The humble action comedy is always going to be one of Hollywood’s most marketable genres, because the basic setup and tropes lend themselves to virtually every environment. For the most part, you take at least one charismatic star if not a handful, place them in a high concept movie with a decent-sized budget, give them plenty of one-liners and jokes, and just sit back and watch the rest take care of itself.
That certainly appears to be true of Shawn Levy’s Free Guy, which has been scoring enthusiastic reviews and looks set to score a bumper opening weekend at the box office, at least by the current standards. Ryan Reynolds knows a thing or two about the action comedy having appeared in plenty over the years, but even the typically motor-mouthed star was left speechless at the video game-inspired blockbuster making Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the all-time greats, as you can see below.
According to the aggregation site, Free Guy is worthy of 21st spot on the rankings, but that’s entirely up for debate and completely down to personal preference. After all, some of the titles behind it on the chart include both of the Deadpool and Jump Street movies, Beverly Hills Cop, Big Trouble in Little China, The Blues Brothers and even Lethal Weapon, with the latter in particular widely lauded as one of the finest action comedies ever made.
Is Free Guy really better than all of those aforementioned films? Again, that’s entirely up to you, but it can’t be denied that the fast-paced, frenetic, humorous and often heartwarming adventure is comfortably one of 2021’s best studio blockbusters, and there’s every chance we’ll end up getting a sequel or two.