Free Guy (2021)

FREE GUY (2021)

Dir: Sean Leavy

The popcorn event of the summer is not Marvel’s Black Widow (2021), it’s a strange mixture of what Deadline and a RelishMix call a combination of, “Ready Player One, Wreck-It Ralph, The Matrix, The Truman Show on steroids, and Grand Theft Auto.” From early trailers, where audiences had no idea what to expect from the world Ryan Reynolds’ character inhabits to later trailers that spell out he’s a non-playable character in a game owned by Taika Waititi, we knew the humor would be razor-sharp. As a 20^th Century Studios film, we quickly forget it’s owned by Disney. But then we see some Marvel references and remember that even our new original entertainment is owned by a conglomerate monopolizing our amusement.

You have to love how Ryan Reynolds plays a live action Emmet Brickowski from The Lego Movie (2014). Instead of, “Everything is awesome!” Reynolds’ Guy has a mantra of, “Don’t have a good day, have a great day!” That is until he meets someone who destroys his normal routine. From then on, his eyes are opened to the world he creates, and he will do anything in the name of love.

In Free Guy, there are sunglasses people. These people seem to do whatever they want to do and get away with it. By not-so-random chance, Guy gets ahold of a pair of these glasses. Now he sees his world as playable missions. The moment he dons the glasses, I’m waiting for him to chew bubblegum and kick some *ss. He only does the latter. I’m thinking it’s such a wasted reference until there’s a moment where he grabs a second pair of sunglasses and asks his friend, Buddy to put them on. This is it. The two of them are going to go full Carpenter. Sean Leavy won’t be able to contain himself. We’re going to get a ten minute fight scene right in the middle of this bank. I gripped my wife’s hand, her eyes glimmered with the same hope mine did. But nothing. F*cking nothing. How dare you! You can’t just get our hopes up like that. But, the character of Dude almost makes up for it. I love how Dude is not entirely finished. It’s very smart. He’ll scream out, “Catchphrase!” Or, my favorite and maybe that subtle They Live reference I was looking for, “There are three things I love in life: kicking *ss, TBD, insert third thing here.”

While there’s a conventional romantic comedy under layers of technology, open world games, and discourses on advances in artificial intelligence, I agree with Sean Leavy when he says, “Free Guy was built with one prime objective, audience delight.” Whether we feel manipulated by another Disney property, it’s that delightful kind of manipulation.