Shoot Em’ Up (2007)
To list the various bits of mayhem that occassionally occur in Shoot ‘Em Up is to imply a much crazier and more subversive film than director Michael Davis actually made. I normally find it bad form to work other critics’ opinions into a film post, but I can’t help it here. Why all the buzz for such a forgettable bit of bargain basement pulp? Why the great cast? As a film, Shoot ’Em Up at least sports an engagingly sleazy Paul Giamatti performance and a few bits of just okay gunplay. As a script I would imagine it to be barely readable, self-congratulatory trash.
It’s the self satisfaction that sinks Shoot ’Em Up (starting right up front with that obnoxious title), nothing is less cool than trying to be cool, and sadly, this contaminates the usually reliable Clive Owen as well, though, to be fair, I can’t imagine any other actor acquiting himself better. I generally dislike this sort of post-modern thing anyway, but it helps if your self-aware action satire is actually funny, or exciting, or sporting an observation of the genre that hasn’t become just as tired as the genre in question. Shoot ‘Em Up is rife with lame one liners, and the action, with the exception of a few bits of tongue and cheekiness, is redundant and lifeless.
And honestly, if you want tongue in cheek that actually bothers to tell an engaging story, re-watch Evil Dead or, more recently and more genre appropriate, the infinitely superior Hot Fuzz. Let the snobs who are too pretentious to admit they want a real action movie have this one, they deserve it.
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