It feels like Free Guy came out ages ago, considering the very first trailer for this movie was released in December of 2019. But what’s so great about the marketing of Free Guy is that with all the delays and push back because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they took serious advantage of that and applied it to some of the promotion. It was sometime back in the fall last year when Free Guy was slated for a Christmas release in 2020, and just a few short months before, the entire cast and director got on a zoom call and were promoting the movie, but almost uncertain if the movie was coming out that year. It was such a great and new way to market a movie, which is why this movie kept getting on people’s radar. It’s also worth noting that the movie was getting comparisons from films such as Wreck-It Ralph and The Lego Movie, solely based on the trailers. Plus, you add the star power and likability with a Ryan Reynolds, you’ve potentially got something really special at hand. With a year and half of constant delays and pushes again and again, Free Guy finally is out in the public exclusviy in theaters. Free Guy is by far the best pure rush of adrenaline and entertainment that 2021 has to offer. It’s packed with crazy and bonkers action, gorgeous visuals and pounds of heart and laughter that’s geared by the exceptional performances from Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer. By balancing out the video game aspects, Free Guy works its way as being simple and sweet without being too serious and overly complicated with it’s story mechanisms. This is the type of summer movie that delivers on old school fun by not being something pretentious or even Oscar worthy.
Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is pretty much you’re average type of guy (no pun) who does the same thing everyday. He wakes up, eats breakfast, stops for coffee and makes his way to work at the bank, that is until he realizes that he’s a background character in a massive open-world video game. His whole world changes knowing what kind of purpose his life is because as a background character, he starts wondering if anything he does actually matters. He starts making a bigger name for himself, as the Blue Shirt Guy, by becoming the hero in his own world, and having some help along the way and maybe some romance as well.
With Free Guy being set in a video game world, the movie isn’t based off of a video game, which gives it more flexibility with its world building by not sticking to any source material. It allows itself to do what ever it wants with its characters and the narrative, hence why the originality of this movie stands out. Granted, it’s not like we haven’t seen stories liken this in other movies, however, Free Guy has so much inventivenss and style with a world that almost feels like nothing we’ve ever seen before. That’s what separates it from movies that are actually based on video games. Free Guy could have been based on a video game, but it’s almost as off they took a video game and created its own thing with brand new characters and fabricating it’s own story. With Shawn Levy as the director (director of films such as Real Steel, the Night at the Museum movies and Cheaper by the Dozen), he has a very interesting eye as a filmmaker because his movies, generally speaking, are much more catered to mainstream families who probably don’t go out to the movies as often. He certainly has made enjoyable and very fun movies, but nothing that’s mind blowingly game changing. Shawn Levy is not a Steven Spielberg, but he’s great at being Shawn Levy. Free Guy is definitely his best movie to date because it is a terrific summer movie, but it’s much more touching than people would expect it to be and most than the summer movies that typically come out.
Ryan Reynolds, as a performer, keeps stepping his game up, especially from a comedic perspective. We all love him as Deadpool, and with those movies and now Free Guy, he’s becoming one of the funniest performers that’s working today. On the other hand, he also is able to display some serious scenes of emotion that he’s not normally known for. The character he plays, right from the beginning, is why this entire movie works. This is a character with so much optimism, joy and happiness that you leave the theater with the bigger smile on your face. Jodie Comer, who’s making her biggest splash in this movie, is absolutely phenomenal. She carries a great dynamic with Reynolds, which elevates the heart and soul of this movie, which is what gives this movie that strong layer of romance. That’s also what makes Free Guy a special movie. It is operating as a comedy, an action flick and even to a certain degree a science-fiction adventure, but underneath the action and solid moments of giggles, Free Guy is an amazing and very affecting love story. It’s an aspect that will catch many by surprise and it’s one gives this movie so much heart. The rest of the supporting team, from Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi and Joe Keery are all really great in their supporting roles. They each give the movie more diversity with more comedy and more charm.
Is Free Guy guaranteed a Best Picture nomination? Probably not because movies like this never get recognized at Awards shows, especially the Academy Awards. But what Free Guy has that every movie should have are real characters and a world that we would to revisit again with a follow up. But what’s most surprising about the movie is how heartwarming and moving it is. The relationship between Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer is unprecedented stuff that speaks volumes to the feelings you’ll get while watching this movie. Is Free Guy a The Green Knight, absolutely not. But Free Guy might be the most special movie of the whole damn year.
My grade for Free Guy: A+
Zane's take at the Cinema's 