Written and directed by New Zealander Jason Lei Howden and mostly filmed in New Zealand, Guns Akimbo is somewhat of a chaotic mess that may be enjoyed by a select few, but overall loses itself in the chaos, failing to form an adequate movie.

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Guns Akimbo follows Miles, a video game developer that likes to troll the forums in his spare time. Problem is, he annoys those in charge of streaming a real life, video game inspired deathmatch. (How he didn’t think this would come back to bite him we’ll never know!). Before he knows it, Miles wakes up with guns bolted to his hands and orders to kill the games star Nix, played by Samara Weaving. Although these well-known names headlined Guns Akimbo, a bad script unfortunately took the actors down with it no matter how known their following is.

The overall aesthetic of Guns Akimbo seemed like a lot of fun from an outsider’s perspective. Who doesn’t love some rough and tumble, video games coming to life, action scenes and bright colours?. From a cinematography point of view too, Guns Akimbo challenged the typical angles with 360 degrees to embody the chaos and confusion experienced by Miles. Unfortunately, you can’t rely solely on one cool shot to make a movie though and it soon became repetitive and lost its initial effect.

Very early on it became obvious that Guns Akimbo was trying its own approach to the topic of internet / online addiction. Showing nearly every single character absolutely loving the real-life deathmatch streams made you feel uncomfortable but perhaps that’s what audiences needed to see to realize how ridiculous our dedication to the online world can be. In terms of the narrative, Guns Akimbo didn’t have a lot going for it that you haven’t already seen hundreds of times.  Because of this, easy predictions and choices could be made and no emotional connection to the story or characters was established. With no risks taken and relying so heavily on pure action, Guns Akimbo lacked the combination of various cinematic elements required to make the film work and function well.

Filming Guns Akimbo in New Zealand came with a bunch of local actors playing side characters. It’s always fun when films are made in New Zealand as it doesn’t happen often in comparison to the rest of the world but I don’t see how hard it is to hire actors that actually have a passable American accent. There’s nothing that makes your film more predominantly amateur than when actors aren’t ‘realistic’. They stand out like a sore thumb and bring forward this idea that not a lot of thought has gone into the pre-production. On the other hand, you have Kiwi actor Rhys Darby who continues to pop up more and more in big productions and always with a strong Kiwi accent. You can’t help but start to see Darby being typecast as this overly eccentric, kind of gimmicky, crazy New Zealand character. He’s certainly in no way a bad actor, it’s just a shame that’s all Hollywood seems to think he’s good for.

Was Guns Akimbo trying just a little bit too much to be ‘cool’? Probably.

With bright colours, gore, shooting and bad American accents, one wonders whether its audience reach was solely for fans of dark comedies. Though I’d be surprised if even they found something positive to hold onto in Guns Akimbo.

The post Guns Akimbo (Madman – Bluray) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The trailer for Guns Akimbo has dropped today, starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Samara Weaving (Ready or Not).

The action-comedy feature film, written and directed by New Zealand filmmaker Jason Lei Howden (Deathgasm) received its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival and will be released nationwide on March 5th, 2020.

Largely filmed in Auckland, New Zealand, Guns Akimbo’s international cast also includes Kiwi actor and comedian Rhys Darby (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Irish actor Ned Dennehy (Peaky Blinders) and Australian actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny).

The hilariously dark and viciously violent film follows Miles Harris (Daniel Radcliffe), a nerdy video game developer whose world 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.

Daniel Radcliffe said he was drawn to the film’s exciting and fun script, particularly the bizarre concept of having guns for hands: “It’s not just a device for crazy fight scenes… It’s also a device for a lot of physical comedy that I really enjoyed. ‘How do you dress yourself, how do you pick up your phone, how do you go through life.’”

Guns Akimbo is produced by New Zealander Tom Hern (The Dark Horse), Joe Neurauter (The Hallow) and Felipe Marino (The Wackness). The film is distributed in New Zealand by Madman and was made with investment from The New Zealand Film Commission.

The post TRAILER DROP FOR ACTION-COMEDY GUNS AKIMBO appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Swiss Army Man is a comedy-drama film written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as the Daniels) and stars Paul Dano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe.

The film follows Hank (Dano), a man stranded on a deserted island who has given up on returning home. Out of boredom, he attempts to commit suicide but stops upon seeing a corpse (Radcliffe) lying on the beach. Astounded by the corpse’s incredible abilities, such as having super-powered flatulence which acts as a propellant, Hank names the corpse Manny and proceeds to utilise it as a multi-purpose, swiss army knife-like tool, in order to rediscover the joys of life.

When the trailer for this film came out, I was put-off. The trailer showed off a rather gloomy tale of a man and his dead but conscious friend who ‘farts’ and spits out large amounts of drinkable water. Not only was I put off; I was grossed out. This film just wasn’t something I would enjoy. Alas, after incredible amounts of convincing, I decided to give the film a go.

Swiss Army Man came across as a film with every intention of showcasing the many wonderful meanings of life through the experiences of a man, who appears to have lost some semblance of sanity, and a dead body. The plot of the film, in my personal opinion, is completely ridiculous to the point that it almost feels as if the creators wanted to take the mickey out of the age old film recipe of a buddy-adventure tale. Sure, the idea is worth noting, however the way in which it is carried out did not appeal to me at all. The flatulence and other such ‘wonders’ coming out of Manny felt very much like a joke to appeal to the kind of film-goers who appreciate more crude and unpolished humour (like fart jokes for example).

Humour was quite possibly the aim of the film and it did incite some laughs in the first half, however, some of the jokes felt repetitive, of the same kind and to be very honest, boring. The thought of Hank attempting to teach Manny, a corpse, the meaning of life, was too far-fetched and just alluded to the breakdown of his mind.

While the film included unnecessary jokes and time-wasting pursuits, character development was certainly on point. Throughout the film, viewers are definitely able to watch both characters ‘grow’ and develop a bond. Not only are we able to somewhat appreciate Hank’s predicament, we are able to see the way in which Manny truly does help Hank beyond his super corpse abilities.

Visually, the film appeared to be as dull as the bulk of the film. Perhaps my view of the film as being bleak and gloomy was due to the fact that the majority of the film spoke about life and death in poignant ways. Despite its humour, the film couldn’t quite paint a magical picture for me, despite its best efforts to. Swiss Army Man just felt like a film which two stoned men decided to put together for a laugh.

I personally wish I hadn’t seen the film. There are much better films out there which does the same job in a much more realistic and classy nature. Had I watched this in a cinema, I would have walked out. To be very honest, there just wasn’t much that I liked about the film . Even my partner, who persuaded me to give this a go and who generally enjoys the kind of humour depicted in this film, ended up concluding that the film “got weird”.

So think twice before giving a dark, tragic and weird film like Swiss Army Man a watch.

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