Transforming Grown Ups and King of Queens star Kevin James into the next John Wick was never going to be easy. While the sight of James taking down baddies with expertly placed fists and bullets is something to behold, the comedic actor’s foray into the world of action has now resulted in a distinct divide among critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Written and directed by Edward Drake and starring Christina Ricci, Luis Guzman, Joey Diaz, Melissa Leo, and Timothy V. Murphy alongside James, the first reviews for the action outing Guns Up have now started to emerge, and while not enough have materialized to give Guns Up an overall score, there is now an even split between “rotten” and “fresh” reactions on the popular aggregator site.
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We begin with the good, as Nicholas Bell of Fish Jelly Films found much to enjoy, heaping praise on Kevin James and Christina Ricci for their commitment to both the action and the comedy.
“Guns Up is a pleasant, innocuous, B-grade action flick indubitably borrowing from countless other films about ‘families who slay together stay together,’ but Kevin James and Christina Ricci supply a charm these narratives often lack.”
His co-host felt similarly, with Joseph Robinson, who praised the action and performances but wanted more laughs, saying, “Guns Up is a solid action film with strong lead performances and familiar beats—entertaining enough, but lighter on laughs than you may expect.” Travis Hopson of Punch Drunk Critics, meanwhile, found Guns Up yielded mixed results, but still managed to take him by surprise; “Guns Up is the rare action-comedy that took me by surprise, sometimes for good, sometimes not so much.”
Others Were Left Wanting More From ‘Guns Up’
Of course, with the good must come the bad and the ugly, with Siddhant Adlakha of Variety, who ultimately found Guns Up to be seriously lacking in the areas where it matters most.
“For a film with a name like “Guns Up,” there’s surprisingly little by way of armed shootouts until the final act. For a tale of a family man moonlighting as a mob enforcer, the story and action lack the urgency suggested by its one-last-job premise.”
Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com felt similarly, saying, “While there are several problems with the film as a whole, perhaps the central one is that there are long stretches where viewers are expected to take the concept at least somewhat seriously, which proves impossible.” Finally, Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com accused Guns Up of being the worst thing a movie can be: boring. “Drake delivers an extraordinarily generic offering of violence and cutesiness in “Guns Up,” supplying nothing new to viewers as the endeavor goes through a tiresome routine of shoot-outs and unwelcome broadness,” he concluded.
With the reactions so divided, it would be wise to check Guns Up out for yourself. The action flick is out now in theaters, and you can read the official synopsis below.
Guns Up follows Ray Hayes (Kevin James), an ex-cop and devoted husband and father who leads a dangerous double life as a mob henchman. On the brink of leaving “The Family” and making his dream of opening a diner with his wife Alice (Christina Ricci) a reality, his final job goes off the rails. With the clock ticking, Ray has one night to get his unsuspecting family out of the city before he gets snuffed out.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
Guns Up
- Release Date
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July 18, 2025
- Runtime
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92 minutes
- Director
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Edward Drake
- Writers
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Edward Drake
- Producers
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Jon Keeyes, Jeffrey Greenstein, Tobias Weymar
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