Movie review
February 27, 2020 · 98 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Guns Akimbo.
Woke representation / casting
Standard white leads and supporting cast in a non-specific setting; no audience-visible diversity quotas, identity signaling, or mismatches with story logic.
Woke political dialogue
No activist, DEI, queer, or identity-based dialogue; all conflict stays personal and plot-driven.
Identity-driven story themes
Core story is individual survival, revenge, and growth from immature troll to fighter; no race, gender, or sexuality identity politics shape arcs or messaging.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Light, generic satire on internet trolling, live-stream violence, and media sensationalism; lacks modern activist framing of toxic masculinity, patriarchy, anti-capitalism, or colonial guilt.
Review
An ordinary video game developer who trolls internet forums gets targeted by Skizm, a criminal group that runs live-streamed death matches. He wakes with guns bolted to his hands and must battle experienced fighters like Nix to survive and rescue his kidnapped ex-girlfriend. The film is a chaotic, gory action-comedy that offers shallow satire on internet toxicity and violence as entertainment, with no visible modern identity politics, activist messaging, or social-justice framing in its story, characters, or marketing.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant; fully original story with no established canon, historical figures, or source material altered for ideological reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Pre-release criticism targeted the director’s attacks on critics he called woke cyberbullies; no notable complaints that the film itself promotes woke or identity politics.
Creator track record context
Jason Lei Howden has publicly opposed woke-style online criticism; Tom Hern engaged with historical activist themes via The Panthers series; Dixie Chassay carries a moderate diversity focus reputation; other crew show no strong activist patterns.
Production
