Free Guy follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who thinks that he has a perfect life. This is until he discovers that he is a non-playable character (also known as a background character) inside a very violent video game. His whole perception of life changes and he needs to save the destruction of the world as he knows it.

I had seen the trailers for Free Guy prior to seeing the film and from those trailers, the movie looked quite decent. I also know that the film got quite high ratings from other critics. Now that I have seen the movie, I think those critics were being very generous and that the trailer included all the best parts of the film. If this movie interests you at all, just watch the trailer and you'll see all the best and funniest bits. 

Free Guy reminded me a lot of The Lego Movie. The two movies had a vaguely similar concept but were similar in how they were filmed and referenced pop culture. However, the one big difference that matters the most is that I enjoyed The Lego Movie. I did not enjoy Free Guy.

Free Guy was reasonably funny, I laughed at some moments, but a lot of the funny parts were in the trailers. The acting in it was alright. Ryan Reynolds was pretty funny in it but all the other actors weren't terrible yet aren't going to become the next Tom Hanks. I'm not sure what to think of Taika Waititi's character in the movie. I remember laughing a bit at some of his parts but I also found the character to be quite over the top.

But here's a positive I found in the movie: the visual effects and the action sequences in Free Guy were very appropriate. They were very over the top and could not be called realistic but neither is the action inside video games. This was a clever choice made by the director and I commend them for that... at least. Still, the action did not keep me very entertained and I got bored at quite a few moments throughout the movie.

I don't play video games but I have a lot of friends who do play so I understand how they work. However, I was still a little confused at points so I can imagine it being even more confusing to someone who knows even less than me. I saw Free Guy with my family at the drive-ins. My dad and my sister liked the movie much more than me and my mum so I'm trying to think why they may have liked it and who would like this movie the most. I'm sure that there were many references in Free Guy that only people who play video games would understand. However, I can't imagine my friends who play video games enjoying this movie. Additionally, my sister and dad probably know a bit less about video games than I so it can't have been this that attracted them to the movie. But apparently, a lot of people enjoyed this movie since it got an audience score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I know most of my readers quite well and I don't think that this movie would appeal to most of you. Nonetheless, I have included the trailer so if you decide that the movie looks good, then by all means watch the movie (it's free for Disney+ subscribers) and let me know if you liked it.

Free Guy is the kind of movie that I'll forget I ever watched in a few weeks. It was quite confusing and the acting wasn't memorable. Yes, it was very funny and used appropriate action sequences but most of this can be seen in the trailer. To be harsh: Free Guy doesn't really deserve to appear on Only The Best Movies.

Director: Shawn Levy

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

Year released: 2021

My rating: 4/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 31/10/2021