Shoot 'em Up

When a man, only known as Smith (Owen), stumbles into a gunfight in which an innocent, pregnant woman is delivering her baby amongst the bullets, he steps in to help her. The woman dies in childbirth, leaving Smith to care for the orphaned child. He assumes the killers are after the woman, but soon discovers it is the newborn baby they want. Smith turns to a stunning prostitute (Bellucci), to foster the baby while he tries to discover why the child is a target by the gun-toting bad guys. If Smith can't uncover the truth to protect the baby, he is content to Shoot 'Em Up until all the thugs are dead. (Stacey Pendry)

Special features include up-front previews, commentary by Writer/Director Michael Davis, nine deleted/alternate scenes, a making-of featurette entitled Ballet Of Bullets—Making Shoot 'Em Up (53 minutes), Animatics—the animated action scenes of the movie (22 minutes), three original trailers for this film, and additional previews. In addition, the Blu-ray Disc includes enhanced visual commentary for Profile 1.1 players.

The stylized, anamorphically enhanced 2.32:1 DVD exhibits a generally pleasing picture, with a gritty, hot appearance that matches the storytelling well. Black levels are deep and consistent, and shadow delineation is nicely rendered. Contrast is slightly overblown to give the picture an even edgier appearance. Colors are generally nicely saturated, but the palette is dominated by greens, browns, and golds. A fine film grain can be recognized throughout, but it isn't completely overpowering. Edge enhancement is rarely recognizable. The Blu-ray Disc's VC-1-encoded picture looks sharp and detailed, with good resolution and impressive shadow delineation. The picture can look highly dimensional at times. Black levels are solid, and the few vibrant colors there are look impressive. Many of the DVD's qualities transfer to the BD as well, including the somewhat overblown contrast and fine film grain. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital Surround EX™ 5.1-channel and DTS® ES™ 6.1-channel encodings feature very good fidelity with full-sounding dialogue and crisp effects. Music fidelity is also pristine, with a good front-stage mix that sounds broad and deep. Surround envelopment is nicely balanced, and the inclusion of the center surround channel improves imaging in the rear stage, but only slightly. The center surround channel is not incorporated incredibly often and can be at levels too low to even realize it is employed. The DTS encoding provides a noticeable improvement in overall fidelity, with tighter bass and more intelligible midrange. We still do not have the capability to decode the lossless portion of the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1-channel encoding, but the core DTS stream sounds fantastic, even better refined than the DVD's DTS encoding. Bass is tight and detailed, and fidelity is pristine. The mix is very energetic, which will help keep viewers on the edge of their seats. (Danny Richelieu)