The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Packed, man
‘Free Guy’ has a lot going on, but video game-inspired romp presses enough right buttons
The sunglasses people? They’re the heroes.
“They have a devil-maycare attitude, and they run this town.”
Those are the words of Guy, Ryan Reynolds’ character in the new relatively fun, clever and original action-comedy “Free Guy.”
Guy lives in Free City — or, as he calls it, “paradise” — and is content with his existence as an average, well, guy. He has a goldfish, a job as a teller at Free City Bank and a best friend in Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), a security guard at the bank.
What Guy doesn’t know is he’s actually a non-playable character — aka an NPC, a background element — in a popular video game, “Free City.”
The largely virtual adventure that grows out of his discovery of this fact is both entertaining and bombastic, with the appealing duo of Reynolds and “Killing Eve” co-star Jodie Comer being overshadowed at times by all the necessary high-tech visual wizardry that comes along with telling this story.
Early on, “Free Guy” echoes 1998’s “The Truman Show,” with Guy beginning
to notice the highly cyclical nature of his life, complete with same daily coffee order and frequent robberies of the bank, during which he and Buddy calmly engage in chitchat. (In the ultra-violent open-world game, “Free City,” players level-up by being lousy people — acting hostile, committing crimes, etc.)
Guy is shaken from his ignorance-is-blissful routine by Molotovgirl, the edgy-and-sexy virtual character controlled by Millie (Comer). Buddy tries to convince Guy he cannot talk to her — she is, after all, a sunglasses person, and they are not — but he doesn’t listen to his pal. He takes a pair of shades from a bank robber and his worldview literally changes as soon as he dons them.
Now Guy sees what players see, Free City looking quite different to him; he suddenly is aware it’s
packed with digital elements common to video games of the last couple of decades, such as health boosters and weapons upgrades.
Millie’s inside the game looking for proof that its maker, Soonami Studios, stole code from her and her partner, Keys (Joe Keery), who now works as a programmer for Soonami.
Guy is able to get the attention of Molotovgirl and, eventually, convince Millie he’s now more than the typical NPC. Completely smitten,
he sets about to help her.
Much to Millie’s surprise, after spending time with Guy in the online world, she begins to have feelings for him — further complicating an already complex situation.
Outside the game and within it, Millie, Guy and Keys face a major threat in Soonami’s greedy owner, Antwan (Taika Waititi), who is focused on the major payday that should come with the game’s soon-to-bereleased sequel.
“Free Guy” is helmed by “Night at the Museum” franchise director Shawn Levy, who in recent years has directed several episodes of Netflix hit “Stranger Things.” It’s an uneven effort, the romp at times mashing the right buttons and at others making you want to reach for a reset — especially when the third act drags on with an obligatory-and-boring fight sequence in which Guy faces a super-sized enemy.
The credit and blame for the highs and lows are shared by writers Matt Lieberman (“The Addams Family”), who gets the story-by credit, and Zak Penn, who has experience with swimming in such virtual waters from 2018’s stronger “Ready Player One.”
It helps greatly that “Free Guy” is a vehicle well-suited to the charismatic Reynolds (“Deadpool,” “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard”), who possesses the kind of on-screen energy that fits right in with all the graphical craziness.
Comer isn’t as engrossing is as she is as the obsessive, psychopathic assassin Villanelle on “Killing Eve,” but she brings plenty of personality to both Millie and Molotovgirl and works well opposite Reynolds.
While Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”) is a little much intentionally hamming it up as the movie’s villain and we get a bit more of Howery (“Get Out”) blathering on at a few points, Keery is engaging in the third-banana role. (And if you were wondering, the lush hair of the actor best known for portraying jerk-turned-hero Steve on the aforementioned “Stranger Things,” is a bit shorter but still very much on point.)