It sounds unlikely and it may have been a fluke but this is what the film does and it is really good. Amazingly it does this by being so overblown and ludicrous that it actually takes the p1ss from the genre in a way that is fun to watch (and also allows those with intellectual aspirations to enjoy the violence while also distancing themselves from it). However what makes the film worth seeing is that it also appeals to those of us that like action but won't watch any old rubbish. It revels in violence and gun play, with the gun even forming a marriage band of sorts at one point. No doubt it appeals to them because this is a film where the action is constant and even the sex scenes with gorgeous women turn into a gunfight where the phallic nature of the gun could not be made more obvious unless it had a pair of grenades taped either side of the barrel. Mostly obviously it will appeal to those who just love to see things explode, people die and guns look cool. By doing this the film hits two audience sectors. However at the same time it never takes itself seriously a fact proved by just how bad some of the gimmicks (the carrots) and dialogue is as well as just how overblown the action is. Instead of worrying about character and plotting and other things that most action films at least try to have, this just goes all out in a ballet of violence and guns that is about as close to action film pornography as I think I have ever seen. You see the film actually works on two very important levels which I think probably explains why it is generally well regarded on this site despite it being, well, nonsense.
OK, so now that we have agreed that, what we shall disagree on is just how important that is in regards the enjoyment of this film.
Not "silly" or "lacking logic" but just out and out nonsense. Let's get one thing out of the way here from the very start because I think it is one thing that all viewers can agree on whether you liked this film or not it is utter nonsense. Turning to a lactating prostitute for help, Smith remains a target for an increasing number of killers under the instruction of violent family man and contractor Hertz. He flees with the infant but finds that the target is none other than the baby itself. He defends her honour and, in the ensuing gun battle, he delivers her child just before she is shot. Smith is minding his own business when he sees a heavily pregnant woman being pursued by an armed man. In short this film is everything Crank would dearly have loved to have been, and then some. Hell, the film even manages to deliver an ironic anti-gun message whilst all the bullets are flying and people are dying. This wild, anything goes approach could be compared to the previous year's Crank, but unlike that film, which was crippled by unlikeable characters, unnecessary vulgarity and a glut of irritatingly showy editing tricks, Shoot 'Em' up remains a classy and often clever piece of film-making despite its highly preposterous plot: Davis's effective direction is cool and slick without resorting to migraine inducing visual gimmickry stars Owen and Bellucci effortlessly ooze sex appeal and charisma, whilst Paul Giamatti, as ultra-vicious killer Hertz, is utterly loathsome there are some inspired visual gags for the eagle-eyed and the never-ending gun-play is both brilliantly inventive and absolutely blistering. Given the choice, I prefer my action films to be as brutally realistic as possible, but if film-makers are insistent about going down the cartoonish violence route, they might as well go the whole nine yards, as in Shoot 'Em Up, a relentlessly OTT slam-bang actioner that starts out all guns blazing and doesn't call it quits until writer/director Michael Davis has thrown every possible crazy idea he can come up with onto the screen.
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