You all are crazy...this was not a good film (SPOILERS)...

Tjahh.

This movie is certaintly no oscar material. Too many plotholes as you stated

[deleted]

I agree, there are lots of loose ends in this movie. For me the biggest one was why does Lila just go and take her son when before that it seemed like there was some big secret reason why she didn't have him?
Also the movie was a little too unrealistic when it came to the kids just having to apologize to the old woman and to the state trooper telling Ray she won't have it too bad, just four months in prison.
I too thought the guy who shot at Ray wouldn't have stopped after one shot. After all, the car didn't even seem to be moving.
But all in all I think it was a good movie, not great, but pretty good in that it was original. We're so conditioned to having horrible things happen in movies, that I was sure some horrific thing would happen, ie. they'd crash through the ice in the car and all die. But luckily it all worked out. Maybe the theme is that life is better, more forgiving and less vicious than we think.
Or maybe the director just dropped the ball.
There was some character development, when Melissa Leo goes back and takes the rap and lets Lila go free, that showed that she had evolved emotionally.

This wasnt a flawless film by a long shot, but you are being overly harsh.

Head wounds bleed a lot and leave hair matted - cmon, he noticed. big deal.

I agree I had no idea what the cel phone scene was about, except maybe to show her trying to deal with her runaway husband.

Lila was young and without guidance. She didnt want to deal with glasses.
She grabbed her kid when she didnt feel like avoiding the topic anymore.
The kid was associated with the death of her husband, so it was unresolved.
She resolved it.

I didnt notice the director on the wall.

The shooting at the club was the most glaringly unrealistic. He was three feet
away from her and nicked her ear? I dont think so. She took a bullet in the
torso at best, and would've dropped and or died right there. A guy like that firing would have fired more times and killed her. He wouldn't have let any of the people in the car live, but whatever. It was a feel good picture, something hollywood has forgotten how to make.

This takes me to the ultimate value of the movie. It was about triumph over adversity, not jolly cruelty, as a reviewer described Shoot Em Up. It prob was shot in 24p video, that's why it looks kid of mushy. I had zero problem with the camera movement, and I notice shake. It wasnt glossy cinematography. That's what lent it an air of authenticity, like a documentary.

A couple of the natives weren't the greatest actors, but they played their parts, and Lila was good. Leo as Ray was totally convincing. They showed her in a bra on occasion to stress that this woman was once attractive and young, and now she's struggling as a mom. This movie didn't claim to be the SI swimsuit edition.

The 15-year-old son was good as well. Natives MIGHT deal out this kind of justice, although I agree that a credit agency might've thrown him in juvie for this, DEPENDING on whether the woman pressed charges. His racism was clearly not as deeply held as some people's, therefore it was a not a big deal for him to give it up.

This movie had some holes, but the lead performance was great, not average, and
it was far more interesting than MaxBatPayneMan - I cant keep these yawn-inducing action pictures straight anymore. This film had suspense and surprises, and a good resolution, and it did it at a fraction of the cost of a spectacular.
At no point was I gagging at the dialogue like in Australia...

Yes this was not even close to a good movie!

I laughed my ass off when she tried to drive home with two cars...

LOL at the rating, you sure got me fooled!

Wow, I agree with the other poster than you need too much spelled out for you. I'll address some of them.

Why does she have a cell phone and a landline phone? She can’t afford to feed her family or pay her TV rental bill but she has two phone lines?! Why does this character need a cell phone

So you don't approve of Ray's spending decisions, and this is a criticism of the movie? What, it's not a good movie unless you approve of everything the characters say and do? Like people you meet in real life, Ray does things I don't agree with. Movies like this don't present an idealized version of life.

And I'm betting you're a male to have to ask why a woman needs a cell phone. Basic safety in case we break down, at the very least.

Did I miss some closure on the husband story? What happens if he comes back and sees a Mohawk woman living in his home?

Did you miss Ray tell her son that she doesn't think he's coming back? You really think a man who has run off with all the family savings is going to come back? The situation is resolved for both women at this point in time. Ray made a decision based on a realistic assessment of the situation, not based on a very unlikely scenario that he comes back. If he were to come back, that would be some point in the future, out of the scope of this movie. You need everything tied up in a bow, apparently.

Did Ray change by the end of the film? Her son kept bugging her that she’s the reason his dad keeps running off...that she doesn’t treat him well. I didn’t notice anything that showed that if they were together again that she wouldn’t try to shoot his foot again.

Well, since he's likely not coming back, that's not an issue. And certainly her character went through an arc during this movie. You think at the beginning of the movie, she would have turned herself in so Lila could stay out of jail and get her son back? You're right, she may not have changed in terms of how she relates to men, or her husband in particular, but so what? If she didn't change in this particular way, you think that's a weakness of the film? That's just silly. Depicting someone realistically is not a film weakness; it is a strength.

How did the trooper know that the fire damage was recent? It wasn’t enough damage to normally catch someone’s eye.

Yes, it was enough damage to catch someone's eye. As Ray yells at her son, they can't live there any more, that's how extensive it was. The trooper doesn't know it was recent (unless he smelled the burn smell as Ray did), but the movie just shows him noticing it, not whether he knows that it's recent.

Why was there no struggle between the mother and the sister-in-law when she went to get the kid?

I thought it was mother-in-law, by the way. She blames Lila for her son's death, so she stole her grandson from the hospital. I think it can be explained that Lila is going straight, and will be living in a real home with Ray's sons, so now she feels she has a valid claim on her son. It could be the MIL sensed that determination, and she knows the Lila legally is in the right. Lila just never really tried before.

Where was the character development? Ray works two years at a store, lies about how well she does there, has two kids and a husband who leaves her all the time. She once shot him. She buys from a rent to own. She ordered a new double-wide. She's been to a tattoo parlor. That is all the back-story on Ray and it's all crap. She has no other friends or family...she has no hobbies or interests...she doesn’t drink or do drugs that we know of.

That wasn't enough character development for you? I felt I had a pretty detailed feel for her character and her environment. So we had to see friends or family, or her doing drugs in order for you to feel there was character development? And LOL at the complaint that she has no interests or hobbies -- you really think that a woman who is so desperately scraping by she has to feed her kids Tang and popcorn, has the time or money to spend on interests or hobbies? For people like this, it's all about just surviving. That was one of the points of this movie, to show a slice of society most of us never see, and you totally didn't get it.

Why isn’t Lila scared of the crazy white woman shooting at her home? She seems pretty calm for a woman who was being shot at.

Lila was acting tough. It's part of surviving in a tough world, to not show you're scared.

What was the point of the scene where the Trooper buys things at her store?

Wow, you really do need everything spelled out. Didn't you notice how nervous Ray was at seeing him? Most people involved in illegal activities tend to be nervous when in the presence of a police officer. It showed the toll the smuggling was taking on her.


You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

Ray works two years at a store, lies about how well she does there

Another thing you misunderstood. Ray lied about nothing. She said that when she was hired at the Yankee Dollar the manager told her she could get full-time in 2 years, so it was time. That's no lie (on her part); that was what she was told. The manager has been stringing her along and we see he has no intention of promoting her. HE is the one who lied. He knows Ray has no alternatives in this small town, so he has no incentive to make her full-time.

You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

Wow. I would point out the OP's obvious mental instabilities, but... anyone who made this far is obviously well aware of them by now.