Film Review - The Fall Guy
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have great chemistry in this action-packed, hilarious blast of pure entertainment
Stunt work is still not recognised by the Academy Awards. In recent years, there has been much campaigning to change that, and perhaps, if we’re lucky, The Fall Guy will make a valuable contribution to that cause. I certainly hope so. I also hope The Fall Guy is a smash hit, as it’s an absolute blast of pure popcorn entertainment.
Loosely based on a 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors, the film features cracking chemistry between stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) and action movie director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). The pair have a Comedy of Errors-ish romantic history, with Colt having inadvertently left Jody nursing a broken heart after an incident I won’t spoil. Now she’s directing her first feature on location in Sydney, and circumstances contrive to bring him back onto her set. “Of all the gin joints” shenanigans ensue, with Jody putting Colt through a series of amusingly punitive retakes on brutal stunts, where he’s set on fire, slammed against rocks, sets a record for the number of vehicular crash flips, and so forth.
So far, so highly amusing rom-com. But the star of Jody’s picture, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has gone missing. Apparently, he’s fallen in with some shady characters, and the producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), wants Colt to investigate. Colt agrees, in the hopes that it will put him back in Jody’s good graces, and perhaps convince her to give their relationship a second chance. Much action and laughter ensue.
What follows isn’t memorable so much for the plot. The twisty-turny thriller narrative is outrageously implausible, and in the wrong hands could have fallen flat on its face. But it is loads of fun because Gosling and Blunt are nothing less than wonderful. Director David Leitch directs the action with flair, and whilst I wasn’t a fan of his previous film Bullet Train (2022), with this one, I’m fully won over. Better still, Drew Pearce’s screenplay is packed with humour that had me consistently in stitches. Without getting into spoilers, one gag involving a unicorn had me laughing so much that I had to make an effort to keep quiet. I’ll also never be able to hear Phil Collins’s “Against All Odds” again without guffawing, but again, I won’t spoil why.
There are a ton of film-related gags that aren’t so highbrow only the cine-literate will spot them. But even if you’re completely pop culture ignorant, this is fully engaging in its own right. As well as being a hugely enjoyable rom-com and action film in one, it pokes fun at Hollywood trends like smothering everything in CGI, whilst honouring the commitment to real stunts and stunt performers. In a rare case of behind-the-scenes footage on end credits actually serving a good purpose, the stunt performers in The Fall Guy are given a special tribute, and quite rightly so. Again, I do hope this finally changes the Academy’s mind concerning their lack of recognition at the Oscars.
One more thing: Don’t scarper during the end credits, as there’s a lovely extra scene mid-credits with a cameo that will delight those who remember watching the original TV series. It only remains for me to urge you to go and see this. Is it a great artistic masterpiece that’s going to change the course of cinema? No. Is it flawed? Probably (it might be slightly too long). But if what you want from a trip to the movies is comedy, thrills, a bit of romance, a merciful absence of preachy messages about identity politics, and to emerge from the cinema with an enormous grin on your face, The Fall Guy delivers in spades.
(Originally published at Medium.)
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Poor Glen Larson- they're making movies and shows out of his TV shows without him. First "Battlestar Galactica", then "Magnum, P.I.", now this.
The premise of the television show was more logical- Colt using his stuntman abilities to moonlight as a private detective. This just uses the name of the show and its lead character, for no good reason other than possible nostalgic name recognition.