Free Guy | Disney

[Pennywise]

 

[Web-Head]

'Free Guy' Review: Ryan Reynolds Stars in Video Game Movie With Humor - Variety

‘Free Guy’ Review: Ryan Reynolds Is Algorithm Gone Rogue In Year’s Funniest Film – Deadline

 

[DarkKnight88]

'Free Guy' Review: Ryan Reynolds Stars in Video Game Movie With Humor - Variety

lol

Nice title Variety!

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Reviews have been great so far, been a fan of Levy since Real Steel, and never seen Comer act before but she lives not far from me so will be watching to support her also.

 

[Prison Mike]

To be honest, I’m more looking forward to this movie than Suicide Squad.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Filmfan93]

86% on RT.

That's really good, imo - expected the score to be lower.

 

[Drizzle]

The marketing for this has been on point. I'm probably not gonna go to a theater for this, but I'll check it out when it hits streaming as long as the reviews hold up.

 

[Prison Mike]

The marketing for this has been on point. I'm probably not gonna go to a theater for this, but I'll check it out when it hits streaming as long as the reviews hold up.

Same. I’m actually looking forward to this one. It wasn’t even on my radar a couple of months ago.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Levy is an under rated director for me, Real Steel is a gem of a movie and I would love to see a sequel.

Comer is coming for some criticism here in Liverpool, as in that promo video her and Reynolds did she spoke posh English instead of her natural Scouse accent.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Levy is hit or miss. He’s certainly a higher grade serviceable director. None of his movies are particularly great, but some are good; Real Steel, the first Night at the Museum.

Then there’s the forgettable stuff; the Night at the Museum sequels, Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen, Date Night, The Internship etc.

 

[Still Wynning]

Levy is hit or miss. He’s certainly a higher grade serviceable director. None of his movies are particularly great, but some are good; Real Steel, the first Night at the Museum.

Then there’s the forgettable stuff; the Night at the Museum sequels, Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen, Date Night, The Internship etc.

Pretty much everything you listed in the second paragraph was released nearly a decade ago. Save for NATM 3, he’s been pretty consistently good.

Starting with Stranger Things, which I think finally unlocked something in him, where I think he really started coming into his own and showed what he’s really capable of as a director, Levy’s been more careful and considerate about the kinds of projects he attaches himself to. Even within the Stranger Things series’, he’s gotten progressively better as seasons have gone by.

Granted, he could make another fumble, but there’s no denying his improvement since around the beginning of the last decade.

 

[metaphysician]

You know, watching trailers and reading some analysis of this movie, I think people, both common viewers and critiques, probably need to start distinguishing between "A movie based on a video game" and "A movie about video games". Something like the recent Mortal Kombat movie is the former, and not any different fundamentally than any other movie that isn't an original script; the video game is just a source for story and aesthetic, just like a novel or cartoon or such. Free Guy is the latter, a movie that is about the cultural meaning and experience of video games. The source medium isn't ephemeral, its the whole reason the movie exists at all.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[legendkillin]

Just saw it, though it was okay. Could have could about 10-15 min, I didn't know it was part of Disney but one of the gags makes sense how they were allowed to have that.

 

[Dr. Evil]

So what's the budget on this thing?

 

[legendkillin]

You know, watching trailers and reading some analysis of this movie, I think people, both common viewers and critiques, probably need to start distinguishing between "A movie based on a video game" and "A movie about video games". Something like the recent Mortal Kombat movie is the former, and not any different fundamentally than any other movie that isn't an original script; the video game is just a source for story and aesthetic, just like a novel or cartoon or such. Free Guy is the latter, a movie that is about the cultural meaning and experience of video games. The source medium isn't ephemeral, its the whole reason the movie exists at all.

Yeah Ready Player One and Free Guy are more a like than actual video game movies. They don't have anything that need to stick too and will be visually compared too.

 

[Pennywise]

Free Guy Will Hit HBO Max Before Disney+

 

[samsnee]

So is Ryan Reynolds basically just playing himself in this?

 

[SomeOldGuy]

So what's the budget on this thing?

100-125m. But it was made by Fox before the Disney acquisition so my guess is the Mouse isn’t too worried about money here. It did 2.2m in previews last night, so pretty good all things considered. It was projected to open at 15m and might end up doubling that.

 

[samsnee]

I’ve said this before but every big budget movie is going to be even more front loaded for the foreseeable future. People who aren’t worried about getting covid will go see it opening weekend. After that, expect the box office to drop off precipitously.

 

[Kev4000]

So is Ryan Reynolds basically just playing himself in this?

He plays the same character now for 5-6 years. I wish he would do something else besides action comedy.
---
I think this was okay at all, but I just laughs two times here. A lot of missed jokes from Reynolds, specially Waititi was kind of embarrassing for me (and not in the funny way). I wished they would have concentrated on more drama "Truman Show" elements, endings were a little bit cheesy.

On the other hand, this movie really was on point with the gaming business in my point of view and it has possible the best cameos of the year. Besides the classic masculine ironic and unbelieveble charming Reynolds, it was interesting to see Jodie Comer in another role and I really had a soft spot for Joe Kerrys role.

 

[Asr]

Eh I wasn't really a fan of this. 6/10 for me.

The primary downside for me was the story/plot. I just felt like the entire story could've been about something more interesting and compelling, rather than constant cutaways to "the real world" outside of a video game world, none of which was very interesting honestly.

I agree it probably is the best movie about video games made to date, but at the same time, it really feels like the vast majority of movies that have been made so far either based on games or about games have yet to crack the code of what these movies should actually be. And it's starting to really show that these filmmakers, no matter which movie it's been (whether this one, Sonic, Wreck It Ralph, Ready Player One, et al), don't really understand video games on a fundamental level and have probably never actually played a modern game (post-2005 era). All of these movies are trying to mish-mash ideas from disparate games into stories that just come out as either convoluted or just not interesting, IMO.

Honestly the best part of the movie to me was Ryan Reynolds, and not because of his signature humor either, but more because of what his character became as the movie progressed. And to its credit, it did have very inventive visuals, and it's also worth seeing in 3D.

The movie really didn't need any of the plot that happened in the real world. If it had focused entirely on the video game world, it would've been so much better. It felt like this movie tried to be two things (partially about the gaming business, and partially about a hypothetical video game world) and ultimately failed at delivering either, IMO. The "gaming business" side of the movie felt really out of touch too.

To me I'd sum up the movie as made by a director who probably knows a fair amount about video games but doesn't really understand them or the business.

Also for a movie that had Ryan Reynolds, it took absolutely no advantage of that fact at all (no meta references to Deadpool, and the PG-13 rating limiting his signature humor). His part could've easily been played by someone else. And Taika Waititi might be a talented director, but I don't think he should ever be allowed in front of a camera again.