A lot of movies have been delayed in the last year, but Free Guy feels especially like it’s been coming soon forever. Originally scheduled for July 3, 2020, it now has a “no, really!” release date of August 13th—only in theaters.
The latest trailer is a lot like the the last trailer, and also features someone in a bunny suit.
Free Guy stars Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a chipper, friendly sort whose world is rattled when he learns he’s actually a non-player character in an open-world video game—and it’s about to be destroyed by its mercurial creator (Taika Waititi, who’s reason to see this film all on his own). He learns all of this from a mysterious and attractive woman (an almost unrecognizable Jodie Comer) who for some reason makes a really dated joke about how if he’d determined to be a great guy, he’ll be a virgin forever.
This mash-up of video games and oh-no-reality-is-a-lie movies (a little bit Truman Show, a little bit Ready Player One, a little bit a lot of other things) looks charming in large part because of Reynolds, whose utter determination to keep being a good dude has a kind of endearingly teeth-gritted cheer. Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) plays his best buddy, Buddy; Joe Keery (Stranger Things) shows up (with the bunny suit person?); and apparently Alex Trebek has a cameo?
Free Guy is directed by Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb), and written by the slightly odd pair of Matt Lieberman (2019’s The Addams Family) and Zak Penn (Ready Player One and X-Men: The Last Stand).
