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GUNS AKIMBO
Director: Jason Lei Howden Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Rhys Darby, Mark Rowley, Grant Bowler MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:35 Release Date: 2/28/20 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 27, 2020 Writer/director Jason Lei Howden has one thing on his mind in Guns Akimbo: showing as much violence, in as much gruesome detail, as possible. Sure, the movie infuses this exercise in excessive bloodletting with plenty of cultural markers, such as internet chats and video games and a shrugging sense of detached humor. It all amounts to flash and the false pretense of a filmmaker who thinks he says something say, only to say nothing at all. The setup has frumpy, forlorn Miles (Daniel Radcliffe), a game coder still heartbroken over an ex-girlfriend, going to the website for a real-world "game" called "Skizm." The "game" sets volunteers against each other in battles to the death. Miles, who perceives himself as a sort of internet troll-hunter, catches the attention of Riktor (Ned Dennehy), the sociopathic ringmaster. After being abducted by the leader and his goons, Miles awakens to discover a pistol in each hand—bolted in place, with digital counters showing how much ammunition he has remaining (One of many shallow references to video games, including one character's cocaine usage being accompanied by an 8-bit power-up sound). His goal is to kill Nix (Samara Weaving), an asylum-escapee and the game's reigning champion, before she kills him. Eventually, despite Miles' instance that this isn't the story of a guy trying to win a girl like a video game achievement, our protagonist has to rescue Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), his ex, whom Riktor kidnaps. The gag of a guy restricted by having guns attached to his hands is initially amusing. From the start of that gag, though, we can sense that Howden, who already has supplied the movie with plenty of gory shootouts, cares little for the jokes or the undercooked attempts at social commentary beneath the hyperactive violence. He intercuts the "game" with images of its audience, jeering Miles' incompetence and cheering his rise to becoming a vengeful killer. They're supposed to be stand-ins for us, of course, but Howden can't even bring himself to judge them. After all, the supposed thrills they're getting from the bloodshed make up the entirety of the movie's purpose. Howden has a lot of tricks to show off, with the bloody bits captured in close-ups or slow-motion or one-takes. They're as hollow anything he fails to say in Guns Akimbo and, further, highlight the cognitive dissonance in the movie's attitude toward violence. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, drug use,
sexual references and brief graphic nudity)
