Geek Review: Guns Akimbo

Our boy magician Daniel Radcliffe has ditched wands for pistols bolted to his hands in the quirky new action/adventure film, Guns Akimbo, but regardless of the switch, he is still the one who lived.

Miles (Daniel Radcliffe) is a video game coder and a keyboard warrior and between getting bullied by his dick of a boss and stalking his ex-girlfriend Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) on social media, Miles is also a semi-professional internet troller. 

Yeah, being a keyboard warrior is his biggest kink and he gets off of it. From telling people to stick their genitals into the blender or calling haters out for their weak comebacks, Miles’ laser mouth and quick fingers eventually got him roped up in Skizm – a live-streamed fight to the death duel spearheaded by Voldemort look-alike, Riktor (Ned Dennehy).

Known as Alderton in the Harry Potter franchise, Dennehy’s Riktor is tattooed all over his face, wears a long black robe and fashions grey socks with Birkenstocks. Riktor is also incredibly obsessed with killing Miles, so if anything, it’s beginning to look like Voldermort’s and Potter’s relationship. Except the Dark Lord is on holiday, sans the tattoos and Birkenstocks. Look, maybe we’ll stop referring this movie to the franchise if we weren’t such Potterheads and they didn’t set up the cast and their appearances to be as such! Miles’ love interest Nova is Cho, Miles’ enemy turned friend Nix (Samara Weaving) is Malfoy and we promise, this is the last you’ll hear of Harry Potter references.

Enter Nix, Miles’ opponent in this messed up deathmatch. Nix kills for a living, enjoys filling her system with cocaine and is terrified of fire. And if there’s anyone that can play a psychotic, trigger happy killer, it’s Weaving, and Guns Akimbo isn’t Weaving’s first rodeo with playing huntress and hunted. The Ready or Not star is a natural at shooting guns, laughing maniacally and spewing nothing else but cheap threats and abusive words. 

Miles and Nix play an intense game of cat and mouse involving many bullets and blood loss. There is not one second in this film that doesn’t involve the sound of guns firing so as an action film, Guns Akimbo sure is entertaining. 

Emulated to be like a video game, the entire movie feels like you’re watching a game on story mode. On top of regular cinematography, the camera angles shift from first-person POV to third-person camera throughout the film, making it a sensory experience. The camera tilts, rotates and moves a whole lot. It’s dizzying but it successfully makes you feel like you’re watching a video game. 

Oh and the fight scenes? They are Mortal Kombat-esque. Fighters have a brief preamble before the showdown begins and a particular scene made our heart leap. In the scene, a punch was thrown at a bad guy and we see a skeletal x-ray vision of the bones getting crushed – it is a classic Mortal Kombat shot and we appreciate it. 

The fight scenes come hand in hand with amazing song choice and is an explosion of psychedelic colours. Sure, Nix is on some pretty hard drugs but to the regular eyes, the constant sounds of guns blazing, loud pop and techno music playing the background, unsteady rotating camera angles and an array of colours flashing across the screen can be overwhelming. We finished the movie with a slight throb at the front of the forehead, and no it’s not the stress from COVID-19. 

Guns Akimbo as an action/adventure sure ticks the box, but the insanely violent movie has some humour injected to it too. Dark, cynical and very appropriative of internet culture, Guns Akimbo may not be everyone’s type of humour but you would definitely be able to pick the jokes up.

But as far as storyline and writing goes, Guns Akimbo falls short. Films that take on video games and live streaming has been done before – Nerve and Hardcore Henry for example. But if you’re in for a fun, crazy, topsy turvy rollercoaster ride, Guns Akimbo has got you covered. Keep your arms, legs and limbs in the moving vehicle, it’s going to be a wild ride.