There’s no greater feeling to go on movie night with the set mentality of “Ok, just to pass the time, plus Jodie Comer is in it and she’s pretty hot…Ryan Reynolds as well”, and then come out knowing that this is among your top favorites of the year because you had such a wonderful time at the movie theater.
Although some of the story elements have been used before, I still found the premise for Free Guy interesting. Ryan Reynolds‘ character, just named Guy, is a bank teller in Free City. What Guy doesn’t know is that his entire world is actually an open-world video game and that he’s just a regular NPC, that’s a non-player character in gamer talk. But then after meeting a girl, he starts deviating from his regular programming, becoming the hero of the story.
Like I said, it’s sort of done before but as the story moves on you can see how the writers of the story worked to make this as original and entertaining as possible.
I find it ironic that when people (aka greedy Hollywood producers) want to adapt a video game into a movie, most of their plans fall flat to the floor…and then keep falling down till you hit the Earth’s core. Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu you guys are the exception, great work guys. But when they try to tell a story while using video game elements, the result is the complete opposite and you end up having entertaining stories that know how to make fun of certain elements and use those elements to their advantage. Just to give you an example, I’m talking about the Wreck-It-Ralph movies, the Jumanji movies with The Rock, Scott Pilgrim vs the World counts…I think, and Ready Player One which was also written by Zack Penn who wrote this movie alongside Matt Lieberman clearly knows their video game and comedy.
So I really enjoyed seeing all those classic and popular video game elements used cleverly in this story. I think it is something that people who love playing video games will also enjoy, but at the same time, those who don’t know anything about it like my dad won’t be bothered by it.
But the story doesn’t only take place in the video game world, you also have characters and events happening in the real world. I believe that when you have that in your story, you have to make both worlds interesting for the audience so you don’t run into someone saying “this boring, go back to the other world that is more entertaining”. Yes, one of those worlds is more entertaining because it is visually more appealing or it’s where most of the important plot points take place. I do believe that in the case of Free Guy movie there’s a balance because the story and its characters have been well written.
But that clever story concept doesn’t work if you don’t have the right people to execute it and see it through the end.
That’s where the cast of the film and its director comes into play.
Joining Reynolds you have Jodie Comer as Millie and also as her own avatar in the game “Molotov Girl”, Joe Keery as Keys one of the game developers in the real world, Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s best friend Buddy, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Mouser friends of Keys, and finally Taika Waititi as Atwan the creator of the game and the main villain of the film. You also got a few cameos from other celebrities like Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman, Tina Fey, among others, but the only celebrity cameo that actually matters is that of the great Alex Trebek. I also gotta say it’s really nice to see talented actors like Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi finally working together.
Going back to the main cast of the Free Guy movie, you have this extremely talented team that is familiar with working on stories that mix comedies and action-adventure.
Reynolds is one of those actors that always stick to a particular style, you might say that he has his own style of comedy and it’s seen in every movie he appears in, no matter how small the role is. The guy is no exception to his formula, they just changed his attitude or mentality for this time around, instead of being the guy who knows it all and curses all the time, he’s now the guy who doesn’t know anything and is kind to everybody he runs into. But if the formula works then there’s no need to change it as long as it keeps entertaining audiences, at least I haven’t gotten tired of it, because like the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”.
Jodie Comer has gained a lot of popularity in these past couple of years with her starring role in Killing Eve, so it’s no surprise that sooner or later a star like her gets to star in a high budget action movie alongside whoever is among the most popular actors/actresses of the moment, and while Reynolds is the main guy of this film, Comer manages to hold her own. I liked her in the action scenes and she was great in the comedic scenes. Comer clearly has a lot of talent and is just getting started, can’t wait to see more of her.
The same goes for Joe Keery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Lil Rel Howery. You see them in these supporting roles here and there, and every single one of those roles is a chance for them to showcase their talents. I’m particularly fond of Keery, because I’m a fan of Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, so his character in this was the one I locked on to and cared more for his development as the story moved on.
In the last four years or so, Taika has become more famous for his work as a director, but I am glad that he has not closed the door to acting, even if it is a character where he doesn’t have complete creative control as a director or writer. I’m also not used to seeing him as the villain of the story, but then I remembered that the guy portrayed Hitler, so I could see a future of him being cast as the villain of the story since he knows how to nail those characters. I think it all comes down to how he knows how to deliver a performance where everything his character does or says is terrible and irredeemable but at the same time making him so funny with his own particular style of comedy so the audience can be entertained.
What I like about a director like Levy is that he can always work with whatever genre, budget, or cast you give him and you will always end up with an entertaining movie.
Then you have the mastermind behind all of these talented actors, and it’s none other than Shawn Levy.
Personally, I think what makes a Levy movie is that: when you finish watching it you will end up feeling good, maybe with a tear trying to come out of your eye because of that one scene that unexpectedly moved you, and enjoyed that night out at the movies. With that last one being something so essential for the current film industry. We now live in a world where every year there’s a new streaming service available and the experience of going to the theatre is being questioned. But more than ever we need that connection between us, the audience. We need to have fun again in the movies, we need movies like Free Guy movie.
Before wrapping this review, I have to talk about the film’s musical score which is one of the reasons that the film managed to position itself on my top 10 of the year. Because here’s the thing, folks, the man behind the music of this film is none other than Christoph Beck, now you may or may not have heard of him, but the important thing is that I have because I know him from a particular animated short film called Paperman. Well, they use the exact same music for the romantic scenes in this movie (they even have the same scene of the girl running through the streets looking for the man she loves, I mean come on!), so yeah they are basically cheating. It’s cheating because they are using a film and music that I absolutely love, that I turn to in order to not think about the constant fear of ending up alone and to not lose hope in true love.
In all seriousness, it’s not that I didn’t like the use of the score for the film, again it’s one of the things that made me love the Free Guy movie even more. Beck’s score enhanced the romantic moments between the characters and you could feel it among the audience as they were moved by what they were seeing and listening at the same time. There was this one guy in seat E8 that squealed harder than the rest of the girls in the theater in that epic romantic moment….yes it was me.
I also want to give a special shoutout to everyone involved with the marketing for this film. This was delayed several times because of the COVID pandemic, but you guys held on and managed to come up with new and very creative ideas to promote it. My personal favorites were the “from the studio that brought you the same movie twice” trailer, the background characters commercial, and of course the Deadpool and Korg trailer reaction.
As said before, I was expecting to just pass the time when I entered the movie theater, but not watching a movie that had cool action moments, funny performances, a moving soundtrack, and to deliver me an entertaining time at the movies.
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My score for this film: I really want to watch the Free Guy movie again as soon as possible.
