Shoot Em Up, Two Dislocated Thumbs Up

I just rented and viewed Shoot 'Em Up in a last minute attempt to escape an entire day of boredom. What I got was quite the contrary. Micheal Davis has created an adrenaline-packed masterpiece that met my expectations in the first five minutes and continued to blow my brain out the rest of the film. I expected a Tarentinoesque ultra-graphic flick full of pointless dialogue, but the film could easily be described as tasteful and well-developed. The action was blatantly over-the-top and the one-liners were all cliche, but the movie more than just a Pulp Fiction parody: it was thoroughly entertaining. The soundtrack was driving and original (minus the always-angry Ace of Spades), the acting was stellar (Clive Owens once again nails his forte as a nice guy with a gun), and the direction was expectedly as fast-paced as they come. Never before have a seen a film in which the antagonist's weapon of choice is a carrot, and never before have I been so impressed with a shoot 'em up film as I was with Shoot Em Up.