Review: Ryan Reynolds Newest Installment

Title: Free Guy

Director: Shawn Levy 

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, Joe Keery, and Lil Rel Howery

Studio: 20th Century Studios 

Release Date: August 13, 2021

Available: In theatres

The movie “Free Guy,” released in August of 2021, follows a NPC (Ryan Reynolds) named Blue shirt Guy in a video game. Guy is not aware that he is inside of a video game, but gradually begins to think for himself and breaks out of the constant loop he lives in. It all started when he came in contact with a player in the game- Molotov Girl. They then team up to try to take down the creator of the game. “Free Guy” was directed by Shawn Levy who has directed other films such as “Night at the Museum” and the movie’s sequels. He also helped in the direction of the popular Netflix original series: Stranger Things. The movie originally finished production back in 2019 but the release was pushed back due to issues with Covid-19. Shawn Levy first got the script 5 years ago and stated that he wanted to make an action-comedy that takes his video game concept into a more broadly acceptable area of how people, as individuals, deal with empowerment.

This latest Ryan Reynolds installment was unexpectedly fun and lovable. The pacing in this film was really well done and nothing happened too fast nor too slow. The movie had some unexpected cameos from various famous youtubers and twitch streamers such as: Ninja, Pokimane, Lazarbeam, Jacksepticeye, and DanTDM, which really made the movie what it was. It was a delight to watch these famous streamers interact with the audience as the events of the movie unfold. The movie had outstanding references to other movie and game franchises such as: Marvel, Star Wars, Fortnite, etc. The movie had the perfect blend of comicality and emotional scenes, especially in the third act of the film, towards the finale. All of the cast members also had amazing chemistry and worked well together. However, this movie was really goofy and had some moments with weird looking CGI. If you are someone who enjoys movies with more serious tones then this might not be the movie for you. This movie will not go down as the one of the best movies of all time; however, the goofiness was tasteful and definitely made it a delightful and entertaining watch.