misunderstood and highly underrated

A lot of people seem to totally miss out on the fact that this is an action film PARODY. It intentionally includes many of the most overused clichés of the genre for comedic effect (and in my opinion, succeeds).

Some of the clichés spoofed here include:

- the hero with the tormented past
- the seemingly ice cold assassin protagonist who shares his inner compassion with an endangered child (or in this case, a baby)
- the endangered protagonist finding refuge in a church (or in this case, a whorehouse with a prostitute dressed up as a nun)
- the hooker with a heart of gold
- the love interest character who spends the first half of the film bitching at the main character for his ruthless actions
- the bitter, overly cynical action hero (who literally hates everything here)
- the obligatory, needless love scene

The film is clever in that it doesn't market itself as a straight up spoof ala Mel Brooks and thus, gives its audience more credit than they probably deserve by expecting them to recognize the various tropes they're satirizing.

Director Michael Davis seems to have a profound understanding of the genre. He isn't just making easy jokes that mock clichés that have been made fun of already by everyone (hero running away from explosion, the villain constantly monologuing, slow-motion gun fights etc.) Instead, he's parodying clichés we're so accustomed to, we're not even consciously aware of.

And outside of just mocking genre tropes, the film also does a great job poking fun at the folks who go see these movies by facetiously fetishizing their love of guns and flipping a giant middle finger at the very thought of gun control.

For me, this is one of the greatest action movie spoofs ever made. Fuck Hot Fuzz.

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