Free Guy and Hogan Hat Marine

It's nice to have fun at the movies. Free Guy is a lot of fun. It'll take your mind off the struggles of the day. Ryan Reynolds is a very likable actor playing a very likable character. 

The movie is set within a video game.

I don't play enough video games to comment on the validity of the action but it sure is engaging, authentic and at times surprisingly rigorous.

I understood most of the cultural allusions and linguistic idioms within the film but I'm sure that my millenial daughter Mary will grok them significantly more than I. We thought of her throughout the film which only increased our enjoyment. 

Definitely go see it.

It to helps know what an NPC is. In case you don't know (which I didn't) an NPC is a Non Playable Character. The Reynolds character is an NPC who is involved in an ongoing Ground Hog Day experience until one day he realizes that there may be more to life than being a bystander watching the action like the rest of the NPCs who are part of his everyday existence and don't seem at all bothered by the endless repetion that has become their reason for being.

They don't really matter in the game.

They are scenery.

They love it

They know their role and keep their mouths shut.

Upon emerging from the theater, we encoutered the real world of Birkdale. Birkdale is a village that is an array of upscale shops, bars and restaurants, an extended village green. People coming and going, shopping, eating, drinking, grooving, winking, nodding hello and getting on with their business.

It looks a lot like the scene of a video game especially on a bright August day after departing from a dark theater.

I began to realize that all of the people that passed me or were passed by me were NPCs in my particular game of life. They are/were just part of the scenery. I realized as well that I was anNPC in their worlds. Nobody was gonna remember me just as I would not remember them. Most of them probably didn't even see me much less gather the fact that I was forgetting them as soon as I saw them, rebooting the scene with every glance.

Lynn decided to shop at one of the stores. I sat on a bench, enjoying the tranquility of NPC passivity. Then I noticed an older gentleman walking more slowly as he approached me and I got the feeling this man thought that I was in his game. Sure enough, he stopped right in front of me and said "hello."

I realized that the two of us were now in the same game at least for a minute and this gentlemen might make it into my memory.

He was nattily dressed. Trendy Skechers, blue ankle length Underarmour sweat pants and designer long sleeve shirt topped of by a Hogan style hat. The gentleman was short and straight with vivid blue eyes.

I nodded hello.

He sat down next to me on the bench.

"The women are in the pie shop, all they want to do is eat."

I assumed that he was talking about his wife and myabe his grandaughters. Birkdale has a custom pie shop not far from where I was sitting.

Once again I nodded.

Then the guy started on Biden. What a chicken shit.  How all these Afghanistan refuggees were gonna invade our country, none of them vaccinated, spreading Covid while China was going to take over Afghanistan through Formosa and that we would be at war in a couple of weeks with our enemies killing us with our own weapons.

MMMMkkkaaay

He said he was a veteran of the Korean War. He was an ex-Marine and we didn't need to stand for this Taliban horseshit. If our President had "any balls" it would be whole different story.

I just nodded to indicate that I heard him.

At that point, he was collected by a gray haired woman who I assume was his wife and two dark haired women who were related to him somehow.

I don't think the three women even noticed me I was more NPC to them than they were to me as they were ending a game that I was barely playing with the Marine.

They went off down the street.

Heading toward the theater where we had just watched Free Guy.

Free Guy was a lot more fun.