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Free Guy Review

 


Certificate: 12A

Running time: 115 minutes 

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, Joe Keery

Directed by: Shawn Levy

The story: When a bank teller decides to liven up his ordinary life, he has no idea that he is actually an NPC in popular online game Free City.

The verdict: There are certain actors known for ‘doing their thing’ and if you’re looking for comedy delivered 
with deadpan accuracy then Mr Ryan Reynolds is your man. This isn’t a criticism of Reynolds by any means, just a heads up that Free Guy is definitely a film in which Reynolds ‘does his thing.’

Delayed due to COVID (a sentence becoming commonplace in film reviews), Free Guy has finally made it to the big screen, and I have to say I think it was worth the wait.

Bringing to mind several other films, though not by way of imitation, Free Guy is like Ready Player One meets The Truman Show meets The Lego Movie - and it’s just so much fun. 

Chock full of pop culture and lots of laugh out moments, Free Guy has something for almost everyone to appreciate. There are also several cameos, which I won’t reveal, but these cameos have the potential to appeal to both younger and older audiences. 

As mentioned above, Reynolds is pretty much as you’d expect but again this is not a criticism and I enjoyed both his character and performance. As a Stranger Things mega fan, I loved seeing Joe Keery in this and thought he was great. However, the standout for me was Jodie Comer. It’s always awesome to see homegrown talent doing well and Comer is brilliant as duel characters in both the real world and the online world of Free City.

Two things surprised me about Free Guy. Firstly, it was a lot more full of heart than I expected. There are underlying themes of what it means to be yourself, be true to yourself and to live your life how you want to instead of how others expect you to. What also surprised me was how smart the film was - which sounds like a backhanded compliment. However, it’s easy to get caught up in the blockbuster style and the fun, and forget that the actual principle behind the film is pretty genius - what if all the non player characters got fed up of being cannon fodder and decided to do something about it? I don’t think you even need to be a gamer to appreciate that that’s an inspired idea.

I was engaged with this throughout and would watch it again in an instant. A must see in the cinema.

The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half 

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