• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

    Movie Review

    Ryan Reynolds charms Free Guy past video game story pitfalls

    Alex Bentley
    Aug 11, 2021 | 1:40 pm
    Ryan Reynolds charms Free Guy past video game story pitfalls
    play icon

    Video games have been incorporated into movies in a variety of ways, from straight-up adaptations to people playing the games to using video game aesthetics to tell a larger story. The new film Free Guy falls somewhere in between the latter two, taking place both in and outside of a popular open-world video game.

     

    Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is an NPC — non-player character — in that game, Free City, a violent free-for-all that seems to be a mix of Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite. His character is a bank teller whose job, like all of the other NPCs, is to give up or be killed when confronted by the actual players.

     

    One day, though, he encounters Millie (Jodie Comer), aka Molotov Girl, who awakens a part of him he didn’t know existed. Soon, he’s doing things that no NPC should ever do and trying to help Millie however he can. And Millie has a lofty goal of trying to take down Antoine (Taika Waititi), the developer of Free City, whom she believes stole the code she and her partner Keys (Joe Keery) built for another game and used as the basis for his game at Soonami, his video game company.

     

    Directed by Shawn Levy and written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, the film is fun in spurts. Juxtaposing the mayhem that the players of Free City create with the apparently humdrum lives of the NPCs is worth more than few chuckles, especially when Guy interacts with Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), a security guard at his bank. And once Guy finds out he can break out of his routine, his discovery of different powers he can attain is cool to experience.

     

    But overall it just doesn’t feel like the filmmakers made the movie as enjoyable as it could be. The intent of the real-world story doesn’t match up with its execution, and the scenes set there drag the movie down, especially when they involve the weird antics of Antoine. It also would have been nice to have been given a better understanding of the gameplay of Free City; as it stands, it’s almost impossible to determine what the goal of the actual game is.

     

    Also, because the main character literally does not exist, it’s difficult to work up any genuine emotion about his fate. As the movie shows on multiple occasions, there are no real stakes in a video game, as players — and thus NPCs — can just reboot and start over again. The filmmakers try to give the story a Truman Show feel by having fans root for Guy’s success, but the attempt feels hollow.

     

    Whatever achievements the film does have are mostly due to the performance of Reynolds, who knows exactly how to play a character like this. Comer, best known to this point for her role on the TV show Killing Eve, does well playing someone who’s equally intelligent and charming. Keery and Utkarsh Ambudkar, who play co-workers at Soonami, have some good rapport, but Waititi goes to a place that’s much more annoying than entertaining.

     

     Free Guy falls more in line with the grand tradition of poor video game adaptations than as a great commentary on video games themselves. It’s clear to see where the filmmakers wanted to go with the movie, but they ended up somewhere entirely different.

     

    ---

     

    Free Guy opens in theaters on August 13.

    Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy.

    Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy
      
    Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
    Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy.
    movies
    news/entertainment

    most read posts

    Official list of 4th of July events and fireworks around Dallas in 2025

    Rockin' new lakeside restaurant debuts at Grand Prairie marina

    This Dallas suburb had the highest apartment rent prices in DFW in June

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Dallas sandwich shop specializing in po'boys spices up our top stories

    CultureMap Staff
    Jul 5, 2025 | 10:00 am
    Poboy Shop
    Kathy Tran
    Po'boys from PoBoy Shop

    Editor's note: The top Dallas news of the week is brimming with restaurant openings, from high-end po'boys to Chicago hot dogs. Catch up on our most popular stories below, then head to our event planner for 4th of July weekend fun.

    1. Sandwich shop with high-end po'boys to open in Dallas' Preston Center. A new shop specializing in po’boys is rolling into Dallas. Called The PoBoy Shop, it will open in Preston Center, in the former Yonkers Pizza space at 8421 Westchester Dr., with a target date of July 7.

    2. Chicago hot-dog chain Portillo's is coming in red hot to Grand Prairie. Hot dog king Portillo’s is coming to Grand Prairie. The Chicago-style street food chain is bringing its hot dogs and more to a new build location at 3102 S. SH 161, in the Epic West Towne Crossing at West Warrior Trail.

    3. Young couple open dream restaurant Donde Los Tacos in Oak Cliff Dallas. A mom-and-pop taqueria is open in a sweet spot in Oak Cliff. Called Donde los Tacos, it’s in the former gas station at 900 W. Davis St., in the triangle at Tyler Street, that was once home to the law offices of Dallas City Council member Chad West, where it opened in April.

     Donde Los Tacos Donde Los Tacos is now open in Oak Cliff. Photo courtesy of Donde Los Tacos  

    4. Rockin' new lakeside restaurant debuts at Grand Prairie marina. A lakeside restaurant has debuted in Grand Prairie just in time for the summer. Called Rockin’ S Bar and Grill, it’s a Cajun seafood spot on the Lynn Creek Marina, taking over the space at 5700 Lake Ridge Pkwy.

    5. Ruthie's Cafe in South Dallas opens new coffee bar and gathering spot. A new coffee bar has debuted in South Dallas, at Ruthie's Cafe, the restaurant located at 1632 Martin Luther King Blvd. #100. The restaurant added the coffee bar with a menu of coffee and espresso drinks in response to customer demand.

    most popular storiesopeningshot dogstacosoak-cliffsandwich shopsouth dallascoffeehot headlines
    news/entertainment

    most read posts

    Official list of 4th of July events and fireworks around Dallas in 2025

    Rockin' new lakeside restaurant debuts at Grand Prairie marina

    This Dallas suburb had the highest apartment rent prices in DFW in June

    Loading...