Daniel Radcliffe shines as Miles, a mild-mannered chap who gets mixed up in a bizarre online deathmatch after trolling the wrong trolls on the Internet. With guns bolted to his hands and stalked by a surly sociopath named Nix (Samara Weaving), he must fight to stay alive and save his ex from the game’s vicious organisers.
Guns Akimbo has the vibe of those dreadful/wonderful (depending on your particular predilection) Neveldine & Taylor movies of recent memory like Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and the undeniably abysmal Gamer and Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. (Indeed, it often feels like this is the illegitimate but less nasty offspring of those films.)
Visual effects man turned director Jason Lei Howden (who also scripted) keeps the action slick and fast, the kills imaginative and the characters’ attitude totally in sync with the times.
Plus, Radcliffe’s energetic, clumsy and somehow self-assured turn as the harassed and harried Miles makes him a character audiences can get behind.
In the midst of all the carnage and disregard for human life, a callous indifference seemingly shared by the multitudes watching the live streams, Howden sneaks in some sly social commentary about our wired, anonymous world too – though the message is not really new.
The amped-up, hyperkinetic style and rapid-fire assault on the senses may not sit well with more senior audiences, but should catch on with the first/third-person shooter crowd. Even if it gives you a headache and shocks you now and then, though, this is the most bonkers fun you can have while pretending to be offended.
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Summary:
The most bonkers fun you can have while pretending to be offended.
