Ryan Reynolds, left, and Lil Rel Howery in a scene from "Free Guy" (2021).

I can’t remember the last time I sang Mariah Carey to myself as much as I did last week after leaving a screening of “Free Guy.” The infectious pop hook of “Fantasy” by the diva plays several times throughout the film and at the risk of losing its effectiveness, the song and the movie still work.

Ryan Reynolds stars in and produces the new action-comedy, directed by Shawn Levy and written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn. Reynolds plays into his type as the quippy and likable Guy, a Non-Player Character existing in an online multiplayer game called Free City.

Guy is happy in his repetitive life, wearing the same clothes, listening to the same Mariah Carey jam, delivering the same line of “don’t have a good day, have a great day” to customers at the bank and taking in stride the robberies, assaults and other violent acts committed against him by actual game players of the game.

In this world of Free City, NPCs don’t deviate from their daily character lives while players, as indicated by their sunglasses, run amok destroying property, looting and causing mayhem for points wherever they go.

One day, while recounting what makes his dream girl to his delightful best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), they pass MolotovGirl (Jodie Comer) as she sings “Fantasy” to herself. Guy is immediately smitten by her and begins to think there may be more to his life than what he’s been living. Knowing that no one who wears sunglasses will ever think he’s cool, he steals a pair, revealing the player interface of the game.

When he finds MolotovGirl, she dismisses him as a noob, telling him that if he can reach level 100, then he can help her on her mission.

In the real world, however, MolotovGirl is actually Millie, a programmer trying to uncover evidence within the game that code she and her friend Keys (Joe Keery) wrote was stolen and used inside Free City. Her mission is all-consuming, and while she and Keys are still friendly, he now works for the company that runs the game under their LA-Zen-hipster boss Antwan (Taika Waititi).

Guy eventually levels up, gaining points by stealing players’ weapons and helping out the other NPCs when he can. He goes viral as the player who cheated the game and was able to use an NPCs skin in the game — no one realizes he is the actual NPC that’s evolved out of his coding. So he finds MolotovGirl again and the two try and find the code together, with Guy learning and growing more and more every day, introducing the concept of Artificial Intelligence and the quandaries that come with his sentience.

Don’t worry, it never gets too heady, and even though the concept is profound and deep, they play with it more than getting into an ethical debate.

Comer and Reynolds have great chemistry together, and Comer plays the duality of her role beautifully, switching effortlessly between gamer girl and badass video game chick. Waititi is perfect as the smarmy video game tycoon, and Keery sheds his Steve Harrington from “Stranger Things” for a convincing geek, but still with amazing hair.

“Free Guy” is really the perfect summer movie. It’s funny and has great action sequences and plays well with its special effects. It may not be the most original movie, and it drags a bit in the middle, but chances are that’s not going to bother most people much. You go for Ryan Reynolds in a fun action movie, and that’s what you get.

While the film could have easily been inundated with obvious pop culture references, they’re generally kept to a minimum with most being simple Easter eggs or cameos until the end when the film earns a few obvious ones. A few cameos are only voices, so keep an eye and ear out for them.

Toward the end of the film, I realized that under my mask, I had been smiling the entire time. It may not be perfect from start to finish, but it is a joy to watch.

Just remember to warm up your vocal cords because you will want to sing Mariah Carey on the way home.

“Free Guy”

145 minutes

Rated PG-13 for strong fantasy violence throughout, language and crude/suggestive references.

3.5 stars