Free Guy
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 Life's Too Short To Be a Background Character.
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Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds (who also produced), Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Taika Waititi.
Plot
When a bank teller discovers he's actually a background player in an open-world video game, he decides to become the hero of his own story -- one that he can rewrite himself. In a world where there are no limits, he's determined to save the day his way before it's too late, and maybe find a little romance with the coder who conceived him.
Why It's Not a Good Movie, But a Great Movie
- Great comedy, which is surprising given that the director, Shawn Levy, is notorious for making mediocre or bad comedy films like The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen. Although, he did make cool stuff as well such as the Night at the Museum trilogy and several Stranger Things episodes.
- Awesome action sequences that actually fits the movie's gaming tone very well.
- Ryan Reynolds gives a good performance as Guy, and just like what he did with Deadpool and Detective Pikachu, he steals the show.
- Jodie Comer is also very great, especially when you consider that she's been a dramatic actress so far in her career.
- They also share a lot of chemistry as well.
- Great cinematography and scenery, especially the scene where Guy is running on the bridge, and the servers are being smashed.
- Every character is likable, with Guy being a sympathetic NPC who just wants to be a hero.
- Great musical score by Christophe Beck, who is known for being Shawn Levy's recurring composer.
- The cameos from famous YouTubers, streamers and celebrities are quite funny to point out and see who's who, such as John Krasinski as a silhouette gamer and Dwayne Johnson as a robber.
- Also, Alex Trebek makes a posthumous cameo in this film.
- Antwan is an amazing villain and Taika Waititi's performance is spot on, really selling him as an eccentric, egotistical businessman.
- The movie is greatly inspired positively as a combination of Ready Player One, Wreck-It Ralph, The Matrix, The Lego Movie, The Truman Show, Fortnite (to an extent) and Grand Theft Auto.
- The concept of open-world video games is very clever, and has very good execution.
- The references to certain video games like Portal and Grand Theft Auto are neat, the pop culture references in general are mostly non-invasive, making these moments feel earned.
- It serves as a commentary on the video game industry's terrible business practices through the CEO of Soonami Games, Antwan, by demonstrating how franchise milking, making false promises and releasing games in broken and buggy states can ruin the reputation of either a particular game or its company.
- "Don't have a good day, have a great day."
Bad Qualities
Note: This is not a rip-off of the 2018 film Ready Player One, which that film contained so many characters from TV shows, video games, movies, etc, while this film is about a video game character and nobody else, apart from Marvel and Star Wars.
- There are a few outdated pop culture references such as the Floss Dance (twice, the latter found in the credits of all places), and the Rainbow Smash Pickaxe from Fortnite: Battle Royale during the climax.
- While the YouTuber cameos were great, they feel like plot devices trying to be cool and hip with modern culture, even though they're not even trying.
- It does have some product placement that includes many gaming brands like Alienware, Razer, and HyperX as well as many branded cars too.
- There's a scene during the climax which shows off references to several properties owned by Disney, including Marvel and Star Wars. While it's cool, it otherwise feels very invasive given that each of these references appear one literally right after the other instead of being spread out in different places throughout the film, which can come off as shameless self-promotion for the company themselves (even if it does lead to a hilarious Chris Evans cameo). Speaking of which, the Star Wars reference doesn't even allow time for viewers to pick this reference up as the characters literally state out loud Guy is holding a lightsaber.
- Some of the soundtrack steals elements from the 2012 Disney short film Paperman.
Reception
Upon release, Free Guy was well-received, who praised the clever concept and compared it favorably to a combination of action video games and science fiction films such as Ready Player One, The Truman Show, The Matrix, The Lego Movie, Grand Theft Auto, and Fortnite. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Combining a clever concept, sweet, self-aware humor, and a charming cast, Free Guy is frivolous fun.". On Metacritic, the film has an aggregate score of 63 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Box office
As of August 15, 2021, Free Guy has grossed $28.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $22.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $50.9 million.
In the United States and Canada, Free Guy was released alongside Respect and Don't Breathe 2, and was initially projected to gross $15–18 million from 4,165 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $10.5 million on its first day (including $2.2 million from Thursday night previews), estimates were raised to $26 million. It went on to debut to $28.4 million, topping the box office. The film made $18.5 million in its second weekend, remaining in first. The drop of just 34% marked the smallest second-weekend decline of any wide release of the summer, and the second-best of Reynolds' career. Although it was dethroned by newcomer Candyman, the film continued to hold well in its third weekend, falling just 27% to $13.6 million.
Sequel
On August 14, 2021, following the film's successful first-day box office gross, Reynolds confirmed that Disney wanted a sequel.
Trivia
- This was originally meant to release on July 3, 2020, but due to Covid 19, it was delayed to August 13, 2021.
- As for every country except for the United States, the film released digitally and on Disney Plus (with no additional payment required) on September 29 2021. For some regions, this film never saw a theatrical release due to lockdown restrictions prior to the movie's release on these platforms.
- However, on February 23, 2022 the film will stream on both Disney Plus and HBO Max in the United States. It premiered on Crave in Canada earlier on February 5 of that year.