There are very few people who try to make the claim that William Shatner is a great actor. Sure, he filled the bill as Captain Kirk and even made a few waves as T.J. Hooker. I would even suggest a few people check on some of the old “Twilight Zone” episodes to see Shatner at his best. However, whatever shortcomings he may have as an actor, he is quite an accomplished comedian. A few years back (and I mean quite a few), Shatner hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live.” Much to my surprise, his appearance was nothing less than hysterical and ever since I jump at the chance to see him do comedy. In “Shoot or Be Shot”, Shatner stars as Harvey Wilkes, a recent escapee from a mental ward. His sole purpose in life is to see a script he has written turned into a movie. He happens upon a hapless film crew shooting a low budget film out in the middle of nowhere and decides to commandeer the production. With gun in hand, he forces them to shoot his script in place of theirs.

I heard about this film back in 2002, and actually looked forward to seeing it. I had checked out the original website (which I can’t seem to find anymore), which had a trailer and the like. The trailer was pretty funny, so I hoped the movie would be, too. I kept an eye out for it to be released, but it just seemed to drop out of sight… until now. Fox Home Entertainment is releasing “Shoot or Be Shot” on DVD this month in a bare bones release that pretty much only has widescreen and full screen versions of the film. The only extra features I found were trailers for a couple of other movies. No complaints though, cause at least I finally got to see it.

I found “Shoot or Be Shot” to be as funny as I hoped, though it wasn’t as funny as some other might expect it to be. The main premise that I found fascinating was that it didn’t just make fun of the film industry, but went as far as to focus in on the little known ‘dogma’ style of filmmaking. This is where a director takes a group of actors, puts them into a scenario and allows them the improvisational freedom to create their own lines. Most recently, Steven Soderbergh did this with “Full Frontal” to great effect. Here Shatner’s character puts the captive cast in the same situation in order to film his ‘screenplay.’

This is both the film’s strength and weakness. There are some moments of inspired hilarity marred by not knowing where to end the bit. And while Shatner is uproariously funny throughout the majority of the movie, Harry Hamlin (as the commandeered film’s producer) tends to simply just overact. Filmmakers and actors will undoubtedly enjoy the film because they can identify with the renegade style of filmmaking. Others who don’t understand or miss the point of the endeavor might argue that “Shoot or Be Shot” is rather stilted, unfunny and doesn’t seem to really go anywhere.

I wish I could recommend the movie to everyone, but I think you really need to have worked in or have a fairly good knowledge of the film business to really appreciate the lunatic nature of the business that “Shoot or Be Shot” represents.

Directed by: J. Randall Argue
Starring: William Shatner, Harry Hamlin, Julieanne Christie, Scott Rinker
Extras: None
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1), Full Screen (1.33:1), English Stereo
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 5/18/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For Sexuality, Some Crude Humor, Violence and Brief Drug Use
Website

We'll give Shoot or Be Shot a B-.