Yesterday - now that I'm mobile - I promised to take all those empty wine bottles that had built up, down to the bottle bank. And wouldn't you know it, that's on the way to Limerick. ;-) Now, as I waited for Saturday's film, I watched a trailer for Free Guy, which made me feel like I might like to see it. I wasn't sure at first about this comedy where Ryan Reynolds plays a videogame character (called Guy) that's happily going about his daily business, until one day he discovers that he is actually in a videogame.. but the trailer looked decent, and goodness knows, he's easy on the eye. With or without glasses. And they're showing Free Guy in Limerick Omniplex. So I booked it, for late yesterday afternoon. Well, it's free to book, there.. and I was getting worried, with all the seats that are blocked off as soon as any seats are booked.
Of course, I left it late enough to leave that I didn't have time for the bottle bank. At the cinema, parking wasn't a problem - at the entrance, I was accosted by an usher who, quick-fire, asked had I prebooked my ticket? Had I booked food and/or drink? Did I want any? ("Yes, No, No".) She then shooed me - unnecessarily - towards the ticket check. Where my code - which showed up in the email, this time! - was scanned, and I made my way to the cinema screen. I'd chosen a snug seat at the side, away from the main section, where quite a few seats were occupied. Ooh, and I'd forgotten the lovely, leather, rocker seats they have here..
I loved this. So glad I gave it a go! We already know, from the Deadpool films, that he's a terrific comedic actor - and he doesn't disappoint. He's an NPC - non-playable-character - in this game, which means he's basically a background character, added for colour. Specifically, he gets up every morning, puts on an identical outfit to the day before, says hi to Goldie the goldfish, has breakfast, grabs a coffee (medium, two sugars) at the coffee shop, and goes to work as a bank teller. His catchphrase is "Don't have a good day - have a GREAT day!" And every day, the surrounding mayhem - car chases, explosions, and the daily armed robbery of his bank - phase his cheery demeanour not at all.
The significance of the glasses is that those wearing glasses are actual players - and as his friend, the equally cheery and unphased security guard, says, the likes of them don't mix with glasses-wearers. So it's quite an event when a sexy young lady (Jodie Comer) catches his eye - a young lady who happens to be a glasses-wearer. She chats to him, and - thinking he's also a player, as he's wearing glasses he took from the most recent bank robber - remarks that he's at a very basic level (as she can tell from the information imparted by the glasses he's wearing). She advises him that he can increase his points score by killing people - but he's not into that, he's too nice - so she remarks, "Well, you can do it by performing good deeds, although hardly anyone chooses to do that." So he turns into a sort of superhero..
Back on the other side of the screen, IRL, we meet the young female avatar's alter-ego, a young lady who designed a complex videogame with her partner at the time. They then sold it for a lot of money to the company that now runs "Free City", the game that Guy is a part of - her partner works there too now, but she doesn't, and is in fact taking a lawsuit against the owner because she thinks he's illegally using the software that they designed, but not for the purpose for which it was intended..
I love the interaction between the game and real life. Reminds me of Tron, a film I adored as a kid (but with much more realistic graphics). In both cases, someone IRL is looking for evidence in the computer world, and needs the help of a character to do it. Also needs to go in themself, which is much easier in this film than it was in Tron. And again, there's romance between a human and a computer character..
Ryan has great fun, zipping around the place with superpowers (when wearing glasses), and learning to play the game like any of us might. And I had a ball watching him, and loved the references to other films. Highly recommend this film to anyone with a gaming obsession, who likes Ryan Reynolds. I tell you this though, I wouldn't recommend it to the army of small kids who attended that screening - older kids yes, but younger kids wouldn't play this kind of game, and probably wouldn't have got much from this film - not all games are equal, you know!
Afterwards, I headed back - there's no longer anywhere to sit and eat at that shopping centre. And yes, I did get to the bottle bank on the way back.. Didn't have time to blog though, as I had to be up early today.
Still here for the time being, waiting to get my car tested on the 3rd. So for the weekend, I'll be hoping for more fare from the local cinemas, but no showtimes have been announced yet..
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