REVIEW: Fun, Funny ‘Free Guy’ Movie Is Just What You Need Right Now
Aug 13, 2021, 6:00 AM
SALT LAKE CITY — Every once in a while, a movie comes along that’s just pure fun and reminds a lot of us why we like going to movies in the first place, and that’s exactly what you have with “Free Guy” from Disney and 20th Century Pictures.
Ryan Reynolds stars in “Free Guy” from 20th Century Pictures, in theaters on Aug. 13, 2021.
“Free Guy” stars Ryan Reynolds as Guy. He lives in a brutal open-world video game (kind of like Grand Theft Auto) but he’s a non-player character (NPC), background people in video games that exist only to make surroundings more realistic for human players.
But when a human player’s character Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer from TV’s “Killing Eve”) walks past Guy one day, his whole world starts to change. He breaks away from his routine to go find her and in the process discovers that his world is not what he thought it was.
The more he discovers and the more good deeds he does in the game, the more attention he gets in the real world — and the more consequences he faces from the game’s programmers (Uktarsh Ambudkar and Joe Keery) and its creator (Taika Waititi).
Ryan Reynolds carries the movie with his wide-eyed innocence, likeability and humor. There are several celebrity cameos and even cameos by famous gamers Ninja, Pokimane & DanTDM.
The story by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn was very engaging. There are plenty of fun visual easter eggs and pop culture references scattered throughout.
“Free Guy” is rated PG-13 for fantasy violence and some crude and/or suggestive language. The run time was surprisingly short, with director Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum,” “Real Steel” and “Stranger Things”) managing to squeeze a lot into 1 hour and 50 minutes.
“Free Guy” is easily one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s something you can even watch with your teenager and both of you might enjoy it for different reasons.
“Free Guy” playing exclusively in movie theaters.
Interested in this movie? Watch the video at the top of the page for my full, in-depth review & final rating.
Hopefully you & your family found this review helpful! Andy Farnsworth is the movie and pop culture guy for the KSL 5 Today morning news show and also hosts the Fan Effect podcast for KSL NewsRadio. Check out some of his other in-depth reviews of movies and streaming TV series on KSLTV.com.
