In between churning out a sequel for The Hitman’s Bodyguard and waiting for Deadpool to finally find a way to cross over into the MCU, Ryan Reynolds found the time to star in his latest action blockbuster: the video game-inspired Free Guy. Though the film doesn’t do much work to develop beyond its (admittedly strong) premise, there are more than enough clever gags and in-jokes in Free Guy to make it perfect popcorn fare for a summer movie night – The Matrix meets The Truman Show meets The Lego Movie, but for a video game-savvy audience.
Free Guy follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds) a mild-mannered bank teller whose world is turned upside down when he discovers that he’s a non-playable character (NPC) in an online video game. With the help of programmer Millie (Jodie Comer) who meets Guy by chance under her player alias Molotov Girl, the two work together alongside Millie’s ex-partner Keys (Joe Keery) to find a hidden piece of her indie game which has been stolen by mega-rich developer Antwan (Taika Waititi). But when Guy becomes an unexpected global phenomenon, their mission becomes a race against time to find the game engine before Antwan destroys the entire game (and Guy) for good.
Free Guy (thankfully) doesn’t go the Ready Player One route of cramming in as many references and recognizable properties as possible to earn its video game credibility. Instead, the film refreshingly relies on gags that have sprung up in or are more commonly used by the online gaming community; characters running into walls, t-bagging enemies after killing them, using voice modulators, etc.
The film also enlists a number of popular online gaming streamers (including Jaksepticeye and Ninja) to add to its digital clout – resulting in a final product that feels less like what Hollywood *thinks* video games are, and more like a product of someone who actually has a genuine love of video games.
Though some stereotypes persist (like gamers being schlubby neckbeards that live in their moms’ basement) and some of the technobabble/slang is a little outdated, Free Guy still gets a remarkable amount of its subject matter right. So much so, that when the film finally *does* lean into making video game/film references in the last act, they’re exciting and well-earned moments as opposed to crutches used by the screenwriters as substitutions for genuine cleverness or solid gags.
Many of the comedic beats are so good, though, that they outshine the film’s narrative and characters themselves – especially in the case of our leading man. Granted, Guy is (quite literally by design) an NPC who’s meant to blend in and remain unremarkable, but he’s the Neo or Truman of our story, and thus one would hope that once he finally gets red-pilled, he takes on a little more personality and finds some chutzpah.
Instead, he remains the generic blanket character he started as – which, if his naïveté and optimism had been played up a-la The Lego Movie, could’ve worked – but his personality as it’s played out is left mostly to the whims of Ryan Reynolds and his typical comedic shtick.
Granted, it’s a pretty solid shtick, and some of his gags really do land (especially in the third act, where a majority of the film’s best moments lie), but Guy mostly feels like the same relatively one-note comedic bit that Ryan Reynolds does in every other role. The end result is certainly serviceable but at the expense of giving Guy any significant depth and allowing for an engaging protagonist.
Attempting to pick up the dramatic slack are Jodie Comer’s Millie/Molotov Girl and Joe Keery’s Keys, a duo of indie game developers whose game engine was secretly stolen – though Keys now works at the massive corporation they were bought out by, the duo still works to find a way to rescue their game (and later, Guy) from the clutches of Antoine.
Comer serves as the film’s deuteragonist in a dual role as both the real-life Millie and her in-game ass-kicking avatar Molotov Girl, but unfortunately, both characters are relatively uninspired and bare-bones attempts at assembling anything close to an emotional arc for the film.
Though Free Guy‘s focus on an indie creator being bought out and done dirty by a major corporation is a surprisingly relevant narrative thread, it’s a plot point that isn’t explored in any significant depth beyond surface-level trappings: serving more as a basis for the events the film to take place as opposed to an exploration of or arc for Comer’s character herself. Keery’s character is even less inspired than Comer’s, given significantly less screen time and not prominent enough in the narrative to earn the eventual emotional payout in the film’s final moments.
While they may not be winning any Oscars for their turns here, though, Comer and Keery both do their jobs suitably – with the unfortunate truth being that the roles given have relatively little meat on their bones, and neither actor makes a significant attempt to breathe life into their character.
Fighting to keep them from finding their stolen code is Taika Waititi as Antoine who – similarly to Ryan Reynolds – coasts on the audience’s love of and familiarity with his comedic shtick to bring laughs as opposed to attempting to break any new ground. Again, as with Reynolds, it’s not outright bad – most gags work, Waititi gives the requisite gusto, and he makes for a suitable villain – but he isn’t stretching himself in any interesting ways or bringing anything new to the table, just relying on his tried-and-true comic persona.
The true standouts of Free Guy are (perhaps suitably) the film’s supporting characters and cameos – the generic NPCs that guy interacts with on a day-to-day basis (including his local barista, a bombshell trophy girlfriend, and a little old lady looking for her cat) bring the film’s best moments – a true testament to the strength of the script.
Channing Tatum makes a brief but memorable turn – another actor who could’ve easily phoned it in, but who instead gives 110% and gets some of the biggest laughs because of it. Other cameos include an appearance from the late Alex Trebek once Guy goes viral online, and another A-list superhero actor who we won’t spoil here for the sake of the gag.
In the end, Free Guy manages to overcome the relatively phoned-in performances from the majority of its cast and emerges as a witty, lively take on online gaming. Though it doesn’t do much to build on its premise, Free Guy doesn’t need to – it’s a well-written action-comedy that serves as a perfect love letter to video games: sure to please PC and Console players alike.
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