Shoot 'Em Up possesses the characteristics that earn cult followings - and logic is not one of them. But that's okay, because logic need not apply.
Is Shoot ‘Em Up an action thriller or a satire on action thrillers? Good question. The answer is not that difficult to discern, but in truth it’s not an easy answer either. To date, that farcical line between spoofing a genre at the same time as making a good version of it has been perfectly walked only by the canonical send-up: This is Spinal Tap.
So, Shoot 'Em Up is either the worst movie since Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever or one of the smartest films in recent memory.
Plot Summary
The plot is almost irrelevant. The film doesn’t even take itself seriously enough to come up with a logical plot. But that’s okay – this is, after all, a spoof. Its primary satiric objects are Die Hard, Rambo, and Schwarzenegger movies. The spoof is loving, as it should be (mean satires are rarely funny, unless they are either creative or have something to say, like the South Park movie), fully dousing itself in the trademarks of action thrillers.
Clive Owen (playing a mysterious named Smith) is the hero, an unwilling one initially. He spits comic relief after every action sequence, trading barbs with the believably villainous Paul Giamatti. He is thrust into a situation where he must protect a newborn baby from Giamatti, who wishes to kill it in order to – well, the clichéd twist will have to remain hidden. Along the way, Owen adds a lactic prostitute, Donna (played by Monica Bellucci – hey, somebody’s got to handle the breastfeeding), to his gang, producing a neurotic, only-in-the-movies type family. The plot becomes crazier as the movie goes on, mirroring the repetitious action sequences. There’s something of a superhuman MacGyver in Owen’s character, as he manages to overcome entanglements cleverly and with his dry sense of humor intact. And to complete it all, the film ends as ridiculously as it begins, with yet another over-the-top, completely unnecessary shootout – but since it’s a spoof, this ending is actually somewhat clever.
Analysis
After watching the movie, one may be either bewildered, in hysterics – or both. It has something in it that reminds one of Andy Kaufman, the now-mythic comedian (Saturday Night Live and Taxi). Kaufman's stand-up was a mix of absurdist anti-humor (no traditional jokes with punchlines) and audience confrontation; he created characters and did things onstage which some found to be frenetic genius, while others labeled it the work of a man teetering on the edge of sanity. But the truest genius of Kaufman was that it was never clear which opinion about his act was right. In so doing, he never compromised the integrity of his profession; he treated the stand-up comedy role as if the fourth wall remained unbroken.
So follows Shoot 'Em Up. It is a smart film that knows how bad it is and plays up its badness for effect. It works, and it's funny. While there will be more than a few times that a viewer will shake his head and say they went too far, for the most part it is involving. But the best part is that it treats the audience member as he has a brain: there are no winks at the camera, no moment of snide self-awareness (a fault of the second half of Thank You For Smoking).
Conclusion
The actors are good enough not to take their roles seriously by portraying them in a manner not unlike in Sin City (Clive Owen is saving a lot of prostitutes and/or babies lately), just without the logical plot. The only fault in this film, really, is Michael Davis' action sequences. Like a joke that you let sink in too long while milking it for a second, more sublime laugh, you become a little restless during all the carnage. Despite being only 80 minutes long, Shoot 'Em Up should only be 70, maybe 75. But, for the most part, it's pure campy fun – whether it knows it or not.
Rating: 4 out of 5
