The film plays out like a mixture of Wreck-it Ralph, The Truman Show and They Live, writes Patrick Cremona. <\/p>
By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Thursday, 05 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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It\u2019s become something of a well-established fact that, more often than not, video game movies tend to be disappointments. Over the years, a string of big-budget adaptations based on some of the world\u2019s biggest games have frequently underwhelmed critics and audiences alike \u2013 with everything from Mortal Kombat<\/a> to Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/a> failing to garner particularly positive reviews.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, it\u2019s become increasingly apparent that the video game movies that work best are those that aren\u2019t actually based on real games at all. In other words, films that immerse themselves in gaming culture and aesthetics but aren\u2019t tied to any existing IP \u2013 and as such can\u2019t suffer from direct comparisons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s in this category that Free Guy<\/a>, the new Ryan Reynolds film, falls. Set inside Free City, an open-world video game something akin to Grand Theft Auto, the film sees Reynolds star as Guy, a non-playable character (NPC) who becomes self-aware after spotting the woman of his dreams. The film plays out like a mixture of Wreck-it Ralph, The Truman Show and They Live \u2013 and while it\u2019s perhaps inferior to each of those films, there\u2019s enough to like about it to make it an enjoyable watch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n The film opens with narration from Reynolds, who begins by informing the audience all about \u201cthe sunglasses people\u201d \u2013 who we soon understand to be the player-controlled inhabitants of Free City. He also talks us through his daily routine, which mainly involves ordering the same coffee every day and serving customers at the bank where he\u2019s employed (\u201cdon\u2019t have a good day, have a great day,\u201d is his oft-repeated catchphrase.) But this all changes when a chance encounter prompts him to try on a pair of sunglasses for himself \u2013 and when he does so his life changes forever, awakening something within him and quickly making him an extremely popular figure amongst the gaming community, even if Free City\u2019s creators are stumped by what is going on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the real world, we are introduced to Millie (Jodie Comer) and Keys (Joe Keery) a pair of game designers who have their own reasons for being interested in Free City \u2013 they believe the game\u2019s egotistical creator Antwan (Taika Waititi) has based his game on the code they had created for their own critically successful indie game, Life Itself. While Keys is now working as a loyal underling of Antwan, Millie is determined to prove the theft and get justice whatever the cost \u2013 and as the film progresses it becomes as much about their story as about Guy\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n From the off there are some good visual gags that will play particularly well with gamers \u2013 for example, the cool indifference with which Guy and his fellow NPCs treat the extremely regular heists at the bank, not to mention the sight of some \u201csunglasses people\u201d constantly walking up against walls and barriers. Free City certainly seems like it could be a viable game, and it\u2019s clear that the research director Sean Levy has done into the gaming community has not been wasted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> The film is billed as an action-comedy, \u00a0and it certainly provides some laughs, several of them delivered off the cuff by the always enjoyable Taika Waititi. Meanwhile, Reynolds, who can do this kind of shtick in his sleep, is reliably entertaining in the lead \u2013 and is especially funny in the final act, when he appears as a more buffed-up character Dude, complete with a very memorable catchphrase.<\/span> Lil Rey Howery is also a likable presence as Guy\u2019s friend Buddy \u2013 and could arguably have been given more to do \u2013 while Joe Keery is impressive as Keys.\u00a0<\/span>But there\u2019s no doubt that the standout performer is Jodie Comer, who delivers a great dual performance as both the nerdy but righteously vengeful Millie and her more bad-ass in-game persona Molotov Girl. It was evident from her performance in Killing Eve<\/a> alone that Comer is a brilliant and versatile actor, and she proves her worth as a bonafide movie star with this turn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s worth pointing out that the film is something that has become increasingly rare these days \u2013 a summer studio blockbuster that isn\u2019t part of an existing franchise \u2013 and at one point it makes some good jokes at the expense of the seemingly endless appetite for sequels and reboots. Unfortunately, though, it somewhat loses its right to make those jokes in the final act, some of the biggest moments of which rely on lazy IP references and a secret celebrity cameo. This aspect of the film will clearly work a treat for some, and I won\u2019t spoil the nature of the surprise here, but these kinds of references consistently leave me unmoved and a little exasperated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n First reactions have already seen several critics label Free Guy \u201cthe best video game movie ever made\u201d \u2013 and while I think that speaking in quite so glowing terms is a little hyperbolic, this is still a broadly enjoyable and mostly entertaining film, even if it can\u2019t quite live up to some of its clear influences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Free Guy is released in UK cinemas on Friday 13th August. Want more? Check out our <\/b>Movies<\/b><\/a> page or our full <\/b>TV Guide<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n The film plays out like a mixture of Wreck-it Ralph, The Truman Show and They Live, writes Patrick Cremona. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":2785,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie.jpg",613,420,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie-300x206.jpg",300,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie.jpg",613,420,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie.jpg",613,420,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie.jpg",613,420,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/free-guy-review-jodie-comer-is-the-standout-in-this-broadly-enjoyable-video-game-movie.jpg",613,420,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The film plays out like a mixture of Wreck-it Ralph, The Truman Show and They Live, writes Patrick Cremona.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/2784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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