Free Guy - Very Fun and Enjoyable Action Comedy Movie

I have seen this movie being promoted frequently in the internet and I also saw its trailer few times in the cinemas before. Obviously this kind of movie was very interesting for me, but due to some reasons, I only managed to see this yesterday with my wife few days after its release in Indonesia. All right, I'll head on to it now.

Brief Story Line

Guy (Ryan Reynolds - The Hitman's Bodyguard, 6 Underground etc) was just a regular person working as a bank teller in Free City and was best friend with the bank's security guard Buddy (Lil Rey Howery - Vacation Friends, Judas and the Black Messiah etc). Guy's life changed drastically when he met and fell for Molotovgirl not realizing that he himself was just a Non Playable Character (NPC) in an open world online game and she was just an avatar played by Millie (Jodie Comer - Killing Eve TV series etc).

In the real world, Millie was best friend with Keys (Joe Keery - Stranger Things TV series etc) who worked at Soonami Games, the company that developed Free City game. Together with his colleague Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar), Keys tried their best to kick the player they thought was using Guy's avatar. They were worried Guy would ruin the plan of their boss Antwan (Taika Waititi - Jojo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows etc) for releasing the sequel game Free City 2. 

So what would happen to Guy? And how would the story conclude? Find them all in this really fun action comedy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was a lot of fun. From the beginning, it already felt that it's going to be entertaining for us, and my wife and I indeed enjoyed it. Both of us were just in awe of how creative the movie makers in creating this kind of movie taken from the Non Playable Character (NPC) perspective. Credits have to be given to Matt Lieberman (writer of The Christmas Chronicles 2, The Addams Family etc) together with Zak Penn (co-writer of Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand etc) who wrote the screenplay for this film.

For people who are familiar with games like Grand Theft Auto or Fortnite, this movie would be a joy to see because it was said to take inspiration from these games. I myself felt similarity with GTA which I had played few times earlier especially the gameplay, existence of missions, and the NPC that always talked the same sentence over and over again. So the way they make these NPC became self conscious was just really amazing. Oh, I also felt a strong sense of that popular movie The Truman Show especially when Guy found out that he was just a character in a game.

Aside from the creativity of the writers, I also like the directing by Shawn Levy whose prior experience included movies like Night at the Museum trilogy, Cheaper by the Dozen, Real Steel and few others. So I guess it's no wonder this movie was enjoyable. Btw, there were appearances of some well known names as supporting characters such as Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman, Dwayne Johnson and Tina Fey. Oh I also noticed there were some people who I am sure were famous gamers, though I am not familiar with any one of them. There was even the cameo appearance of famous actor who played as one of the Avengers (though you have to fully concentrate to notice him as it was very brief). It was a really fun surprise.

The special effects for this movie was pretty decent. It also has some nice and cool actions (love the one involving Guy and Molotovgirl) and the finale was great as well. What I loved the most in here was the story and also the pleasant feeling after watching the movie. The characters were generally likable from Guy and Buddy in the game and Millie & Keys in real life. Even Taika Waititi was really suitable as the annoying Antwan. It has a duration of 115 minutes and surprisingly no mid or post end credit scene, but I read in the internet, there is a possible sequel to the film due to its commercial success.

So if you are a fan of fun action comedy movie, or if you like Ryan Reynolds films, then this one would be enjoyable. The action was good, the humor was funny, the references to other popular movies was fun and there were scenes which would make you feel delighted and even a bit emotional (like it did to my wife towards the end). You can see this film now in the theaters as it's currently playing in all cinema chains, or you can wait till it's released on Disney+ in the near future.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars