The arthouse tag of the publicity material is misleading. This is more like a pornographic shoot 'em up with a couple of devil-may-care, female gunslingers in the lead. The violence and sexual nature of the film - this is deep into the X zone - would be more acceptable if the filmmakers were not such dull storytellers. There's no moral or meaning to this, it's just a voyeuristic trip, albeit one where the heroines - I use the word loosely - turn the tables on, humiliate and kill their male victims.

Literally translated as "F**k me!", the piece borrows heavily from the pornographer's school of filmmaking. That's no surprise when you consider that Coralie Trinh Thi who co-directed the film with writer-director Virginie Despentes, and the leads, come from a hard core porn background.

Character-development and dialogue are sidelined for provocative scenes of explicit sex and violence. At first the film suggests that it has a message, setting the tone early on with a brutal gang-rape scene. Nothing is left to the imagination. In fact, the scene provoked the BBFC to force a 10 second cut of a close-up penetration shot.

One of the victims, Manu, a working class Parisian of North African descent, brushes it off with some tough talk. More might have been made of the Manu's response to the rape, but, no, the filmmakers are gearing up for a nihilistic revenge spree. Her response is to blow someone away and go on the run.

In a separate storyline Nadine, a spaced-out prostitute, is irritating her flatmate by smoking all her grass and masturbating to porn films in the living room. When the complaints become too much, Nadine, in a fit of pique, smashes her flatmate's brains out on the floor and runs.

When the fugitives' paths cross by accident, the laconic two hit the road for a sex-and-carnage rampage through France.

The violent burlesque, crudely shot on digital video with leary camera angles, comprises of mugging yuppies, getting high, and picking up, shagging and murdering male victims. It makes Thelma and Louise look like nuns on the run, but there is little attempt at building sympathy or suspense. You never fear for the protagonists' future, they haven't thought far ahead enough to worry about getting caught.

There's not much going for a film where the leads are so short on sympathy, style or humour. At one point, after blowing away some helpless geezer, Manu complains, "F**k! We're useless. Where are the witty lines?" Few and far between, is the answer.