There are movies that are simply done so that we sit down to see them and enjoy. It does not seem at all likely that they will be chosen among the best of the year or that they will be awarded in the most famous or prestigious film competitions in the world. They won’t even become the favorites of any moviegoer. But it does not matter because they will have served their purpose, they are honest and not unsuccessful and they do not constitute a neurotic proposal either. Already Free guy (Shawn Levy, 2021) we can tuck her into this satisfying sack without hesitation.
Is about a humorous sci-fi close-up adventure that mixes concepts of TRON (Steven Lisberger, 1982), Break up Ralph! and its best sequel, Ralph breaks the internet (Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, 2012, 2018), or Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018) with those of Caught in time (Harond Ramis, 1993) and The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998). And we are not indigestible at all but it feeds our entertainment well.
A dubious director for ‘Free Guy’
One could harbor their doubts about the result of Free guy with the canadian Shawn Levy as director. His seniority cannot be questioned, but his career has pivoted between decent feature films such as Pure steel (2011) and There you stay (2014) or shitty comedy chorra as Fat liar (2002), Just Married, Twelve at home (2003), the horrible, unspeakable remake of The Pink Panther (2006), the fantasy trilogy of Night in the museum (2006-2014), Crazy night (2010) or Fellows (2013).
But there are also those who are confident enough to entrust him with, for example, the episode “Kimmy Drives a Car!” (2×06) by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, 2015-2019) or up to six premieres of Stranger things (Matt and Ross Duffer, since 2016). Not surprisingly, his nineties career was television, and was developed in series such as The Secret World of Alex Mack (Ken Lipman and Tommy Lynch, 1994-1998), Lassie (Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg, 1997-1999) or The chosen one (Chris Brancato, 1998-2001).
Ryan Reynolds’ comic vision
But nevertheless, Free guy quickly clears our uncertainty, and the suspicious logic that we might have had, and plunges us into the madness of a story that will delight of those spectators who have spent their idle hours in role-playing and open-world video games like the saga of Grand Theft Auto (David Jones, Sam and Dan Houser, since 1997).
Everything from the hand of the comic vis so aptly exploited by Ryan Reynolds (Buried) from the two parts of Deadpool (Tim Miller, David Leitch, 2016-2018), who delivers us to the free Guy, so opposite to Wade Wilson but almost as hilarious. And of the other actors who accompany him we cannot admit a single reproach, be it Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) as Molotov Girl, Joe Keery (Stranger things) as Keys, Lil Rel Howery (Good guys) embodying Buddy, Utkarsh Ambudkar (Mulan) such as Mouser or a great Taika Waititi (What we do in the shadows) giving life to the nasty Antwan.
The uncontrollable laughter
His characters’ personal journey into the light is produced with a succession of humorous scenes, loosely planned by Shawn Levy and his motivated team, in which surrealism blocks without problems with the video game environment. In fact, the shocking humor derived from it is insisted upon, and silly laughter escapes one without being able or willing to prevent it.
And it should not surprise us that the premise of Free guy work in the verisimilitude of the whole and its hilarity because, along with Matt Lieberman (The Addams Family), we have Zak Penn signing the script, and this New Yorker is responsible for the story of The last great heroe (John McTiernan, 1993), X-Men 2 (Bryan Singer, 2003), X-Men: The Final Decision (Brett Ratner, 2006) or The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012) and, well, from the libretto of the aforementioned Ready Player One. However, the only downside to the credibility of what happens here is the same as at the end of the collapse of Space Jam: New Legends (Malcolm D. Lee, 2021).
Also, Shawn Levy does not deprive us of spectacular action choreographies nor of audiovisual compositions to music with shameless power and good taste, very capable of ripping us off those laughter so elusive in the public hard to crack. And read me carefully: there is a sequence in Free guy that, not only will fans of certain movie franchises love it, but even anyone who knows them will not be able to prevent an uncontrollable laugh from escaping down their throat. So sit back and enjoy as much as you can. This is not any movie, but what a pleasant little time we had with him.