Free Guy [Blu-Ray]

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery

Release Date: October 12, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

A bank teller (Ryan Reynolds) who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game decides to become the hero of his own story – one he rewrites himself. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way… before it’s too late.

Please Note: 20^th Century Studios provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Free Guy’ tells the story of an everyday bank teller who tired of his mundane life decides to take action and change it. What he doesn’t realize though is that in reality he’s simply an unplayable background character in a massively popular video game. As this random background character steps up to begin saving the day in a game where everyone else is robbing and murdering, he quickly begins gaining attention for his heroic exploits and joins forces with a woman that he believes to be the girl of his dreams. But will he be able to uncover the reality of his existence and save his beloved world before it’s too late?

Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, This Is Where I Leave You) from a screenplay written by Matt Lieberman (The Christmas Chronicles) and Zak Penn (Ready Player One), Levy does a fantastic job at the helm of ‘Free Guy’ guiding along all of the fun and laughs with gorgeous style and a lot of heart. The film also benefits a great deal from the perfectly selected cast that includes Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Jodie Comer (TV’s Killing Eve), Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Joe Keery (TV’s Stranger Things), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Blindspotting) and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) along with more, and nearly all providing pretty solid overall performances in each of their respective roles. Yet, even with capable performances nearly all around, Reynolds and Waititi both still tend to steal the show throughout.

‘Free Guy’ is a fun, fast paced and wildly enjoyable ride that you won’t want to miss out on. A clever adventure with a twist to online gaming that results in laughs, excitement and heartwarming fun galore. ‘Free Guy’ is one of those rare rewarding films that lets you just let go and have such a great time for two hours that you almost hate to see it end. This visually spectacular and immensely entertaining good time is only improved by its great cast, especially the kindhearted and lovable goofball of a hero at the forefront portrayed by Ryan Reynolds who manages to deliver the character with style as well as a kind of endearing hope and clueless nature that only Reynolds can make work so smoothly, while Taika Waititi’s hilariously over the top portrayal of the film’s villain of sorts is nothing short of magnificent in its own right. I can’t urge everyone strongly enough to try and make a definite point of checking out ‘Free Guy’ at your earliest convenience. It’s a fantastic film loaded with a lot of laughs, heart and action-packed adventure that brings together the world of reality and video games with a clever twist. This film is one of the year’s most rewarding surprises and I definitely wouldn’t suggest skipping this wonderful gem.

Overall, ‘Free Guy’ is a wonderful film and just a ridiculous amount of fun from start to finish; loaded with laughs and adventure around every turn and benefitting immensely from marvelous and fitting performances by Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi as well as some others. ‘Free Guy’ easily earns one of my highest possible recommendations. It’s a wildly enjoyable ride with more than enough fun and laughs to keep you glued to the screen throughout its duration and loving every minute of it. For those who might be hesitant to dish out the money on a blind purchase, it should certainly prove well worth the cost of a rental at the very least (and don’t be too shocked if you find yourself wanting to purchase a copy shortly thereafter as well) and will make a great selection one evening when you just want to relax with a massively entertaining ride that’s almost guaranteed to slap a smile on your face.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Free Guy’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic as a whole and delivers a clean, vividly colored and richly detailed presentation from start to finish with no issues or faults to be found along the way. It holds up great even during the numerous heavily populated and fast moving sequences of which there quite a few throughout, never allowing anything occurring onscreen to become negatively affected or problematic. Overall, this is a wonderful high definition video presentation that looks gorgeous throughout and shouldn’t disappoint fans or first time viewers in the slightest.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a splendid complement to all of the onscreen fun and excitement and offers a clean, sharp and eventful audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send video game and action effects, along with vehicles, crowd chatter and plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers quite regularly, while always making sure that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a solid 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that adds a lot of fun to the experience and sounds pretty great in most respects from start to finish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Free Guy’ includes a handful of fun extras that fans of the film should enjoy. Included on the release are a few ‘Deleted/Extended Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 6 minutes in length altogether), along with a ‘Gag Reel’ (running approximately 5 minutes) and some Behind the Scenes Featurettes that look at different aspects of brining the film to life, featuring interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘Dude vs. Guy’ (running approximately 16 minutes), ‘Creating Molotovgirl’ (approximately 7 minutes), ‘It’s Taika’s World’ (8 minutes) and ‘Welcome to Free City’ (15 minutes). ‘3 Theatrical Trailers’ for the film (approximately 8 minutes combined) are also included.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘Free Guy’ Arrives Home on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & DVD on October 12, 2021 & is Now Available on Digital from 20^th Century Studios

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