Guns Akimbo

Within the vast amount of films in the action genre, there's a certain group of them that fit within the group that tries too hard being violent cool and ends up becoming throwaway schlock. They are always pretty basic when it comes to having either over-the-top violence, an evil organization having spectacle events that involves death, simple but bland protagonists, bad dialogue, generic love interest part that feels hollow, overacting (or underperforming) villains, etc. An example of this that definitely come to mind is Gamer (2009) as it fulfills a lot of these factors. This brings us to a New Zealand action comedy Guns Akimbo, which was directed and written by Jason Lei Howden (Deathgasm (2015)) and starred Harry Potter actor veteran himself Daniel Radcliffe. It was released in New Zealand in 2019 before making its way to the US on streaming platforms this year (I'm counting this towards my 2020 rankings per its debut in the US). I haven't seen marketing of it but heard a bit about the premise. After watching it for free on Amazon Prime, this will join the pile of forgettable throwaways within the genre. 

What's it about? The story follows a computer programmer being forced into an illegal fight club match with guns bolted into his hands as he works to find a way out of it. One angle that does work here is the protagonist fumbling around some of his normal activities but with a handicap to deal with. Some of those parts add nice comedy while it's fresh enough early on. The camera work in a few scenes does help it try to stand out too. 

However, the writing displayed here has big problems that the filmmaker isn't skilled enough to overcome. This plot is as by the numbers as you can get between having a bland antagonists, a love interest whose meant to be "motivation" for the hero, etc. The script for dialogue is trying too hard to connect with a modern audience (such as older people commenting on not knowing how to use social media or those cartoon-ish viewers watching a stream of a violent club). It almost gets close to being decent at points but falls over itself due to the blunders of the screenplay and directing.

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actor to focus on is Daniel Radcliffe. Daniel gives a solid performance carrying the reaction to the craziness around him very well. It's nice seeing him doing independent films after making so much money off of that franchise from a chunk of his life. Honorable mentions Rhys Darby for being a welcome presence in a fun exchange between him and Daniel. Dishonorable mentions Samara Weaving and Ned Dennehy for both the terrible dialogue they are given as well as bad overacting.

 

Overall Consensus: Guns Akimbo almost reaches its potential with a nice lead performance, decent comedy, and wacky tone but disappoints due to bad directing and a bland script. ⭑⭑3/4 Runtime: 1 hours 38 minutes R

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You want something to have as background noise. You are curious about the premise and how it's executed.

 

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You are bored with throwaway predictable plots or stock characters.