Guns Up

Fun, family-friendly action flick, blends action, drama, and family dynamics ideal for a popcorn night.

Unfortunately, The Trailer to "Guns Up" gives away MOST of the plot and a main twist - AVOID - The Trailer and go straight to the movie!

Action comedy featuring Kevin James as an ex-cop turned mob collector seeking a fresh start for his family, with a cast including Christina Ricci, Luis Guzmán and Joey Diaz.

Written and Directed by Edward Drake, it's a solid, entertaining watch, the storyline is engaging but not groundbreaking, with some forced dialogue and a twist that will feel predictable!

While the plot starts slow, it delivers surprises, decent dialogue, and well-choreographed action. Kevin James shines, balancing serious and comedic roles, though the film leans back toward his comedic roots unevenly.

Brendan Galvin's - Cinematography choices - excellent - as most of the filming is shot at night - so none of that "new age gotta be all dark" - instead, nighttime shots blend and transition well into the indoor scenes.

Ex-cop works for local criminals for years in order to save enough money to open a dinner, and be able to provide for his family. But things go bad on the day he plans to get out of this line of work.

Sadly.. this script is all setup, no payoff.

There are no interesting developments, no well-written characters or even cool choreographies or moments. Worst of all, the one twist the movie has, was shown on trailers for some reason.. and isn't that particularly memorable either. It is a decent production, but the tone is off (attempting to be quirky while being a downer most of the time), the pacing is bad and the plot underwritten.

I lost interest in it rather quickly, and would not recommend it to anyone.

Now, as I stumbled upon this 2025 action comedy titled "Guns Up" and seeing that it had Kevin James in the lead, of course I had to check it out, even without ever having heard about the movie.

Writer and director Edward Drake put together a rather enjoyable and entertaining script. It was a nicely written storyline that contained a lot of action, laughs and also character building. So it was a nice movie to sit through.

The acting in "Guns Up" was good. And with the likes of Kevin James, Christina Ricci and Luis Guzmán in the movie, of course you're in quite capable company.

With "Guns Up" being an action comedy, of course there was action in the movie, and I will say that the action sequences were nicely choreographed and executed on the screen.

This is definitely a movie that I will say is worth sitting down and spending 92 minutes on watching.

My rating of writer and director Edward Drake's 2025 movie "Guns Up" lands on a well-deserved six out of ten stars.

This movie is absolutely a film that will be watched by people. The characters are played by actors who act out their parts while in character. One thing that most people probably won't point out about this movie is that it has a run time. Kevin James is in it and he's acting, in character. Christina Ricci and Luis Guzman also have parts as their characters who are entwined within the story. The director did his job in directing this film and as you can see he followed it through to completion. One other thing that's worth pointing out is that the location scouts and costume designers for this film also had a job that they did as well. I have to say that I absolutely 100% acknowledge that this is a movie that people worked on and made. Their hard work and dedication may be something that exists for them and that they are proud of. So, if you like movies, this definitely is one.

Aside from having to believe that Kevin James can last an entire fistfight without collapsing from exhaustion, this film leaves much to be desired.

If it's a comedy, I couldn't tell because there were no funny parts. If it's an action movie, why is Kevin James the star? How many tanks of oxygen were on hand to make sure he didn't pass out? Surely there were more donuts, but that's another story.

There's an absolutely ridiculous twist that feels forced in with an atomic shoehorn.

I give this film zero pairs of underpants from the big and tall man's shop run by Thornton Melon and his driver Pauly.