I actually didn't like Shoot 'Em Up.
It started kind of cool but then the entire movie's message were "muh guns R bad! Muh Republicans R bad! Gun control noaw!!!!"
They even hammered the message home by suspending all suspense during the second-half action sequences in order to point out how ridiculous guns and shootout sequences are. It was both winking at and mocking audiences of action films.
That kind of parody can absolutely work, but only when it parodies the subject matter while also treating it with enough respect so as not to undermine or antagonize its own audience. A good example of that is Kung-Fu Hustle, which parodied kung-fu classics with great results, but ALSO... managed to include some pretty awesome fight sequences, especially toward the end of the movie, so as to also give the nod to audiences while also winking at them.
Hot Fuzz is another awesome satirical parody of buddy-up action movies that mocks them in the beginning, but then actually gives audiences a pretty cool series of action sequences at the end of the film.
Shoot 'Em Up was not like that.
The film reeked of boardroom Liberalism during the second half, and the heavy-handed messaging was more of a turn-off than anything. It's one of the few action movies I desperately wanted to see when it originally came out, but feel like I never want to see again.
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