Shoot 'Em Up: Its not Crap. Its craptastic!

Like all scientific experiments, Shoot ‘Em Up sets out to answer a question. It wonders, "just how much fat can you trim from the average action movie?" Turns out the answer is quite a lot. This film, in which a man named Smith (Clive Owen) must save a baby from the clutches of the evil Hertz (Paul Giamatti) with the help of a lactating prostitute (Monica Bellucci), is a wonder of economy. The formula of the entire movie, liberally stolen from the Looney Tunes school of film, is set-up, action, one-liner, repeat. Each sequence, be it violent, sexy, or humorous is stripped to the barest of bones. Pages of dialogue are boiled down to a handful of syllables. The interesting thing that the genre loses nothing in this form, in fact Shoot ‘Em Up is one of the more interesting, if not entirely successful, action films of the year.
These are days of few surprises at the cineplex. By the time a movie hits theaters most of its surprises have been marketed, previewed, and hyped to death. By riding the line between earnestness and parody so precisely, Shot ‘Em Up has rendered itself almost unmarketable. THe previews in no way evoke its true character. This allows the viewer to have a rare experience, that of true cinematic dicombobulation. What the heck kind of movie is this? Am I supposed to laugh? What is the purpose of all of this?
I am almost positive that the film is a joke, and a finely crafted one. The action is not played for laughs but it rises above the line of absurdity just enough to be severely funny. The film also serves as a challenge to the makers of the bevy of B grade action flicks released recently (think of anything starring Jason Stratham and/or Jet Li) to have a bit of fun. Why not push the envelope in all directions at once? The fact that this hyperbole of a film stars A-list actors Owen and Giamatti doing their best B-movie acting is a real treat.

While the concept may be finely crafted, the actual film could use some work. Parts of the movie seem poorly shot and edited; some of the intricate action stuff is lost in odd angles and cuts. The overabundance of cheap digital effects reminds us that just because you can do something with a computer doesn’t mean you should. This film could have rivaled Run Lola Run in its skewering, celebrating, and reinventing the action genre. The technical shortcomings, however, only allow it to reach such heights in several brief, brilliant, spurts.