Free Guy (2021)
August 15, 2021 2:22 PM - Subscribe

A bank teller called Guy realizes he is a background character in an open world video game called Free City that will soon go offline.
posted by McSly (14 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I haven't seen this yet but I am excited by the prospect that this may be the beginning of Jodie Comer becoming a huge star and that we'll get to see a lot more of her, because she's awesome and she deserves it.
posted by wabbittwax at 6:21 AM on August 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have heard SO MANY ADS for this movie (I guess it must be targeting podcasts I'm listening to) so I am eagerly awaiting comments in this thread to tell me if it's worth seeing.
posted by rogerroger at 12:00 PM on August 16, 2021


Totally worth it just for the Boston video game panorama, was just down there, only a few shoot ups, all reset nicely. Oh wait, maybe I'm just an NPC?
posted by sammyo at 7:44 PM on August 16, 2021


If going to a theater wasn't a near guarantee of a COVID infection at the moment, I'd be seriously tempted to go see it.
posted by wierdo at 9:15 PM on August 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is the first movie that I've really wanted to go to the theater to see since the pandemic started.

...I won't be going, of course, and will wait for the home video release. (I expect this thread will come to life then, maybe?)

(Also, "home video," that's an anachronistic term now, isn't it.)
posted by LooseFilter at 7:50 AM on August 18, 2021


I thought this movie was really, really well done. Everything about it was great (the writing, the acting, the story, the music, the execution) and really thoughtful. It’s ironically funny and fairly satirical. I don’t usually like this type of comedy but I thought this was great.
posted by gt2 at 1:55 PM on August 21, 2021


I thought I would like it, but I was wrong. It was great. Just very well done. It was well paced, funny, and thoughtful. It had a few over the top bits, but not so much it got old.
posted by wierdo at 12:13 AM on October 4, 2021


Ok, so in the movie you've got Guy in his shirt and tan pants, and he's at one point trying to get his black friend to try on sunglasses to see reality... How could they not turn that scene into a They Live callback? I mean the two characters are dressed nearly the same, it's the exact same setup. Couldn't they have given us like a one minute fistfight in an alley? If there isn't a deleted scene for this I'm going to be dissapointed.
posted by Catblack at 9:23 AM on October 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


Highly competent sendup of video games/ NPC conventions.

I love that it's a bit of a throwback to whimsical/ vulnerable/ sweet Reynolds and away from edgy cynical Reynolds.

Comer is great. Waititi is an extraordinary fellow.

To me this came across much more as a rom-com than an actioner, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd call it an adventure movie, in the mould of the greats of the 80s with sensibilities of the (20)20's, although the particulars might age quickly.

Comer is 28, Reynolds is 44, so that's not great but Reynolds is a very young 44 and plays an AI that's... 4 (?) years old, and it's all very chaste and very consent conscious, and ends up being sweet without being overly smarmy.

The end sequence (last 1/4 of the movie) is gloriously imaginative.

Thumbs up, good clean fun, worth watching.

Scenes opening up the credits, but no - what do you call it? stinger? - scene after the first part of the credits before the final scroll.
posted by porpoise at 6:43 PM on October 10, 2021


Yeah, after the cynical "wait, this is the finale that audiences are cheering for" went through Twitter last summer, I was a little concerned that it was going to be another pop culture nerd referential movie like RP1. While it probably helped to know some of the stuff they were joking about and amusing to catch little nods, it wasn't ever as self-important about the references as RP1 got, which was good. Although I probably could've dealt with about half as much streamer reaction time. At least I think they managed to not pick any who have _particularly_ unfortunate histories?

But yeah, the video game background is more or less a setting for a rom-com, I'd go along with that.
posted by Kyol at 8:05 PM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


Finally saw the movie on streaming and mostly enjoyed it. A few thoughts:
  • Comer was amazing in both the real and game world, although I had to look up if she was playing both characters because I'm bad with faces.
  • The rom-com subplot/ending between Comer and Kerry was a bit messed up as an unrequited workplace romance and felt too tropey for an otherwise smart and self-aware modern film.
  • I was impressed how resilient the game servers to being axed and the graceful degradation as individual assets de-rezed. Perhaps Netflix should consider adding fire axe wielding Chaos Monkey to their simian army.
  • TBD // TODO: Fix me
  • Other than the Lego movies, is this the first official MCU / Starwars cross over film?
  • CATCHPRHASE!

posted by autopilot at 10:20 AM on October 27, 2021


This was fun and I kinda liked that it was derivative as all hell but didn't give one fig about it. The first act is mostly They Live; second act is mostly Tron; third act is mostly The Truman Show.

The rom-com subplot/ending between Comer and Kerry was a bit messed up as an unrequited workplace romance and felt too tropey for an otherwise smart and self-aware modern film.

Same same and could have done entirely without it while still retaining the "Guy has evolved sufficiently to realize he has to let Millie go" moment.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:04 PM on November 8, 2021 [3 favorites]


By and large I find corporate synergy-based crossovers to be cynical money grabs. Ready Player One was tedium piled upon tedium for me.

That said, during the climactic beatdown by Dude, when Guy recovers his glasses and figures out a defense, there is a perfect cameo. It is three words, maybe a second and a half of appearance, but it is *chef’s kiss*.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:19 PM on December 4, 2021 [3 favorites]


The first act is mostly They Live; second act is mostly Tron; third act is mostly The Truman Show.
Strong Edge of Tomorrow resonance too, what with the keep-learning-the-action-patterns-and-how-to-thwart-obstacles-before-getting-killed-get-up-and-do-it-again plot flow.
posted by carmicha at 9:04 AM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


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