Director Jason Lei Howden
Starring Samara Weaving, Daniel Radcliffe, Rhys Darby
Rated MA
Score 5/6

Miles Harris’ mundane existence of scrolling through the same three apps is turned upside-down when he’s enrolled in a dark social media movement that forces strangers to fight in a citywide game of death.

I’d be surprised to learn that Guns Akimbo is not going to have much of a run at the cinemas after its recent release. Part of this could be because of recent comments made by director Jason Lei Howden on Twitter and the subsequent backlash.

I went into this without seeing a trailer of Guns Akimbo at the friendly neighbourhood cinema or any of Jason Lei Howden’s work, apparently Howden has a background in visual effects and Guns Akimbo is his second ever feature length movie. While watching this I was reminded of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s 2009 release Gamer and there also seemed to be an homage to a scene from Timur Bekmambetov’s 2008 release Wanted. It also turns out this is the first movie from New Zealand that I have reviewed in several years.
Given Howden’s background in visual effects part of me was expecting Guns Akimbo specifically the special effect to be crisper then they were, this can be easily dismissed by saying that the filmmakers where going for a comic book feel without Guns Akimbo actually being a comic book adaption.
Both Samara Weaving and Daniel Radcliffe gave great performances. I loved how Weaving’s character helped bring out a very noticeably character arc out of Radcliffe’s character. I’m not that familiar Weaving’s work and I might have to check out more of her work.
I also enjoyed Rhys Darby’s character; his performance reminded me of his character from The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It was also a little surprised to see that Grant Bowler was cast in this as it has been awhile since I have last seen him in a new role.