2008no page yet

Curving bullets, assassin mythology and gonzo set pieces treated with the same cheerful disregard for physics — this is action cinema as pure comic-book fantasy.

But Takes itself more seriously than Shoot 'Em Up, which makes its silliest ideas land a little more awkwardly.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hard Boiled1992

This is the direct source: John Woo's balletic hospital gunfight with a baby in the crossfire is the scene Shoot 'Em Up openly steals and cranks up to parody.

Chow Yun-fat's cop battles gunmen through a hospital while cradling a newborn — the actual scene Shoot 'Em Up is riffing on, choreographed with a grace this film never bothers to match.

But Subtitled, fifteen years older, and far more sincere about honour and sacrifice than the film it inspired.

Hard Boiled poster
More like this (8)

John Wick2014

If you loved the choreography more than the jokes, this is the gunplay taken deadly seriously — balletic, meticulous, and stylish rather than comic.

But Almost entirely humourless by comparison; the fun here comes from craft and mood, not one-liners and slapstick.

John Wick poster

Hardcore Henry2015no page yet

An entire feature shot first-person, all velocity and mayhem, chasing the same adrenaline-first, plot-second philosophy at an even more extreme pitch.

But The first-person gimmick can induce actual motion sickness, and the story is thinner than Shoot 'Em Up's.

Nobody2021

A mild-mannered nobody turns into an unstoppable killing machine, played with the same wink-to-camera absurdity and love of ridiculous overkill.

But Slower to get going — it spends real time on suburban-dad setup before the carnage arrives.

Nobody poster

Bullet Train2022no page yet

A garish, hyperkinetic ensemble comedy-thriller where assassins bicker and shoot each other in absurd, brightly lit set pieces — pure candy-colored mayhem.

But Overstuffed with characters and quips; some found it exhausting rather than exhilarating.

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015

Ultraviolence played for laughs, with a gleeful, cartoonish approach to bloodshed and a hero who never stops being charming while doing terrible things.

But Its irony can curdle into smugness, and the tone shifts more wildly than Shoot 'Em Up's consistent goofiness.

Kingsman: The Secret Service poster

Deadpool2016

Constant fourth-wall-breaking, gore played as punchline, and a hero who treats mass violence as an opportunity for one-liners — kindred spirits in tone.

But Leans harder into meta-comedy and superhero parody than straight action; the humour is more verbal than visual.

Deadpool poster

Children of Men2006

Released the same year, it takes the identical core image — a baby as the last fragile thing worth fighting for amid chaos — and plays it entirely straight.

The same premise — protect mother and newborn through a world of gunfire and collapse — rendered as a bleak, urgent, almost unbearably tense drama about hope in a dying society.

But Grim, slow-building and genuinely upsetting in places; there is no joke waiting to release the tension.

Children of Men poster

Fargo2014

Both find comedy inside extreme violence, but Fargo stretches that tightrope walk across ten hours of small-town crime rather than eighty-six minutes of pure spectacle.

A miniseries built on the same Coen-adjacent instinct that sudden brutal violence and dry comedy can share a scene without cancelling each other out.

But Much slower and more character-driven; the violence is sparse and shocking rather than constant and cartoonish.

Fargo poster

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Recommended by

Deadpool, Deadpool 2, Crank, Crank: High Voltage