Damning with Faint Praise: SHOOT THE HERO

Kate (Samantha Lockwood) wants Nate (Jason Mewes) to take things to the next level. She thinks he’s not serious about their relationship.

Nate wants to show her that he’s serious, so he takes her, blindfolded, to a jewelry shop.

Unfortunately, he didn’t call ahead and find out their hours.

Kate takes that as more evidence of his lack of seriousness.

Nate gets the manager (Taylor Negron) to let them in, which turns out badly because the door is unlocked when the robbers show up.

Thus begins one of two intertwined stories.

Verdict
Quirky for its own sake.

I wanted to like this movie more than I did.

I liked the cast – Jason Mewes, Danny Trejo, Fred Williamson, and Taylor Negron are rarely in the same films, so getting to see them all-in-one was a treat.

When the jewelry store robbery falls apart, and the thieves turn on each other, I had no idea where the movie was going next. I was intrigued.

Then (and I’m skipping bits so as not to give too much away) the movie jumps to two slacker hipster dudes trying to push a car through the desert at night. They wind up in some paramilitary training camp and get taken prisoner.

Eventually the two stories wander into each other.

So, here’s why the movie stopped working for me: Fat Smith (Nick Nicotera) and Thin Smith (Mike Hatton).

The Nate and Kate storyline seems very character driven. Nate and Kate could become more than just stock characters – the girl who wants something more, the boy who wants to give it to her – if he could figure out what it was.

They have a context – contemporary southern California, during a jewel robbery.

They have a conflict – They want to get married, if they can figure out a way for Nate to prove himself to Kate.

Fat Smith and Thin Smith are just bundles of quirky hipster slacker mannerisms. Part of that is purposeful. They are playing roles. However, they play those roles even when completely by themselves in the middle of the desert night. That’s commitment and preparation, but it’s also impenetrable.

It means that we, the viewing audience, don’t get to know them.

We know more about Crazy Joe (Danny Trejo) than we do about the Smith brothers.

Crazy Joe, by the way, is a cool cat…for a gangster on his way down.

The Smith Brothers are in a context that seems out-of-place after Act I with Nate and Kate. The “Smith context” seems ridiculous.

 The paramilitary troops are bumbling idiots, easily outwitted by the slacker man-boys.

It seems like a comedy wandered into an action-romance, and it’s jarring.

Fortunately, the conflict for the Smith Brothers is very clear: Their car is out of gas, and they need to escape the paranoid “soldiers” without dying in the desert.

Eventually the stories come together (in a particularly obvious and too-easy way) and the tone evens out.

Remember, writers: You are allowed one, and only one, big coincidence per story.

If Nate and Kate just happen to be in the jewelry store when it gets robbed, that’s your one coincidence. The paramilitary and the Smiths have to be connected in a logical way that flows from events and context that the audience understands.

Otherwise, it’s just a machine-gun of stuff you think is cool sprayed at the screen in the hopes that the audience will like enough of it to watch the whole movie.

Conclusion
Shoot the Hero was fun, even if it wasn’t great. It’s worth a rental.

This parting shot is for the ladies: