Of the three movies he’s made so far, Akimbo is his best. The story keeps moving instead of jumping between too many set pieces. Here, spectators enjoy something like The Running Man playing out in their own city. Like The Purge, the carnage seems to give its participants free rein to let out their frustrations while everyone else can watch from a safe distance. The film cuts between the action and people enjoying the slaughter through their screens, making their enthusiasm a running gag.
I also think its commentary on why some people love first-person shooters is underplayed. Maybe watching the carnage from afar offers an outlet for pent-up anger over things we can’t control. Miles has plenty of reasons to fight back, and his desperation makes it easy to put ourselves in his place. For me, Radcliffe delivers the best performance of his career as he shows just how unhinged this ordinary guy can become.
Most of the combatants look like they’ve stepped out of a video game, while Radcliffe spends part of his ordeal in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. Miles is believable as a bewildered ordinary guy, a proto-John Wick minus the cool. Even his eventual gear looks ripped straight out of Borderlands. He’s forced into this underground fight club because he pissed off the wrong person by trolling him. Once the organisers track him down, his life goes from “oh bloody h*ll” to being tossed into the fire with little chance of survival.
It’s a colourful comic book-style situation that comes to life, and I find it even wilder than the Deathgasm films. Those revel in heavy metal culture; Guns Akimbo turns its attention to video games and the people consuming violence as entertainment. Whether we want to accept that commentary or not, it’s there, hiding under the noise of gunfire and loud explosions.
And beneath the chaos lies a simple rescue story. When his ex, Nova Alexander (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), is threatened, Miles has to decide whether to go in guns blazing (hence the film’s title) or abandon her. With weapons literally bolted to his hands, the comic-book similarities keep coming. He’s hardly a seasoned action hero, but after surviving this ordeal, he might be ready to take on the world!
I’d love to see a sequel, although the controversy surrounding the original film’s release leaves me doubtful that we’ll get one. Still, revisiting it reminds me why I think Howden deserves his place in genre cinema. I’d like to see his shorts, but I haven’t been able to find them online. The premise of The Light Harvester particularly interests me, though tracking down a copy has proved tough. IMDb describes it as follows:
The Light Harvester is set in a post-apocalyptic world shrouded in darkness, where light is rare and valuable. Troy needs light to heal his wife, Anna. On the brink of death, they come across an old Light Harvester. Troy commits the ultimate sin of stealing light and the tools to harvest it so they can trade for supplies.
They set up home for Anna to heal in the light while Troy harvests. He becomes increasingly obsessed with his responsibility and the light itself. He confines Anna although her bones are now free from rickets. Troy comes across the body of the man he robbed and his mistakes soon dawn on him, but it might be too late to save his wife from the effect of the light.
Hopefully, Raven Banner will consider including some of that earlier work in a special edition if Deathgasm 2 gets a home-video release. These films deserve to be seen. Given his imagination, I can see him becoming the next Zack Snyder. Both are willing to take chances and think in strong visual terms. They use slow motion to turn action into a visual spectacle. A figure descending during a leap or a bullet slowly emerging from a pistol can make a fleeting moment worth lingering over.
Honestly, in my head, Guns Akimbo and Sucker Punch exist in the same universe. If there’s a chance for a crossover to happen, I want it. Even as a comic book, I’d be the first to buy that release too!
4 Stars out of 5
Guns Akimbo Movie Trailer
