Free Guy

Hollywood has had a fascination with films that involve alternate worlds, i.e. "The Matrix", "Ready Player One", even "Back to the Future: Part II", and, although they can be intriguing, if not well developed, can become convoluted and bogged down with inconsistencies. So now we have yet another one of those type of films in the form of "Free Guy".

In this story, a bank teller, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, decides to become the hero of his own story...one he rewrites himself. He inadvertently puts on a pair of sunglasses that a villain was wearing and, all of a sudden, he can see the video game all around him. You see, Guy, along with other characters such as Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) are considered NPC's (Non Player Character), a filler in as a 'base' of the city backdrop, whereas others, such as Molotov Girl/Millie (Jodie Comer), Ninja (Tyler Blevins), Avatar (Channing Tatum) and Blue Avatar (Kimberly Howe) are the main video players. Now in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way...before it is too late. 

Others to round out the cast are Taika Waititi as Antoine, Joe Keery as Keys, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Mouser, Matty Cardarople as Gamer, Leah Procito as Bank Teller, Tait Fletcher as Viking Warrior, Aaron Reed as Dude, Camille Koster as Bombshell, John Krasinski as voice of player and Alex Trebek as himself. 

This was wittily and humorously directed by veteran Shawn Levy ("Address Unknown" '97, "Just In Time" '97, "Big Fat Liar" '02, "Just Married" '03, "Cheaper by the Dozen" '03, "The Pink Panther" '06, "Night At the Museum" '06, "Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" '09, "Date Night" '10, "Real Steel" '11, "The Internship" '13, "This Is Where I Leave You" '14, "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb" '14) plus TV, TV movies and shorts. This filmmaker never disappoints with his style of directing. He absolutely is skilled at pressing his actors to emit the correct emotion--whether over-the-top or subtly--no matter the genre. If you respect Levy's brand of directing, his "The Adam Project" is in post production for a 2022 release. It was cleverly written using humor and action by Matt Lieberman ("The Christmas Chronicles" '18, "The Addams Family" '19, "Playing with Fire" '19, "Scoob!" '20, "The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two" '20) plus TV and Zak Penn ("PCU" '94, "Inspector Gadget" '99, "Behind Enemy Lines" '03, "Incident at Loch Ness" '04, "Subject Zero" '04, "Elektra" '05, "X-Men: The Last Stand" '06, "The Grand" '07, "The Incredible Hulk" '18, "Ready Player One" '18) plus video games and TV, based on a story by Lieberman. The premise of this film would normally be a fairly easy one to write in a convoluted way, however these two seasoned writers were able to pull it off. Other than a couple of small places where it seemed a bit choppy, this story soared. It became a bit confusing at times when they went from the avatar world to the city world, but the character development and the humor made up for a lot of that. If you like Lieberman's work, his "Rumble" has been completed for a 2022 release. 

As aforementioned, the humor, coupled with the action actually made this film, not to mention Reynolds' dry narrative at the beginning. This is certainly one that needs to be experienced on the large screen because of the visual effects predominantly created by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) and Digital Domain, which were seamless. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                            Rated: PG-13                                          115mins.