Not suitable under 14; parental guidance to 16 (violence, language, themes, sexual references)
This topic contains:
Children under 14 | Not suitable due to violence, language, themes and sexual references. |
Children aged 14–16 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence, language, themes and sexual references. |
Children over the age of 16 | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.
Name of movie: | Free Guy |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Action violence and coarse language |
Length: | 115 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Every day, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up and follows the same routine: get coffee, meet his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), walk to work, work at the bank, go home – and repeat. Even though it is monotonous and predictable, Guy loves his life and, despite all the crazy violence, thinks Free City is a fabulous place to live. It never occurs to Guy that his life may not be real. He never imagines that he is really just a NPC (a ‘non-playable character’ who is made of code and written into a video game). Guy’s life changes when he sees Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer) for the first time. Molotov Girl is a player whose real life persona, Millie (Jodie Comer), is searching for a way to win a law suit against Antwan (Taika Waititi), the greedy owner of a gaming corporation, and prove that the code she and her partner, Keys, created was stolen and used as the basis for the game, Free City. Desperate to talk to Molotov Girl, Guy breaks protocol and follows her. She is well out of his league but gives him some friendly advice about how to level up, thinking he is just another player. Guy takes her advice and becomes not only a good guy but a great guy, helping everyone he sees and levelling up more quickly than anyone thought possible. Guy becomes a worldwide phenomenon, making the news in the real world, as everyone wonders who this incredibly talented player could be. By the time Millie realises that Guy not only holds the key to getting the evidence to win her lawsuit but that he is the key, Antwan has worked out her secret persona and realises what she is up to. Antwan then pulls out all the stops in a last ditch effort to eliminate Guy, destroy Free City and eradicate all evidence of the game. It comes down to Guy who must fight for what is real, even if what is real only lasts for a moment.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Alternate realities; Desensitisation to animated violence; The expendability of artificial life forms; Corporate corruption; The world’s obsession with gaming.
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is frequent violence in this movie, including:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
The following products are displayed or used in this movie:
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Free Guy is a sci-fi, action comedy with a fast paced plot and an excellent cast. The film features lots of special effects and videogame-style technology but due to the mature content it is best suited to older teens and adult audiences.
The main messages from this movie are that kindness is far more powerful than violence; and that life doesn’t have to be something that just happens to us – we can decide what we want to be, how we want to be and who we want to be.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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