Free Guy review

FREE GUY: 

RYAN REYNOLDS VIDEO GAME TRIP OFFERS PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING THAT MAKES A SMART, FUNNY, AND ALL-AROUND ENJOYABLE SUMMER FLICK! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Ryan Reynolds as Guy in Free Guy

 

            Ryan Reynolds (National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Deadpool 1 and 2, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) discovers his entire life is a video game in Free Guy, the new film directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum trilogy, Date Night, Real Steel) and features Reynolds in one of his non-Merc with a Mouth-related outings. This film had a very interesting history not in terms of its development, but its release as it was originally intended for a 2020 release and even had a trailer shown before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but due to COVID-19 it was delayed multiple times from July 2020, December of that year, to May 2021, until finally landing an August 2021 release as one of the few 20^th Century Fox projects to resume production after the acquisition by Disney.

            Now, that the film is finally out, how does it rack up compared to the other big blockbusters this summer? Honestly, I know this might sound strange given that it’s Free Guy, but I think this is one of the best, smartest, and funniest movies we’ve gotten all summer (Maybe even all year!). 

            The film takes full advantage of its ingenious premise and offers an absolutely hilarious, action-packed, and even heartfelt romp with plenty of video game references, Disney callbacks (Because Disney owns Fox now!), and some surprisingly thought-provoking social commentary. Not to mention arguably the most likable Ryan Reynolds performance ever, and that’s saying something! 

            The film follows a guy named…well, Guy (Reynolds), who works as a bank teller in a place known as Free City…which is actually an open world video game that’s best described as Grand Theft Auto meets Fortnite where Guy is an NPC (Non-Playable Character) in the world. However, when Guy discovers that his entire life is a video game and befriends a player and one of the game’s programmers, Millie (Jodie Comer-My Mad Fat Diary, Killing Eve, The Last Duel), he decides to step up from being an NPC that gets his ass kicked by the players to a hero. 

            Thanks to Guy’s heroic deeds, he becomes the talk of the city in the real world with newscasters labeling him as “Blue Shirt Guy” and people rooting for him, but all is not well in Free City as the game company’s CEO, Antwan (Taika Waititi-What We Do in the Shadows, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jojo Rabbit) discovers that one of the NPCs has gone AWOL and plans to shut the game down thus possibly destroying the first sign of artificial intelligence. 

            The film also stars Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah, Space Jam: A New Legacy) as Buddy, Utkarsh Ambudkar (Pitch Perfect, Freaks of Nature, Brittany Runs a Marathon) as Mouser, and Joe Keery (Stranger Things, Molly’s Game, Spree) as Walter “Keys” McKeys. 

            Overall, Free Guy offers one of the most feel-good movies of the year, and I ain’t saying that to make it sound like a rom com…though, it does kind of work as one of those also, while offering a very smart, funny, and action-packed story about a man who discovers he’s in a video game. We’ve seen movies about people from the real world being sucked into a virtual world before like Tron, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Next Level, and to a lesser extent, Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, but here’s one about a character from the video game world practically going into the real world, and it often leads to some very interesting ideas being explored and lots of humorous situations. 

            With all the video game chaos and hilarious shenanigans going on, the film does have some surprisingly thought-provoking social commentary on indie game creators against big corporate CEOs who only want money and even a sequence where all the NPCs leave their designated areas in the game and go on strike like employees in a work environment or community going on strike against a company. 

            While watching this movie I kept thinking back to the 1998 Jim Carrey film, The Truman Show which looking back has a very similar premise to this movie. A man whose entire life is a TV show and when he discovers the truth, he tries to escape, much like Reynolds’ character in this film except with video games, it isn’t a rip-off though you could argue Free Guy borrows a lot of elements from The Truman Show as well as video game-related films like Ready Player One, Wreck-It Ralph, Tron, etc. while still being its own unique entity. 

            Ryan Reynolds is extremely likable in this movie as he channels a bit of Will Ferrell and early Jim Carrey in his performance as this wide-eyed doofus with a heart of gold. There’s something funny and even adorable about seeing Reynolds curiously and happily react to everything around him (Even if it’s something that could easily kill or hurt him). He doesn’t quite have the same zany, fourth-wall breaking humor he had as Deadpool, but for a movie like this, I don’t think he needs it, he gets enough laughs as he is. 

            Taika Waititi as the villainous, Antwan is an absolute delight as scenery-chewing villains go, Waititi finds this perfect balance between being extremely funny and goofy to completely deranged and crazy, in my opinion, this is what the Ready Player One villain should have been like. Who would have thought Hitler from Jojo Rabbit would make a perfect corporate villain? 

            The video game references, while there are a lot more downplayed than in other movies revolving around video games. There are a few callbacks such as a scene where Guy gets a power-up and his hand transforms into Mega Man’s arm cannon and various Disney references thrown in such as the music from the Disney animated short, Paperman by Christophe Beck (Who also composes the music for this!) playing in a couple of scenes. 

            Free Guy is the rare modern summer blockbuster that doesn’t revolve around cinematic universes or franchise building, but instead offers a smart, funny, and very original adventure in the virtual world with a charming Ryan Reynolds leading the way. It just goes to show that sometimes you don’t need a skintight costume with electrified bracelets and cinematic universes to make a great summer blockbuster, sometimes all you need is just a “Guy” in a blue shirt.

            CATCHPHRASE!