Free Guy

I find it almost impossible to give this film the credit it may, possibly, deserve. Perhaps because my tried and true rule of thumb—movies based on or about video games are always bad, or at least major disappointments—should apply here. Ryan Reynolds' well-honed likability as the lead goes a long way towards overcoming that pitfall, while the storyline does just enough to transcend its familiar tropes and bland predictability to remain largely entertaining throughout. Still, it’s difficult to watch this film, as an intelligent human animal, and not be baffled by how far people today go with their gaming obsession—and how normal that is now considered to be. Shrug. There must be a certain amount of downgrade for that; hence, this one rates a MEOW—but with certain tweaks, it could have been a PURR. What can I say? Moviemakers have to learn to level up, too.