Daniel Radcliffe's 'Guns Akimbo' Feels About Five Years Out of Date

Directed by Jason Lei Howden

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Rhys Darby

BY Alex HudsonPublished Mar 4, 2020

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We're all just slaves to our computers, man! It's like, we're all so plugged into the world wide web, we barely even talk to one another anymore!
 
Guns Akimbo feels like a Black Mirror episode that's come out five years too late, as the film is a way-too-obvious commentary on the way people are dehumanized by game shows and internet comments sections. It's got cyberpunk à la The Matrix, a reality death match akin to The Hunger Games, and the comic-come-to-life pizazz of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It's basically Ready Player One, except people get their teeth smashed out and yell things like "suck my clit!"
 
Miles (Daniel Radcliffe, with a seamless American accent) is a videogame developer who gets into a flame war in the comments section of Skizm, an illegal death match that's streamed over the internet. Skizm's evil mastermind Riktor (Ned Dennehy) then breaks into Miles' apartment with his goons, bolts guns into the bones of our protagonist's hands, and thrusts him into a bloodsport showdown with a drugged up psychopath named Nix (Samara Weaving).
 
Even if the theme of internet addiction feels a bit lazy, the fun is watching Radcliffe's nerdy character get in way over his head. He gets thrown into the death match while wearing a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, and he struggles to use his asthma inhaler without shooting himself with the guns affixed to his hands. He has to toughen up or die, and he becomes increasingly desperate as his ex-girlfriend Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) is pulled into the line of fire.
 
It's a fast-moving romp with engaging slapstick performances, fiery chase scenes and Deadpool-style irreverence. Guns Akimbo certainly isn't a cutting social commentary, but with tons of action packed into an hour and a half, it's a fun shoot-em-up.
(Occupant Entertainment)

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