Free Guy (2021)

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Flack
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Free Guy (2021)

Post by Flack »



Guy is a man stuck in a rut. He wears the same outfit every day, orders the same coffee every morning, and has the same conversations every day as he walks to work. Life in Free City is pretty boring, unless you're wearing sunglasses. The "sunglasses people" act as superheroes and villains, treating laws as mere suggestions. The sunglasses people lead the police on high speed chases, blow up buildings with bazookas, and rob the bank Guy works at on a daily basis.

Guy's slump is broken after he spies a beautiful woman walking down the street. His attempt to chase her is blocked by a bank robber wearing sunglasses, but Guy sticks up for him and acquires the man's sunglasses in the process. After putting them on, Guy is able to see a world he was previously unaware of. While wearing the glasses he is able to pick up a floating first aid kit, which heals his injuries. He picks up a floating coin off the street, which adds money to his bank account. He purchases a pair of shoes he's been wanting for as long as he can remember, a pair of shoes that allow him to leap over skyscrapers. And, most importantly, the glasses help him track down the woman of his dreams, who eventually shares some bad news with Guy: he's actually an NPC inside a video game. The people wearing sunglasses are people playing a large MMORPG called Free City.

The woman Guy has been chasing, Millie, is combing Free City in search of proof that her old code was stolen and used in this new game. Her ex-partner, Keys, is now a developer working on Free City, who has the access but no motivation to help her. Keys eventually begins to help Millie after they learn that after the release of Free City 2, the original Free City will be taken offline. This upsets Millie, as all evidence of the code theft will be erased. This also greatly upsets Guy, who has just learned his entire world and everyone he knows will disappear in 48 hours. This keeps the action flipping back and forth between the virtual world and the real world.

I wanted to like Free Guy more than I did. Based on the trailer I knew the movie would take place inside a virtual game world, but I guess a lot of the MMORPG-related jokes and references were lost on me. I related more with Guy, the person who didn't know what was going on, more than to any other character. The overarching plot of retrieving the stolen code seemed to be about getting money from a lawsuit more than saving the virtual world, which seemed like a missed opportunity. I guess overall I'd say I liked the concept more than the execution. The 2-hour runtime didn't help.

Ryan Reynolds does a good job with Guy. Man, is that guy versitile. Keys is played by Joe Keery (Stranger Things) and Millie is Jodie Comer, someone I think I'm supposed to know but don't. IMDB says she played Rey's mother in one of the Star Wars films which doesn't seem possible seeing as she was born after I graduated high school.

Free Guy is a little They Live, a little Tron, a little Matrix, a little Ready Player One, and even a little Short Circuit. It was okay, but one of those movies where you'll constantly be thinking about ways you would have done things differently. Also, my wife fell asleep nine times.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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loafergirl
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Joined: Thu May 02, 2002 1:26 pm
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Re: Free Guy (2021)

Post by loafergirl »

Saw it at the drive in this Summer. Highly amusing. Not a lot of movies I want to own these days, but that's on my Xmas list, granted it's admittedly difficult to not crush on Ryan Reynolds.

BTW- I have NO idea when spellcheck became a JC feature, and though my spelling improved over the many decades I have been a member... THANK YOU.
1, 2, 5!
3 sir...
3!

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loafergirl
Posts: 688
Joined: Thu May 02, 2002 1:26 pm
Location: Rochester

Re: Free Guy (2021)

Post by loafergirl »

^^^^
HEY that was my post of The Beast AKA Kool Aid man.
1, 2, 5!
3 sir...
3!

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