Ryan Reynolds made headlines when he named Free Guy, the latest video game inspired comedy from director Shawn Levy (“Night At the Museum”), as his favorite film of his own, unseating “Deadpool,” the much loved R rated superhero flick from 2016. Those in the film community took note; Is Reynolds blowing smoke, or is this really better than one of the most iconic superhero movies of the decade?
It brings me great pleasure to report that Free Guy isn’t just better than “Deadpool,” it’s one of the best, funniest, most thrilling, surprisingly heartfelt and just plain fun films of 2021. Everything about this gem is designed to entertain and bring a giant smile to your face, which is exactly what the world needs in this chaotic time.
Reynolds plays Guy, a bank teller in Free City- Get it? Free GUY?- a violent world in which the bank is robbed multiple times a day. Guy is complacent, happy to be exactly where he is, that is, until he meets a mysterious beauty known as Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer of “Killing Eve” fame), who brings out something in Guy. Something that inspires him to fight back against a robber and take his sunglasses that literally unlock a whole new world for Guy.
Turns out, Guy is a non playable character or NPC in a video game and Molotov Girl is actually Millie, a player who’s trying to find evidence that the game’s douchebag designer, Antwan (Taika Waititi, “Jojo Rabbit”), screwed her over and stole her game code. But as Guy continues to change Free City, the real world takes notice and Antwan is NOT happy.
Free Guy is one of the rare films that combines a massive scale, loads of action and great visual effects with a worthwhile story and compelling characters. Levy, who’s track record of family comedies like “Big Fat Liar” and occasional dramatic fare such as “This is Where I Leave You,” may not seem like the obvious choice for this “Ready Player One” inspired adventure film, but he turns out to be the perfect choice. There’s enormous action and clever use of CGI here, but not once does the film show off or exploit its effects; it blends seamlessly into the storyline to the point that all other effects driven films should take note of how computer effects are handled here.
But all that would be meaningless if we don’t care about Guy, Millie and their adventures in Free City. Viewers may think they have got the story figured out from its advertising, but there are plenty of surprises in store over the runtime and the script by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, who ironically co wrote “Ready Player One,” knows how to take advantage of its premise. The ride isn’t only fun and exciting, it zigs and zags to the point where you genuinely don’t know how the film will end.
That’s a massive strength when it comes to the fact that Guy, Millie and the entire cast, including “Stranger Things” star Joe Keery as Millie’s ex partner and Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s security guard friend, is incredibly well rounded and relatable- with the notable exception of Waititi as Antwan, who gets loads of laughs playing the greatest jackass known to man. Reynolds makes full use of the pitch perfect comedic timing he used on “Deadpool,” while Comer is not only lovable, but could hold a candle to Charlize Theron as one of the most attractive action stars out there.
The cherry on top of this cinematic sundae is the uplifting and rightfully on point message behind the action. Free Guy tells its viewers that wanting more out of life is normal and all we need to do to reach our full potential is try to do so. Much like “Soul” before it, this film packs a surprisingly profound punch and after a year and a half of hardship that’s made so many rethink their lives, maybe this feel good film could inspire some good in the real world. If anything, the pandemic induced delay made it so that this film was released at the perfect time.
Free Guy is a pure uncut rush of cinematic serotonin in a year when we needed it most. There’s a lot more to talk about with this near masterpiece, but for the sake of spoilers, all that’s left to say is that anybody should see this film if they’re looking to forget their troubles and have a well earned laugh. It’s that good.
Free Guy is now playing in theaters.