Guns Akimbo is an action comedy from the creative bosom of Jason Lei Howden, due to make its stateside debut on February 28th. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as Miles Harris, whose “mundane existence is turned upside-down when he finds himself enrolled on a dark net website that forces complete strangers to fight in a city-wide game of death so that their gladiatorial battles can be live-streamed worldwide to a fanatical audience.” Something tells me the Wikipedian who wrote that synopsis didn’t pull it from an official press release (though if it was official, magnificent job boyo).
The trail of thought that Radcliffe springs to mind for me seems terribly unfair, but I have a paucity of time and a paucity of alternative conversational topics. If you hadn’t already gathered, you are indeed about to read the meaningless word-babble of a simpleton, so strap in.
The thought in question concerns legacies. Can’t fight them, can’t escape them. Would we want to be defined by one thing when our time has come to pass? Or would we want our names to enkindle memories of the many-faceted lives we left? Truth be told, few are afforded such worthy epitaphs. And, truth be told, most of us aren’t going to be remembered by more than those closest to us.
Obviously, this was all triggered by Harry Potter. On the one hand, it’s a role Radcliffe will always be defined by; it’s his, by some distance, most famous performance, and potentially always will be. On the other, Daniel will have a long, artistically prosperous career beyond the sphere of the Potterverse. More important than either of those things though, I think, is the legacy he’ll share with all of us, famous, infamous, not famous. Family and friends, be good to them, they’re the ones that’ll really remember you.
That leaves one problem to solve. Where am I supposed to get Guns Akimbo back into all of that? I’ll leave it hanging like this. Terrible writing, I know
