Free Guy and Reminiscence

Science fiction takes us to places we have never been, and often these are dystopian places we would never want to be. In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano discuss two such films. In "Free Guy," the popular actor Ryan Reynolds plays a character within a video game who starts to suspect that something is not quite right with his existence. Mike is not a gamer and found all of the video game car chases and shootouts to be exhausting after awhile, and Marie, while not much of a gamer, enjoyed how this feature film emulates the gaming experience. "Reminiscence" is a blend of film noir and science fiction.  The most interesting aspect of the film is that it is set in a near-future Miami whose streets are always flooded. There is really creative production design here, but it's in the service of a muddled story about a machine that enables paying customers to revisit favorite memories. Although that is a viable premise, it is undercut by hackneyed dialogue and flat acting. Even the star, Hugh Jackman, is dull here. "Reminiscence" is now a bad memory for Marie and Mike.