In Shoot 'Em Up, Clive Owen plays a super cool gunman who teams up with a hooker with a heart of gold (Monica Belucci) to save an infant from the clutches of an assassin (Paul Giamatti). Critical consensus is that Shoot 'Em Up is another exercise in mind-numbing violence, but it looks pretty, with cinematography by Peter Pau, who worked with Ang Lee on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as John Woo, whose movies Shoot 'Em Up seeks to emulate.

Also opening:

• Children of Glory - The story of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and the "Blood in the Water match" at that year's Olympics, this was chosen as the opening film of the 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival after the French-Iranian animated feature (and now France's choice for the Academy Awards) Persepolis was dropped in a diplomatic scuffle. Scripted by none other than Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct), Children of Glory is flawed by a contrived romantic subplot, but the scenes of Soviet tanks blowing away protesters make the film resonate in post-coup Thailand. At the Scala in Siam Square with English and Thai subtitles.
• The Gig Number Two – Mono Film seeks to build a franchise with last year's teen comedy. Here, four new young men create a new set of rules in their bumbling efforts to wins the hearts of the ladies. Among the new crew is Benjamin "Min" Hotrabhavananda, the bespectacled nerdy guy from DTAC's "Happy" commercials. With English subtitles at some cinemas.
• Ghost Mother – Patcharapa Chaichua stars as a young woman who is murdered and comes back as a ghost to care for her nieces and nephews and take revenge on her killers. So, um, doesn't that make her a "Ghost Aunt"? Focus Jirakul from Fan Chan also stars. With English subtitles at some cinemas.
• Shindo – A 13-year-old female classical prodigy (Riko Narumi) wants only to play her late father’s old piano and is further distracted from her studies by a hunky 19-year-old aspiring musician (Kenichi Matsuyama). The story is based on a manga by Akira Saso. With English and Thai subtitles at the Siam.
• Rogue Assassin - After a sneak preview run last week, this new low-grade Jet Li-Jason Statham martial arts actioner gets a wider release at Major Cineplex, Paragon and the Esplanade.

And don't forget ...

• The Cherd Songsri Retrospective at Grand EGV Siam Discovery!