Shoot 'Em Up is everything you'd expect from a movie with a title named after a video game genre. I enjoyed every moment of this movie and cracked up the entire time. Like Hot Fuzz, it spoofs the ludicrous situations that appear in action movies by creating even more ludicrous situations. They took the time and effort to come up with some truly ingenious fight scenes. It is a laugh a minute, with one hilariously impossible scenario following another. There are numerous references and in-jokes for audience members who know the actors and their previous films--which I loved--but they weren't carried far enough or made obvious enough, as they were in Hot Fuzz. In fact, the more I write this review, the more I realize that this is really just a worse version of Hot Fuzz. It exists solely to spoof and so does not have a life or energy of its own, and will thus fade into obscurity instead of remain in the minds of its viewers like Hot Fuzz.The plot is obviously worthless, and explaining the overly convoluted plot actually gets in the way of the good stuff, like bad jokes (eat your vegetables) and preposterous action sequences. And some of the dialogue was actually too bad to the extent that you couldn't even laugh at it. Much of the movie felt uneven. The characters were laughable, as intended, but their absurdity still seemed forced. At 80 minutes it was a good length, but still extended maybe 15 minutes past what I would consider the perfect length for this movie before the audience gets tired of its antics. All in all, this is a very enjoyable romp through an otherworld, and highly highly recommended if you just wanna turn off your brain and watch some senselessly cool crap.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0465602/