Movie Review: Free Guy

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A delightful comedy and just a lot of fun. Let's be honest the reason most people are seeing this movie is Ryan Reynolds. This is an excellent reason as he is in top form here. As most everyone reading movie reviews online knows, Ryan Reynolds has an incredible talent at delivering jokes. Like most great comedic actors he can take a joke that wouldn't be that funny in most hands and make it very funny. He shows this ability very well here, creating quite a few laugh out loud moments from the simplest and silliest jokes. Yet even while he is doing this, his performance also shows enough warmth to make the character he is playing feel completely real. None of this is to say that he is the only reason to watch this film. Far from it. As silly as the story is, it is also surprisingly effective. The emotional notes hit quite well and while I doubt many of you will get teary-eyed watching it, these moments do make you really care about what is going on. The fantasy world much of the movie takes place in is a very likable one and one that feels quite believable and well thought out. The whole film is very capably directed by Shawn Levy. While Levy is not one who will likely be found in lists of great directors, his work is consistently entertaining and often puts a smile on my face (many of you may know him best for the Night in the Museum movies, as well as some episodes of Netflix's Stranger Things). Like many movies that take place partly in the real world and partly in a fantasy world, the scenes that take place in the real world often pale in comparison to those in the fantasy world (the exception being the scenes featuring the villain (played perfectly over the top by filmmaker, Taika Waititi). These scenes while not bad are where the film tends to feel its most conventional and cliché. These scenes feel at times too familiar. The scenes where various YouTubers react to what is happening in the fantasy world tend to drag and add little to nothing to the story, as well as too often spell out what we have already inferred for ourselves about the story's message. Overall Free Guy is simply a lot of fun. -Michael J. Ruhland