150 Word Review: ‘Free Guy’ (2021)

Game on

I can’t think of many good movies based on video games but there are plenty about virtual worlds that are great, like Wreck-it-Ralph or even The Matrix. Add Free Guy, which is pretty okay.

In Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds plays a non-player character, a grinning, optimistic digital nobody who lurks in the background of a massive, violent open-world video game. He is oblivious to the constant carnage caused by players from the real world. That is, until, he becomes sentient, like Skynet, only loveable.

This flick is more playful than Spielberg’s dreary cyberspace epic Ready Player One, and it slyly steals from The Lego Movie and Jim Carey’s soulful sci-fi tearjerker The Truman Show. But it is mostly just a vehicle for Ryan Reynolds, Hollywood’s favorite wiseass, and like its star, Free Guy wants to please, and it does so with incredible special effects, pop culture references, and boner jokes.