Free Guy (2021)

Free Guy (2021)

 

8/10

Starring

Ryan Reynolds

Jodie Comer

Lil Rel Howery

Utkarsh Ambudkar

Joe Keery

Taika Waititi

Directed by Shawn Levy

Free Guy is like taking one of the coolest ideas (A.I) and wrapping it around one of the coolest inventions (video games) which seem to have absorbed human existence. For years now Ryan Reynolds has carved a space for himself in Hollywood as that actor who is funny, cool and can really kick ass. Free Guy is everything his persona is and the role fits him like a glove. The movie’s plot unveils like you are eating your favorite desert, munching gently until you get to the cherry in the middle.

The movie isn’t perfect though. In the end the realisation of the love interest and the romance which was set in the background, I feel could have gotten a better reveal.

The movie takes place in a video game world called Free Guy. The multiple of characters are NPC’s (non playable characters) whose only role is to be taken down by real world players. The players roam free and level up by causing as much destruction as they can. The game belongs to a company run by Taika Waititi character Antwan. The Antwan character is crafted to be one of those guys you will just love to punch. Which made the acting so much appreciative. The world we see before us reminds me of the video games Grand Theft Auto, Cyberpunk 2077 and Fortnite. The movie takes a lot from those games and merge some concepts from the movie Matrix and the book Ready Player One.

The film is about realisation and taking charge of your life, which the character Guy (Reynolds) does. The Guy character is written to be love starved and empty looking for the one. As the regular NPC he lives the same life everyday not knowing any difference until a lady walked past him Molotov Girl. Molotov Girl is a character in the game controlled by Millie (Jodie Comer) who is combing through the game looking for proof that Antwan stole her code and used it in the making of the game.

Millie and her friend created a video game where NPCs have next level A.I.s and can live constructive lives of their choosing. They sold the game to Antwan’s company for him to publish, but Antwan shelved and never did. Instead he stole the A.I code from it and built his own game (Free Guy) and denied the duo royalties and recognition.

Upon seeing Millie’s character in the game Guy (an NPC) went rogue off his regular settings and went after her. He died, got re-spawn (which he does not know is happening) and decided to do something different. At the first attempt everything around him almost crumbled and he gave up. Then he tried again and saw a difference and went after Millie.

She tells him to leave her be and that he needs to go level up if he wants to even talk to her (she thinking she was talking to a player not an NPC who has taken a liking to her). He took her words seriously and decided to go do that, in his own way by being the only good guy in the video game.

The makers were going crazy trying to stop him, but he was causing a frenzy in the outside world. Everyone was talking about him and wanted to be like him, but Guy had one focus to level up to be over 100 so he can go meet up with his dream girl. He succeeded and soon found himself sucked into her quest.

There is much fun set before you as you watch this movie and there is no reason why you should not

Kate (2021)

Kate (2021)

 

3/10

Starring

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Miku Martineau

Woody Harrelson

 

Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

 

When you sit down to watch Kate, you get from the start that this is something you have seen before and I guess the producers felt it is ok for them to do it again. I think the best way to rate this film is to let you know it is a B-movie with subpar graphics. The car chase looked like something they lifted from the video game Need for Speed. While everything else in the movie were derivatives from other movies to which we have seen concerning female assassins and their controllers, get into sticky situations.

When numerous movies start to feel alike there is no longer a thrill, you can guess your way through from the first minute down. How the makers now expect you in a good conscience recommend this movie to another person to see, beats me?

The movie had a flat take on its own story and the characters (except for Kate) were just redundant and bland. All through you are made to feel like you are waiting for something to happen, which never does.

So, what is Kate?

You start with a character (Kate the assassin) who grew a conscience when it came to a kill. Because as you can guess, the kill’s daughter was present. Well Kate carries on with the job even though she tired to object to it and we now have a devasted daughter. At this point you will be able to guess that circumstances will add-up and series of unfortunate events will bring the two together.

Fast-forward to a one-night stand and Kate gets poisoned with a radioactive element which now gives her one day to leave. She gathers up some adrenaline shots and goes hunting for the bad guy who she believes was behind her poisoning.

It turns out, the suspected man as you can guess is related to the person she killed and is the uncle of the little girl. Kate kidnaps the girl with only one thing in mind, getting the bad guy to show up so she can kill him and die in peace.

This lack of innovation is caked with bad CGI, weird gun fights, plot holes and some not so necessary incidents that only makes you question if the makers think you are dumb.

This movie is on Netflix, and I believe Netflix needs to step up on all the trashy skip worthy movies they have had their hands in now adays.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead on her own, took the movie more seriously than the movie itself deserved.

Cinderella (2021)

Cinderella (2021)

 

2/10

Starring

Camila Cabello

Idina Menzel

Minnie Driver

Nicholas Galitzine

Billy Porter

Pierce Brosnan

Directed by Kay Cannon

This Amazon Prime musical comedy starred Camila Cabello as Cinderella. We kick of with a very nice musical number of Rhythm Nation (Janet Jackson) and You Gotta Be (Des'ree), merged together ever so nicely. As you will expect Cabello did some solid singing, for which I have no reason to complain. After that, everything that follows is bulls#@t.

(This review contains spoilers, which is odd to say because if you do not know the Cinderella story by now, you must have had a weird childhood)

It takes a lot of energy to go through this movie without pulling your own hairs out. The writers’ decision to make a woke girl power/women liberation movie and base it on a Cinderella plot goes over my head. Who signed off on this trash?

The movie’s women message totally steamrolls everything else. This is supposed to be a modernized Cinderella story, but what we get instead is a washed off girl power script with no spice.

I never recalled the Cinderella story having a space open for Cinderella trying to kick off her own business. Well in this plot After the regular intro of Cinderella, the wicked stepmother, step sisters and the prince we discover that Cinderella is a dress maker with a desire to start her own business. It just so happens in the kingdom she lives women are not allowed to own businesses. At this point I should have stopped watching. But something stupid in me soldiered on. Then the regular Cinderella things happen, with some changes here and there to make the movie a lot different, but not different enough that you will not forget this is a Cinderella story. The time for the ball came and who do we have, a fairy godmother that is of a male gender, correction a man wanting to be addressed as a woman. We skip through that and we get closer to the main magic, the lost shoe. At this point I notice that the movie is filled with more cameos of British comedians that I have come to love when I watched British panel shows like, Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You, QI and Mock the Week.

Even all these cameos meant nothing to lift the mood of the trash I was being fed. Fairy godmother does her magic and Cinderella had a dress for the ball with a magical carriage and everything almost similar to the Disney animated version. She gets to the ball, she and the prince falls in love and when it was midnight she had to run off and leave him behind with one shoe, because at midnight all the magic ends. The prince as you can guess is heartbroken and needs to find his love. Now here is where the writers messed up again.

The old tale had its plot holes, but this one decided to make the holes so big it could suck in the whole earth. The Prince had met seen Cinderella twice before their ball meeting. Even the king, in the end recognized her as haven seen her before. But the Prince seems to be so dunce that he would marry anyone whose leg fit the shoe, when he already knew who it was that he is looking for. At this point I was like can we stop the whole shoe leg hunt and just hunt for the girl. But nope, the writers wanted to stick to this part of the story. Now the stupid thing about this is that, in the story they are modifying from, the prince never met Cinderella. Knowing that, shoe hunt (which you would want to believe is a magical shoe and would only fit Cinderella) kinda added up, with all things considering. Here it made no sense at all.

Then the end has Cinderella and the Prince marry and live happily ever after. The king can now rest knowing that the crown can be passed to the prince with a worthy bride at his side. Sike!!! that did not happen. Even that normal ending they messed it up. I was so shocked that it was possible to mess up, and they live happily ever after.

Cinderella and the Prince decided not to marry at once that they wanted to spend their time getting to know each other first. What the hell?

Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s life was also introduced into this mess of movie. The couple who have decided to date, also relinquish their title and the crown passed on to the Prince’s sister.

Watch at your own risk.

Victor Frankenstein (2015)

Victor Frankenstein (2015)

6/10

 

Starring

Daniel Radcliffe

James McAvoy

Jessica Brown Findlay

Andrew Scott

 

Directed by Paul McGuigan

 

This movie is a sci-fi fantasy based on a contemporary adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 book, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus.

This movie is a bizarre idea trotting down a new path deciding not to focus on what we all look forward to, Frankenstein’s monster. Instead, it gives us the drama before the creation. The lives affected along the way and the changes that obsession can cause. I see many reviewers complain about the missed opportunity because in the last moments of the film the monster was created, and it turned out to be a zombie. We get to see the monster for like 5 minutes and it wanted to kill all before it, acting out animal instincts rather than anything intelligent. Victor’s experience of this sort of behavior happened earlier in the movie when he wanted to save a creature, he created regardless of the lives it would have killed. This time his life was on the line and what people saw as missed opportunity I saw as a certain realism. Who will not try to save his own life when the thing you created refuse to reason and wants to take your life?

The characters and their written actions in this movie is what I feel was a hit too many in the re-imaging of this story, the movie was written to have a gloom cloud hanging over it.

The movie sets this tone right from the start. Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) is seen as a hunchback who works in a circus. This hunchback has a thing for human anatomy and has read so much and can be looked upon as a physician. He is however mistreated in the circus in many gruesome ways. He is made to act as a clown, sometimes thrown into a cage and treated like a property. Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) came to his rescue from the circus after witnessing Igor do some sort of medical genius when a lady fell from the trapeze. You will think the cruel mistreating will end. But Victor even though he was miles better in the mistreatment of Igor, it felt like the movie wanted to maintain a somber mood all through. When things seem to lighten, for example Igor meeting someone and growing towards being a better image of himself, a dark thing will happen that will result in either his feelings being sidelined for Victor’s own purpose or some sort of incident that makes his gloom.

The romantic incident in Igor’s life was not well crafted. I feel they should have just left romance out of this totally. But then, I guess they wanted Igor to have an end which had nothing to do with Victor.

Victor on the other hand, after creating his first monster which he tried to save, but then had to kill – did this fit in front of a man who he wanted some form of sponsorship from. The man agreed to sponsor their work, so Victor and Igor can make a man.

Chasing this duo is an officer, a man who is so religious in everything that he figured out Victor’s plans in the most unrealistic genius way. As in there were no clues or anything solid enough that anyone in his shoes could have put together to figure this out. But this man, thanks to some divine intervention did.

He is after the two because he knows what they are up to and wants to stop them because it is against God’s will.

The movie is a nice one to see, from my books except for the shortcomings here and there.