Shoot 'Em Up (2007, Michael Davis)

This film has gotten a lot of comparisons to last year's Crank and I can see why. I feel that this is because both films are aware of how ridiculously awesome and over the top they are and they are just meant to be fun and enjoyable with no attempts at being anything else . The interesting thing is that I had the same experience with both films. I wanted to love them and enjoy the hell out of them but i just couldn't. I could enjoy bits and pieces but most of the time I was cringing.

There is just something that turns me off about a film that is so self consciously tongue in cheek that it's supposed to be clever and hilarious. After about the 5th one liner that Clive Owen or Giamatti say after an action scene I just started to be annoyed by the film. When the film tries so hard to be over the top, ridiculous, and wild, I just got disconnected with the film instead of buying into it and having fun with it. I am all for the type of film it is trying to be but the execution of it all is just so force fed that it just kills any fun at all. Plus, the heavy metal music/hard rock music that plays during every.single.fucking.time. is just too much for me. I get that it's trying to be badass, but c'mon already. This plus the constant one liners, the hundreds of edits, and the forced witty dialogue between the characters just ruined any fun I was having. It just tries way too hard.

I will say that the film does have it's moments. There are certain parts during most of the action scenes that are undeniably cool and fun. It's just everything that surrounds these moments that that ruin these spurts of coolness. The other main thing which sold the film for me was Owen being cool as always and Giamatti having a ton of fun as being a teeth grinding, over the top, evil baddie.

I can see and understand why someone would dig the hell out of Shoot 'Em Up but it was just too forced for me (like Crank). The only thing I felt the film was missing were a couple of negative shots in order for the film to achieve every single thing that annoys me about these films that are trying too hard to be cool,fun,badass,clever, and tongue in cheek, but end up just being annoying and mostly cringe worthy.

- **
Sidenote: While going through the directors credits on IMDB I was very,very,very suprised that he is the genius behind the sci fi original movie - Monster Man. This is a film that I saw a couple of months ago because a friend recommended it to me. It is the definition of "So bad its bad but still hilarious". This film is seriously about a mutant monster that drives a monster truck (which growls by the way) and just chases people around with it. I am surprised that the guy went from that beyond horrible film to making this film with some top notch actors. Anyways...I thought that was interesting.