Free Guy: Not A Good Movie, A Great Movie

September 29, 2021 Tiggy

This past weekend I took a break from playing video games to go watch a movie about Ryan Reynolds in a video game. Listen, the gamer life is tough. Constantly trying to best your last PR. Giving up common decencies like showering to not slow down your hourly experience. Or maybe you just want to escape reality for extended periods of time because you have more control inside a virtual world. For none, any, or all of these reasons, I went outside…to my car & drove to go see Free Guy. Here’s my review: (minimal spoilers i.e. not giving away any sort of ending)

Seeing the trailer for Free Guy last year had me instantly amped. A film starring Ryan Reynolds, in which he plays an NPC(non-player character) in an open-world online video game. Almost bought the tickets 2 years ago when I saw the trailer. Thankfully I didn’t as the Coco(COVID) delayed the release by over a year. Irregardless*, the plot basically follows Ryan’s character “Guy” as he becomes more aware that’s he’s inside a video game. We obviously get to see a lot of hilarious Reynolds moments like him describing some sexual intangibles inside his mouth as the flavorful coffee falls into his attractive blow hole…nah we’re gonna keep that one. But we also get to see an actual electric factory of a production. Apart from Ryan, the cast also includes Jodie Comer(Killing Eve), Joe Keery(Stranger Things), Channing Tatum(Coach Carter), gamers: Ninja & Pokimane, as well as so many other blockbuster talents.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect coming in, with the exception of Ryan Reynolds getting us all to laugh a lot. I definitely wasn’t prepared to absolutely love this movie though. Let’s be honest, not all gaming movies have hit the mark(Pokémon 3), but the most recent releases have been good for the most part. Free Guy is a culmination of all sorts of gaming culture such as Ready Player One, Grand Theft Auto, Cyberpunk, and I’m sure many more. Personally I love when movies/shows do little callbacks to other similar works done. Probably why this film will resonate with the majority of us who love Deadpool. The writing, direction, & storyline just flowed so well. Laughing, to on the edge of my seat through gory action, all the way to weeping like middle-aged woman when Renée Zellweger says “You had me at hello”. I’d say this movie is a better Ready Player One if I had to compare it to another. Not that the plots are the same, but there are a lot of similar themes throughout. The range this film portrayed will have so many different people falling in love with this work. Groundhog Day meets Ready Player One with a side salad of The Lego Movie. I have to give this a MUST WATCH stamp of approval for all video gamers, or anyone who just enjoys great movies. 9.1/10

To close it out, I’d like to promote an underlining theme of the film: take control of your life. It’s quite too short to not be working towards something that’ll make you happy. Let’s keep taking steps, even if it’s just one everyday, to get a little closer to the tippy-top of the mountain. One can only imagine that the view is spectacular.