Free Guy Review

New comedy action movie ‘Free Guy’ brings a fresh take on video game-based films

Free Guy is a new action comedy movie, released August 13 and is available in theaters now. It’s rated PG-13 for language, violence, and some sexual innuendos, so it may not be suitable for younger children.

Without spoiling anything (for those who haven’t seen it yet), I wil say that this movie definitely exceeded a lot of my expectations.

The movie follows Guy, an exceedingly ordinary bank teller who discovers he’s actually an NPC (non playable character) in a popular open-world video game. There’s much more to the story than that, but I advise you to go see it and find out for yourself.

I love how creative this movie is. Usually video game-based movies, at least in my opinion, tend to be a little bit bland and formulaic — and honestly downright cringey at times. But the plot really seems to stray away from the norm and it feels very original, while still providing aspects that are realistic and relatable to real-life gamers (as well as a surprisingly interesting insight into computer programming).

The movie also has cameos from different celebrities as well as popular online YouTube personalities — including Jacksepticeye, DanTDM, Ninja and Pokimane. There is even a Chris Evans cameo which, albeit brief, is just as hilarious.

This is definitely a feel-good movie as well as a comedy. The ending was heart-warming, and the movie is filled with loveable characters. Ryan Reynolds is already a great actor in my opinion, and I think he really shined in this role. The comedy feels natural and flows well, it doesn’t feel forced and you can actually have a really good laugh watching this movie.

In terms of visuals, Free Guy really knocks it out of the park. The action scenes and stunts are exciting and fun, and the special effects are outstanding. Going down to even the most minute visual detail, you can tell how much effort was put into this movie.

I also really liked the score, which is not usually something that I would focus that much on when it comes to movies, but the original score plus the occasional pop song fits the feel of the movie really well.

To be honest, the only negative thing that I could say about this movie would have to be the cut-and-dry, somewhat formulaic feeling antagonist. Taika Waititi, albeit a great actor as well as director in my opinion, seemed miscast in this role. I felt he overacted a bit, and it didn’t really fit well with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Nonetheless, the positives drastically outweigh the negatives, and overall I think it’s a really great movie. The whole thing just feels very colorful and vibrant, it’s very visually stimulating, whilst still having substance, so it can be a great watch for movie night.