Free Guy
Published October 2, 2021
Film info
- Title Free Guy
- Director Shawn Levy
- Year 2021
- Run time 1hr 55m
- Genres Comedy, Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- Tagline Life's too short to be a background character
Ryan Reynolds stars in this action-packed comedy as a mild-mannered bank teller named Guy, who learns he's really a background character in an open-world video game. Every day, Guy is under assault by players and objects within the game, where he's robbed, hit by cars, and otherwise mistreated as a 'non-playing character' (NPC). To make matters worse, the game owner has decided to end the game. Teaming with a woman who's both a human and a character in the game, Guy decides to become the hero of his own story. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way before it's too late.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:52 | “Laws aren’t really laws to them, they’re just like, mild suggestions.” |
| 6:17 | I’ve never understood obsessions with sneakers. |
| 11:14 | The Sunglasses People. Good name for a band. |
| 15:09 | “You gotta be better at your job, man.” Nice pep talk. |
| 17:46 | I don’t enjoy that the bunny costume has abs. |
| 24:32 | Jodie Comer even manages to make typing look interesting. |
| 26:36 | Invisible backpack reference! |
| 33:33 | I can see why they need the sunglasses element for it to work but as a gameplay option, they don’t make a lot of sense. |
| 40:21 | TAIKA! |
| 41:40 | Alberquerque Boiled Turkey. |
| 50:25 | Trial and error cappuccino would take ages! |
| 59:49 | “Even if I’m not real, this moment is… what’s more real than a person trying to help someone they love?” |
| 1:09:49 | Aw, as if they’re running it all on one C drive server. |
| 1:15:15 | I thought there wasn’t a button for that. |
| 1:28:29 | “Catchphrase.” |
| 1:31:21 | It’s never been more horrifying that Disney own all the good stuff. |
| 1:36:23 | Ugh, peeps disappearing to dust. Still too soon. |
Thoughts
It was hard to know what to expect from this movie - the trailer made it look fun-filled but bizarre, how could they make a story out of this? And I heard mixed reviews heading into it. But actually, the story did make sense structurally, which was a bonus. The cast were brilliant, and worked really well together. Jodie Comer can do no wrong, let’s be clear.
But the film didn’t really work, the mechanics of the game play kept tripping up the plot so they either had zero consistency or just abandoned ideas halfway through. If you know too much about gaming, it robs the movie of any respectability. It’s fun but it just doesn’t hang together very well.
Rating: 2 / 5