About the Author: Paul Andolina is back on our site. You can check out his blogs Wrestling with Film and Is the Dad Alive? for more.

Guns Akimbo is about Miles Harris (Daniel Radcliffe), a loser coder who spends his off time trolling comment sections and being an asshole. He learns his lesson when he sets his sights on Skizm, an online video stream that showcases deathmatches in real-time. The people behind the channel break into his house, beat the shit out of him and bolt guns to his hands and tell him to kill Nix (Samara Weaving), a female Skizm competitor with the longest killstreak in the history of the program. 

This movie doesn’t give you much time to get your bearings, much like it’s lead character, before it plunges you into total insanity. This movie is pretty much non stop violence for almost an entire hour and a half. You’re going to have fun if you seek this out because you watch these types of films for that very reason, it’s pure pornography, the gunfights and murderous killing sprees culminating in the ultimate money shot; death twitches, and superbly photographed bloodshed. I live for these types of movies that are frenetic blurs of bullets and bodies, peppered with crazy plots, foul language, and music video quality stylishness.

I’d like to imagine the creator of this film outta his fucking skull on crank, viciously gritting his teeth, and sweating profusely in front of a typewriter while writing this script. This is the work of a madman. Jason Lei Howden created a publicity nightmare by attacking minorities and women on twitter and it’s a damn shame he couldn’t keep his hateful rhetoric to himself. If he had I think this would have massive levels of hype, this could have been the next great action franchise, or at least led to a sequel. I can’t imagine that happens now but let’s face it Hollywood is synonymous with scum rising to the top.

Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving breathe life into their roles that have no parallels in the acting world. I can’t imagine any one else playing Miles and Nix. It’s oddly satisfying and terrifying to see the man who was made famous by Harry Potter films, running around in his boxers and fuzzy oversized paw slippers, waving around pistols to flag down cops for help. Miles goes from a lackadaisical nondescript male, into an internet sensation, within the runtime of the movie, and it’s invigorating to watch. Equally impressive is Samara as Nix, a cocaine addled killer with a mysterious past and serious fear of fire and explosions. Seeing her wield a number of different weapons in the film is a treat, and she is a total brilliant mess of a character.

If you enjoy mayhem in your movies, you will not be disappointed by this film. It’s crass, it’s loud (it has a crazy soundtrack), it’s lit like a red-light district on the night of the purge and it will make you want to load up a first-person shooter video game and go on a rampage. You’ll want to do this because you can’t legally have an actual deathmatch in your city. This film is a pure adrenaline rush and there wasn’t a second that I thought was dull. There are few lulls in the film though, serving to further the plot and they pass by just as fast as Nix killing her opponents and anyone else dumb enough to stand her in way, and they are as nutty as the rest of the movie. Guns Akimbo is a hard-hitting no bullshit actioner and I am totally here for this level of crazy. You can see this in select theaters currently or rent it through video on demand services which is what I had to do because no theater around me from here to Cleveland seems to be playing this film which is a total shame, this begs to be seen on a large screen with Dolby sound pounding throughout the room.