Free Guy

2021, Shawn Levy (Real Steel) -- download/Disney

OK, Halloween is over so I can get to the bright, shiny thing that we watched just before October began, Ryan Reynold's latest Big Thing that does not directly involve gin.

I will be honest, I think I prefer Reynolds being less than wholesome. In Free Guy he is a cheery, friendly bank teller NPC in a Grand Theft Auto style MMO world. That the game actually programmed him getting up each morning, choosing his blue shirt outfit (aren't closets full of the same outfit signs of a psychopath?) and picking up his same coffee every day. Every day is the same. His bank gets robbed, he and his best bud Buddy (Lil Rey Howery, Get Out) the security guard hide behind the counter, and their day progresses, all to start over again tomorrow. Knowing video games, they probably get robbed quite a few times in a day, as soon as the event resets.

But Guy breaks the mould by noticing one player in particular, Molotov Girl played by Millie (Jodie Comer, Killing Eve), one of a pair of programmers who once had lofty ideas on what open world games could be like. But Keys (Joe Keery, Stranger Things) ended up working for the BBEG, Antwan (Taika Waititi, What We Do In the Shadows). But back to Guy, who has his script, but keeps on breaking it, to pine for Molotov Girl, until that day when he actually approaches her. She thinks she's just interacting with another player, albeit an unconventional one, considering his lack of violence. Also, he gets a pair of glasses that allows him to see the HUD that Players do, revealing to him that his world may not be as real as he believed.

Once Guy figures things out, he decides that the people of his world need some protecting, and proceeds to foil as many Player actions as he can. He stops the robberies, saves the cat, defends the innocent and racks up MUCH experience along the way. Soon Guy, or "blue shirt guy", is a celebrity IRL, everyone assuming he is another Player just playing against type. That a game could be this popular IRL, that kids (and adults) around the world would gather in front of small TVs to see his latest antics is less believable than a video game NPC becoming sentient.

This is an incredibly charming, mostly family friendly movie. There are some fun cameos, lots of cute setups and Comery, who most know as an assassin (not IRL), comes off as a very sweet, affable Millie. Reynolds is just normal non-murderous (Dead Pool) Reynolds, which as I mentioned, is fine enough but I prefer him just a bit more foul mouthed. Meanwhile Taika the mish-mash of all those looney tech moguls we love to hate is absolutely rad.

And despite having nothing but good things to say about it, I was just this side of Really Liking It. Its fine, no complaints, but much of the movie is like the game they are playing -- a bit more shallow than I would like. Everything is by the numbers, as plasticy and expected as Guy's world. Not that I need everything to be edgy and gritty, but I would have liked a bit more substance. The thing is that I just cannot conceive how THIS movie would give that, but I guess that defines it entirely -- I wanted more of the unexpected, but I got exactly what I thought I would get.

I might have to do a rewatch post where I do nothing but talk about the video game tropes littered throughout the movie.