When I started watching “Free Guy,” I wasn’t aware of the details of the plot, but I knew that I had it on DVD and it stars one of my favorites: Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds, who, in my book, is the king of sarcasm. I found that the majority of the movie takes place in and part of a video game. After the first few minutes, I didn’t believe that “Free Guy” could amount to much, but that’s a lesson you might learn in Free City … take it easy on the judgments and enjoy it. “Free Guy” is a truly interesting film that you should just watch without having read a review such as this one. Ah well, I guess that ship has sailed … or, as I should write, that game has rebooted.
‘Free Guy’
(2021; 115 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer and Taika Waititi)
A LESSON IN REAL LIFE FROM A VIDEO GAME
When I figured out that the movie “Free Guy” was going to be the story of people involved with and being in a video game looking for proof of a bad person stealing software, I thought back to Disney’s “Tron” all those years ago (actually, 41 years ago from that film’s release on July 9, 1982). While there is a component of taking down a bad computer person, “Free Guy” offers more than “Tron” – although “Tron” remains solid to this day because of its special effects (of the time).
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In a most basic outline of “Free Guy,” Ryan Reynolds stars as “Guy” and he lives in Free City. It is a massive computer game and in the background of Reynolds’ life is an ongoing series of massively violent combat that includes every form of weaponry you’ve ever seen. It’s a miasma of CGI-executed mayhem highlighted by the “heroes” who wear sunglasses.
It doesn’t take too long, but you soon find that characters such as “Guy” and his buddy “Buddy” are non-player characters or NPCs; that is, they are characters not controlled by a human player, but by the computer in the video game. They are the background. The real-life gamers have avatars that wear the sunglasses, while the NPCs toil in an obscurity of routine somewhat akin to “Groundhog Day.”
The backstory is that the company that runs the online game and has reaped tons in profits has a nasty secret: Its sleazy CEO has stolen the heart of the game’s programming from two people – one who still works for the company and the other who is totally pissed off and is suing the boss.
Of course, the duo stay connected via computer and come together to take on the CEO, the company and the game … with the fight ultimately going through “Guy,” who, while an NPC, is developing as a person through AI (artificial intelligence in the programming).
The neatest component of “Free Guy” is that in the game, the characters being controlled by humans are more the background and the NPCs are the ones with personality and life. You see some of the video players (and they are very interesting in a brief moment on screen), but the NPCs wind up in charge.
Outside the game, you have Jodie Comer as “Millie Rusk” and Joe Keery as “Walter ‘Keys’ McKey” leading the way. “Millie” is tough-minded in her stand against the company and is suing it and the CEO, while “Keys” moves along at his own deliberate pace while still working for the company.
Again of course, both know that the CEO has stolen their software that put magic into Free City and they want it back, but they’re taking different roads somewhat together to get to that point. However, they get pressed for time as a sequel to the game is coming out and, if it does, it will overwrite their programming and they would wind up the biggest losers.
It is while “Millie” is in the game as her character, a prime ass-kicker named “MolotovGirl” (totally cool, right?), that “Guy” sees her and … well, falls in love. However, she’s wearing sunglasses; he’s not; and that’s a problem in Free City. Still, he manages to bond with her and becomes a sunglasses-wearing hero himself. The evolution is just one clue to what he has become in the game and that AI is just more than programming.
You won’t be surprised by any of the plot’s twists and turns (I probably should describe them as gentle curves) and all the good NPCs and “Millie” and “Keys” win in end … and that shouldn’t be a spoiler alert for anyone.
Here’s a look at some of the characters:
- A Golden Globe nominee for “Deadpool,” Reynolds gives his usual solid effort as “Guy,” who’s also called “The Blue Shirt Guy.” Reynolds pretty much has a patent on a smooth delivery and a used-car salesman’s delivery in just about any scene. He’s very good in “Free Guy” at showing the wonderment of each stage of the change of his “life.” However, I enjoy Reynolds’ work so much that I’d say that he could have done a little better job with this one. Before “Deadpool,” Reynolds was at his sarcastic best with “Waiting …;” was in the horribly violent “Smokin’ Aces;” showed his energy in “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle;” was the BMOC in “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder;” and was even on an episode of TV’s “Scrubs.”
- A two-time Golden Globe nominee, Comer, like just about every actor in “Free Guy,” does a solid job as “Millie Rusk.” I enjoyed how she kicks into a higher gear once her “relationship” with “Guy” starts to meld with “MolotovGirl.” Her work outside of the game with “Keys” is just as solid and that relationship also builds to what’s the real emotional climax of the film. She was nominated for the Globes and is a Primetime Emmy winner and two-time Emmy nominee for the TV series “Killing Eve.” I haven’t seen much of her work and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in the future.
- Pretty much a newcomer, Keery, who plays “Keys,” has a slim resume of jus 16 acting credits since the first in 2015, but does a good job in “Free Guy.” He’s unassuming in his competence with computers and even handles the crazy CEO with aplomb. Further, Keery has the hair for the part and, you’ll finally realize in his climactic scene with Comer, that although it isn’t sunglasses of the game’s “heroes,” he’s wearing glasses. Keery has made his mark with TV’s “Stranger Things” and has been in “Molly’s Game” and “After Everything.”
- An Oscar winner and two-time nominee, Taika Waititi is the narcissistic, ego-driven CEO “Antwan Hovachelik,” who stole the software that made him a rich man through the “Soonami Studios” company. Although a bit of a stereotype in most ways, Waititi is simply marvelous as he bashes through each scene. Not only does he do good emotion and switching behaviors almost in a single sentence, Waititi has excellent physical moves, too – such as when he’s on his back on the floor and attempts to flip up nimbly on his feet like a martial arts star, but he doesn’t make it and winds up looking like a stranded turtle. Waititi won his Oscar and had another nomination for the critically acclaimed “JoJo Rabbit.” He won for writing the adapted screenplay and was nominated as part of the producing team for best movie. He’s done TV, movies and shorts, but is now focusing his time on writing and producing.
- Lil Rel Howery is “Buddy” and he as a bank guard and Reynolds as a bank teller get robbed every day in Free City. Howery, like his character in “Tag” (click here to read my review), is quiet and pretty much a voice of reason. I hadn’t seen Howery in anything except “Tag” before watching “Free Guy” and, like others in this movie, I’d like to see more of his work. Howery has also been in “Get Out,” “Bird Box” and early in his career did a variety of characters on the hilarious “In Living Color” on TV.
- Utkarsh Ambudkar is “Mouser” and he’s Keery’s buddy in real life, in the game and at the company. Ambudkar becomes a back-stabbing turncoat, but manages to find his sense of ethical balance and get back on Keery’s team at the end. I would have liked to see Ambudkar in a more expanded role because he doesn’t have much of a chance to show his acting chops in this one, but there really wasn’t any time to give and he’s solid in his time on-screen. I’ll keep an eye out for him again in the future. He has notched 69 acting credits since his first in 2008, but I haven’t seen any of them!
Channing Tatum has a small, but very funny appearance as “Revinjamin Buttons,” who owns a “stash house” in the game where “Antwan” has hidden the file that proves “Millie” and “Keys” created the software. Tatum is simply hilarious and you have to see his scene to fully appreciate it. I also enjoyed Tatum’s work in “Hail, Caesar!” (click here to read my review).
Oh, one of the many neat things about “Free Guy” is that several “names” voiced but are uncredited in it. You’ll find Tina Fey as the “Vacuuming Mom;” Hugh Jackman as “Masked Player in Alley;” John Krasinski as “Silhouetted Gamer;” and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as “Bank Robber #2.”
Further, you’ll find that “Free Guy” has legendary “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek’s final movie appearance before his death at 80 in November 2020 of pancreatic cancer. Because of delays due to the COVID pandemic, the movie was released nine months after Trebek’s death. In the movie, “Guy” becomes the answer to a question on the game show.
Oh, BTW … “Free Guy” extends the Hollywood infection of giving money to folks who do very little for being a “producer,” an “executive producer,” a “co-producer” or “associate producer.” You’ll find 13 such wastes of money listed in the cast notes for “Free Guy” and then there are those who wonder about the accounting for “profits” of movies. Sigh.
“Free Guy” was the No. 10 film at U.S. theaters in 2021 with $121.6 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film was “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $572.9 million. The first nine of the top 10, while big money makers, doesn’t interest me at all. “Free Guy” is the first movie released in 2021 that I’ve reviewed for my blog.
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
- “Free Guy” was nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects. It lost out to the re-boot of “Dune.”
- The film was originally set to be released in the summer of 2020, but the COVID pandemic caused it to be pushed back first to November 2020 and then finally its premiere on Aug. 18, 2021.
- Directly from IMDb.com: “A map of Free City, the city that the game in the film takes place in, is actually a map of Portland, Oregon. The ‘stash house’ that Jodie Comer’s character wants to break into is shown as being located in Portland’s Forest Park.”
- Because of the size of cast with NPCs, there are 65 actors with parts in the film who are “uncredited.” Wow. By any film standard, that’s a whole bunch of “uncredited” characters.
- Armored vehicles in the movie include “Scorpion” tanks from the “Halo” video game franchise.
- They do not have a scene together in “Free Guy,” but Reynolds and Waititi were together in 2011’s “Green Lantern.”
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Three of director Shawn Levy’s four daughters appear on screen. They play ‘tween gamer,’ ‘foul mouthed little sister,’ and ‘big city dreamer.’”
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