“Free Guy” (Action/Comedy: 1 hour, 55 minutes)

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery and Taika Waititi

Director: Shawn Levy

Rated: PG-13 (Strong fantasy violence, profanity and crude/suggestive references)

Movie Review: “Free Guy” is one of the more creative movies one will see this year. It has a clever setting, a likable cast, comedy and plenty of eye candy. It is worth putting down your video game to see.

Guy (Reynolds) is a non-player character, known to the gaming world as Blue Shirt Guy. He is a mere background persona working as a bank teller each day. The artificial intelligence program that Guy belongs gives him the ability to act of his own accord. This amazes gaming audiences but alarms the makers of the game. 

Meanwhile, Guy becomes a hero in his virtual world. Masters the realm, including falling in love with Molotov Girl (Comer).

“Ready Player One” (Director Steven Spielberg, 2018) immediately came to mind when watching “Free Guy.” However, the prior did not have the star power of the latter.

Different from “Ready Player One,” “Free Guy” is about a character of the video game becoming self-aware. Comedic actor Ryan Reynolds plays that character. He plays goofy well. As Reynold’s Guy becomes more interactive with his environment, the scenes become more humorous.

Shawn Levy (“Arrival,” 2016) directs this screenplay by writers Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn skillfully. He switches between the real world and the gaming world with stylish ease. Rather than showing the virtual world as different, Levy, the writers and this movie’s visual effects production team show the two worlds as similar and mirrors of each other. 

The visuals differ but the action and emotions of people are similar concerning their interactions with others.

Sure, the movie feels like a mixture of movies, such as “Groundhog Day” (1993), “Tron” (1982) and the romantic moment near the end is formulaic. Even so, “Free Guy” is a very fun movie. Comedy is abounding. Action is on point. An amiable cast portray the agreeable characters well. Plus, the visuals are nifty.

Grade: B (Free some time to this Guy.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Respect” (Biography/Drama: 2 hours, 25 minutes)

Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Audra McDonald and Marlon Wayans

Director: Liesl Tommy

Rated: PG-13 (Mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence and suggestive material)

Movie Review: While the standard biopic, “Respect” succeeds because of fine performances by its cast. The cast’s lead is Jennifer Hudson. She shines as Aretha Louise Franklin, yet the screenplay feels typical.

The life of Aretha Franklin from age 12 until she records her biggest-selling album, a gospel record she sang at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in 1972. Check out the real Franklin’s performance in the documentary “Amazing Grace” (Directors Sydney Pollack and Alan Elliott, 2018). Her singing is praise for The Almighty in a house of worship.

In “Respect,” this moment at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church is one of the moments where Hudson shines as an actress. Here, she proves she deserves that Academy Award she already has. Of course, she has the talented Forest Whitaker, a fellow Oscar recipient for “The Last King of Scotland” (2006). Hudson and Whitaker’s scenes together are the most intriguing insight into Franklin’s maturing into adulthood.

Whitaker plays the authoritarian, womanizing Rev. C.L. Franklin. In many ways, the first fourth of this movie belongs to Whitaker. He appears to have an interesting life as a preacher and manager to three of his daughters, who are all singers.

Another character who steals scenes — and he is supposed to do so — is Ted White. Marlon Wayans portrays White with an edge. He is the movie’s antagonist. White is abusive and controlling. He was the manager, songwriter and first husband of soul singer Aretha Franklin. As portrayed in this movie, White wanted the spotlight that his wife had. A usually comedic Wayans works as an abusive White.

“Respect” details the tragic events of Aretha Franklin’s life. The problem is that the movie hits mostly the tragedies of her life far too often. Occasionally, writer Tracey Scott Wilson presents moments of happiness but they are brief compared to her sorrow. The best moments come when Franklin’s past is pivotal as the motivation behind how she sang some of her most famous songs.

These moments show her genius as an artist. Wilson’s screenplay should have that as this drama’s major focus. Otherwise, this movie feels like one of soap-operatic Cliff Notes seen in other biopics about musicians, where audiences get to know the artist through tragic associations only.

Liesl Tommy directed teleplays until now. “Respect” marks her directorial debut for a feature film. This biographical drama will bolster her resume. She should thank a talented cast, especially Hudson, Whitaker and the talented and beautiful Audra McDonald who plays Franklin’s mother.

Grade: B (R-e-s-p-e-c-t . . .)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Don’t Breathe 2” (Thriller: 1 hour, 38 minutes)

Starring: Stephen Lang, Madelyn Grace and Brendan Sexton III

Director: Rodo Sayagues

Rated: R (Strong graphic violence, profanity and gore)

Movie Review: This thriller is the sequel to “Don’t Breathe,” 2016. While the characters are more endearing this outing, the movie meanders through multiple changing plot lines. The appearance is writers realized they had a slim plot and needed to expand it. Characters’ motives appear as ever-changing implausibility.

The solid part of this movie is Stephen Lang. His performance is steadfast, but “Don’t Breathe 2’s” plot does not measure up to the same standard.

Lang plays blind U.S. Navy Seal veteran Norman Nordstrom, who lives in seclusion with his 11-year-old daughter, Phoenix (Grace), and their Rottweiler, Shadow, in the suburbs of Detroit. Their peaceful lives change when Nordstrom’s past sins from eight years earlier catch up to him. The seeing-impaired Nordstrom once again uses his special forces training to save his family.

A moment exists in this movie where one must question the sanity of the writers. They craft a script with a forced plot. Additionally, the movie keeps changing. One minute, it appears a movie about child abductions, then it shifts to gang violence and then a family medical emergency.

A group of men wants to kidnap a young girl. They could do this during plenty of moments earlier when the girl leaves the house, but wait instead until she is back home, where the deed takes more energy.

It is one thing when writer’s fool the audience but it is another when they fool themselves. A forced plot is foolish when unnecessary.

That noted, the movie is an entertaining revenge movie. It is an overly violent thriller with a messy plot of conveniences. It is the proverbial train wreck that engages.

Grade: C (It needs some breathing room.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Charming the Hearts of Men” (Comedy/Drama: 1 hour, 47 minutes)

Starring: Anna Friel, Kelsey Grammer and Starletta DuPois

Director: S.E. DeRose

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and language)

Movie Review: Charming characters grace this movie with a good message about civil rights. The message is good but this movie suffers from having no strong direction in any one genre. Still, Georgia native and writer S.E. DeRose offers an engaging production in her directorial debut.

Set in a 1963 South during the civil rights era, Grace Gordon (Friel), a sophisticated, modern Southern belle, returns to her hometown and discovers she has limited options as a woman to save her family’s home. 

Gordon cannot take out a loan without a husband or make other business arrangements now that her father is deceased. Gordon begins a romantic relationship with an influential congressman (Grammar) hoping he can assist her efforts. She eventually inspires legislation that allows protections for women.

Inspired by true events, “Charming the Hearts of Men” inspires while appearing to be an afternoon school special. It does so by sneaking in a feminist message. The women of this movie come from different backgrounds, ethnicities and socioeconomic statuses, yet they all want a world where they have equal treatment and freedoms.

This photoplay has many important notes. Its characters are inviting warm personalities. You want to sit at a table and break bread with them. Like good dinner conversations, many topics are part of the discussion. The problem is this movie just scratches the surfaces of its important topics while, sometimes aimlessly, moving around from comedy to drama to romance.

Grade: B- (It charms enough.)

“Nine Days” (Drama/Fantasy: 2 hours, 4 minutes)

Starring: Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong and Bill Skarsgård

Director: Edson Oda

Rated: R (Profanity and violence)

Movie review: An arthouse film with impeccable acting, “Nine Days” is a character-driven narrative. The puzzling story takes a backseat to incredible acting by the cast, especially lead actor Winston Duke (“Black Panther,” 2018; and “Us,” 2019). The movie also yields wonderful cinematography and set designs that enlighten the dull moments.

Will (Duke) is a reclusive interviewer. He spends his days watching antique television screens that show the lives of people through their eyes. His only interaction, save his interviewees, is acquaintance Kyo (Wong), a sociable being. 

Will interviews human souls and determines if they should have a chance to be born on Earth. While watching several souls that he monitors in the living world, Will witnesses something that changes his perspective about his existence, his work and how he interviews his five current candidates.

Duke is exceptional here. He plays a complicated man who shows plenty of emotion, even when his character is silent. His interactions are a pivotal part of this screenplay. 

As his character, Will interviews souls, his tactics are intrusive and varied. He torments and yells at them, yet he also offers comfort simultaneously. Duke makes one pity the guy. You realize he is a jerk as an interviewer but he is also preparing his interviewees for the living world. 

Will also shows great kindness to the interviewees. Duke makes his complicated character intriguing and likable despite his frustrating flaws.

Audiences understand Duke through his interactions, and his most revealing associate is Kyo, played effectively by Benedict Wong. Kyo is a compassionate being. Viewers get little information as to what Kyo is but Wong makes him the most understanding character. Wong’s role offers compassionate wisdom. He guides characters, including Duke’s Will, as a mysterious figure.

The actors who play Will’s five finalists are Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl and Arianna Ortiz. Each is different and offers a unique insight about life. 

Beetz’s Emma is gorgeous as she is eccentric. Beetz plays her poetically. Skarsgård, who played Pennywise the Dancing Clown in “It” (2017) and “It Chapter Two” (2019), agreeably plays his character with a bit of an edge, a soul ready to cease life and bring justice. Hale, Rysdahl and Ortiz each have emotional turns as tertiary players. Each soul offers soothing unique.

As these characters and a few others interact, audiences learn more about Will, his job and his temperament. Each conversation is good acting by a talented cast.

Nice visuals also adorn the screen. Imagery shows loneliness, despair, openness and happiness. The emotive moments are artistic eye candy. The movie also uses set designs that promote the story. Visual elements relay information about characters’ existence. This complements characters and their actions. 

“Nine Days” marks the full-length feature directorial debut of writer Edson Oda. He creates an artful movie about souls. The script is frustrating in that it makes one wait for explanations, and it does this at a deliberate pace. Oda’s photoplay reveals concepts as its continues while remaining a bit mysterious.

The movie is repetitively slow at moments and has a romantically contrived denouement, but it is beautifully acted and a note to humanity’s beautiful existence. Duke and the cast are impressive. “Nine Days” ends with a slam poetry moment and it is worthy of snap fingers applause.

Grade: B (Worthy of the days it plays at cinemas.)

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has been reviewing movies for The Valdosta Daily Times for more than 20 years.