Free Guy

There's a part of me that just wants to say "It's Truman Show meets Tron, but told from the inside-out", and just be done with it. But that would be unfair. I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of this movie. Without giving away some details, there were some moments where I sat there thinking "they're gonna hand-waive this plot point, aren't they", and no, they didn't. The jokes were funny, and you don't need to be a video game expert to get it (although it doesn't hurt). The action is fun and energetic, the two plots unfold at a nice pace, the cinematography is effective, even the love story in the movie is touching and well-played. There's no way that this movie would ever get a five-star -- I mean, it is basically a comedy version of the equation I mentioned in the first paragraph" -- but it could be a four-star movie. But it loses a half star for one thing: Ryan Reynolds. He's an acquired taste, for sure, one I'm not particularly attuned to. But he can be funny in the right situation (I mean, he was the perfect casting for Deadpool, even if I didn't masturbate to that movie like most comic fans). The problem here is he is woefully miscast here. Guy is an ordinary person. He needs a bit of an average appearance and an average appeal, like Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction. You don't -- can't -- get that from Ryan Reynolds. He's just too dashing and too charming and too smug. We're talking Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones wrong. Nic Cage as Ghost Rider wrong. Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher wrong. A square peg in a star-shaped hole. But it's still a fun movie. Would I see it again? Sure. Does RR ruin the movie? No. You just may wish it was someone a little more relatable. Still go and see it. It's a fun movie.