Guns Akimbo (2020) | Film Review

We have all been there, right? Sitting at a dead-end job, feeling trapped by decisions you had no idea you were making, maybe even dealing with a lost love? Sounds familiar, right? Of course it does, and a lot of us find ways to cope with those feelings; be it video games, movies, or storming the internet to prove to some troll that you can beat them at their game. We all have our vices, but what happens when these vices track us down and make us part of some insane internet death cult viewing experience? Just me? Okay, well buckle up, because Daniel Radcliffe and director Jason Lei Howden are going to show us in every camera-flipping way with Guns Akimbo.

Meet Miles (Daniel Radcliffe), a mild-mannered drone working as a game developer and just seeing no joy in life since his girlfriend broke up with him. In his spare time, or while he is at work, or even while walking down the street, his one source of fulfillment in life comes from hunting down internet trolls and beating them at their own game.

The story really kicks into action when Miles – on one of his power trips – stumbles into a Skizm chatroom and lights up the wrong troll. The next thing Miles knows, the door to his apartment is coming down and in waltz a bunch of bad hombres. They knock Miles out, surgically attach a couple of nine millimeters to his hands and send him out into the world to kill Nix.

Nix (Samara Weaving) is the reigning champion of the Skizm battles and is just a badass. And that’s it. That’s the story, I mean there’s more. There’s an insidious plot, a little outside of the game murder, someone killed someone’s family, but it doesn’t matter. All of it is an excuse for the guy who brought us Deathgasm – Jason Lei Howden – to show us what he can do with bigger stars, a bigger budget, and a camera gimbal.

Radcliffe’s Miles looks like a joy to play. He is relatable in his misery and understandable in his exasperation. Radcliffe looks like he is having the time of his life with this role, and it’s hard to not smile along with all of the carnage on the screen. It’s also completely his movie as no one is his equal in presence.

Samara Weaving’s Nix is great, think Harley Quinn with sharper edges and not as cuddly as that. Her role isn’t given the kind of time as Radcliffe’s, it’s not her movie, but she is given all the biggest action scenes, and she wears crazy very effectively. Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s Nova does her job. She adds a layer to Miles, she serves as the McGuffin pushing the story along. Rhys Darby adds laughs, Grant Bowler is present, and Ned Dennehy is acceptable as a cartoon character of a villain. Its Radcliffe’s movie and the only assistance he gets in carrying it comes from Weaving, and that’s ok.

Guns Akimbo feel insane. The action is over-the-top, and the production team pushes the envelope at every turn. Speaking of turn, there’s a lot of that happening in this movie. For whatever reason, Jason Lei Howden loves playing with camera orientation. He rolls it in and rolls the image out of scenes so frequently it’s disorienting, and helps to create this feeling of insanity that Guns Akimbo must be going for. The coordination behind the action is powerful and thought out. All of it seems like a surprise for something released to VOD, yet can easily match up to the likes of Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey.

With everything we see today, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Jobs, social life, a bunch of psychos forcing you to kill for sport…what?! Still just me? We all know what it’s like. Guns Akimbo takes the monotony of life and shows us the what-if of it all. What if we stand up, what if we fight, what if the story isn’t important? Most importantly, what if we just want to have fun for ninety-five minutes?