FREE GUY

 

Publicity poster for Free Guy (© Shawn Levy/Berlanti Productions/21 Laps Entertainment/Maximum Effort/Lit Entertainment Group/TSG Entertainment/20^th Century Studios/Walt Disney Studios – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After viewing various trailers for it in impotent impatience at not being able to view the movie itself, on 12 December 2021 I purchased its DVD and later that day finally watched Free Guy – the newish but covid-delayed sci-fi/fantasy comedy/action movie starring one of my favourite actors ever since first watching him in Deadpool (not to mention Deadpool 2, and Once Upon A Deadpool). Yes indeed, none other than the irrepressible and extremely funny Ryan Reynolds, at the top of his game, in every sense.

Directed and co-produced by Shawn Levy, with Reynolds as another of its co-producers, and finally released by 20th Century Studios and Walt Disney Studios in August 2021, Free Guy stars Reynolds as Blue Shirt Guy, initially an NPC (non-participating character) in an online multi-player video game called Free City. In best Groundhog Day fashion, Guy follows exactly the same storyline every time the game is played by anyone, as a blue shirt-wearing bank teller who falls to the ground when a gang of robbers bursts into the bank where he works.

However, and this time in best They Live fashion, after donning a pair of sunglasses normally worn only by the game's heroes and villains (the participating characters controlled by the online players), Guy can now see all the gaming cues and prompts that only the players see. This revelation in turn gives him self-awareness of what he is, and that his friends and this city in which they live are all part of that same video game, all mere simulations.

But with self-awareness comes self-dissatisfaction, as Guy now yearns to become his own person, in control of his own destiny, especially when he falls in love with Molotov Girl, a character who turns out to be the gaming avatar of Millie Rusk (both played by Jodie Comer). Millie and her computer geek friend Keys (Joe Keery) created another game, but one whose source code has been cunningly snaffled and hidden within the code of Free City by their ruthless rival, the egotistical megalomaniac Antwan Hovachelik (Taika Waititi, who also starred with Reynolds way back in the super-hero movie Green Lantern – click here to watch a very funny mini-interview in which this fact is inconveniently mentioned to Reynolds, whose dislike of Green Lantern is well documented).

Moreover, Antwan's love for Free City (based, incidentally, upon Grand Theft Auto III and IV's Liberty City) and the vast amount of money that he earns from it knows no bounds (indeed, it is exceeded only by his all-embracing love for himself!). So he is not going to concede to Millie's claims without one truly epic fight. But will Guy come to Millie's rescue and save the day for everyone? What do you think?!

As required for such a storyline, the CGI special effects in Free Guy are incredible, and I'm happy to say that Reynolds is full of Deadpoolesque wisecracks and quips. Amusingly, a Deadpool poster featuring him in this role actually appears briefly in one scene, and a Deadpool figurine appears in another! Also worth looking or listening out for are various characters played or voiced by the likes of Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

Plus there is a truly hilarious scene where Guy is confronted by a character called Dude who has Guy's (i.e. Reynolds's) face but a body of Schwarzeneggerian proportions (supplied by real-life bodybuilder Aaron W. Reed). In increasingly frenzied attempts to defeat Dude, Guy employs all manner of iconic weapons against him, including a Star Wars light sabre, the Incredible Hulk's fists, and Captain America's shield (cue a brief cameo from Captain America star Chris Evans). There is also a sweet, poignant, but fitting twist right at the end of the movie, which I won't reveal, as it makes a perfect finale to what for me is a perfect film.

I should point out, incidentally, that Free Guy apparently contains all manner of gaming in-jokes and subtle gaming product links, as well as cameos by some YouTube gamer celebrities, that my computer and video gamer friends spotted instantly and greatly relished when they watched this movie. Conversely, I regret to confess that the presence of such inserts escaped me completely (until I read or was told about them afterwards), as I've never been into gaming. Hey ho, you win some, you lose some.

Not that not spotting them spoilt my enjoyment of this movie in even the slightest way. No indeed, for me Free Guy was a total delight, keeping me thoroughly entertained for the best part of 100 mins (excluding the lengthy end credits, which I laboriously sat through in case they contained any inserted additional scenes – they didn't). There are now plans for a sequel - can't wait!!

And if you'd like to venture into the cyberworld of Free City yourself, all that you need do is click here and here to watch a couple of sensational official Free Guy trailers on YouTube!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

THEY LIVE

Publicity poster for They Live (© John Carpenter/Alive Films/Larry Franco Productions/Universal Pictures/Carolco Pictures Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

A few months ago I had never heard of the American wrestler/movie star Rowdy Roddy Piper, but then I viewed the hilarious cult sci-fi movie Hell Comes To Frogtown starring him as Sam Hell (click here to read my review of it on Shuker In MovieLand). On 26 June 2020, I watched another sci-fi movie, and he turned out to be the star of that one too.

This latter movie was They Live, directed by John Carpenter and originally released in 1988, which interestingly follows a similar storyline to a movie that I had watched just a couple of days before, The Arrival (click here to read my SIML review of it). Both movies deal with aliens living surreptitiously on Earth and taking control of it without most humans being any the wiser.

In They Live, a small band of humans have discovered that the aliens are subliminally subjugating humanity using a transmission beamed from a TV station, but these humans have invented special sunglasses that when worn reveal the aliens' true form - humanoid bodies but frightening skull-like heads - and expose otherwise-subliminal messages on placards, in books, on TV, etc that order humans to obey, submit, stop thinking, and so forth.

Rowdy's character, a drifter named Nada, joins the resistance but learns very quickly that the aliens have no compunction in obliterating anyone who discovers their secret presence. So he and fellow resistance fighter/friend Frank go on the run together, with a mission to stop the aliens at all cost.

Both They Live and The Arrival examine this theme very efficiently, and both make absorbing viewing, so much so that I would be hard-pressed to choose a favourite among them. Both are certainly well worth viewing, my one qualification being that They Live contains a fight scene between Nada and Frank that is not so much extended as seemingly near-eternal. Indeed, their slugfest goes on for SO long that after watching it for quite some while without any end to it in sight, I seriously began to feel that I could probably have a shave, prepare and eat a meal, and possibly even go out for the day, only to return home that evening and find that they were STLL fisticuffing one another - enough already! Make up and move on, PLEASE!!!

Incidentally, They Live began life as a short story entitled 'Eight O'Clock in the Morning', written by American sci-fi author/cartoonist Radell Faraday 'Ray' Nelson and first published in the November 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This in turn inspired Nelson to co-write with American painter/cartoonist Bill Wray a second story, 'Nada', which was published in the April 1986 issue of an American sci-fi anthology comic book entitled Alien Encounters. Following this, John Carpenter purchased the rights to both stories, from which They Live was duly conceived – and the rest, as they say, is movie history.

And here is an official trailer for They Live on YouTube, containing this movie's most famous and much-memed scene, in which Nada dons the special sunglasses for the very first time and is shocked to discover a whole new and hitherto entirely-unsuspected real world opening up all around him! Classic!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Rowdy Roddy Piper as Nada in They Live, ready to take on the aliens – and win! (© John Carpenter/Alive Films/Larry Franco Productions/Universal Pictures/Carolco Pictures Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)