The Fall Guy – Review
Being of a certain age, and having been bitten too many times by Hollywood, I must admit I carried a not-insubstantial amount of distrust at this latest attempt to mine classic 70s/80s television for a theatrical “update.”
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, read Ryan’s review HERE, then listen or watch using the links below check out their more in-depth discussion. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
126 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Drew Pearce and Glen A Larson
Directed by David Leitch
Synopsis:
A down-and-out stuntman must find the missing star of his ex-girlfriend’s blockbuster film.
Imagine, then, my absolute glee at the wonderful outcome of director David Leitch’s love letter to his first career: the stunt industry.
Ryan Gosling plays Colt Seavers (originally portrayed by the great Lee Majors), a world-class stunt man laid low bot professionally and personally, only to find himself plucked off the scrap heap by Hollywood super-producer Gail Meyer (the incomparable Hannah Waddingham) to fly halfway around the world to Australia and save the directorial effort of his former love interest Jody Moreno (the ever-adorable Emily Blunt).
Save it from what, you might ask? Well, the star of the sprawling sci-fi love epic, Tom Ryder (here played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson channeling an over the top caricature of early Matthew McConaughey), has gone missing, and Colt’s there (as Ryder’s former stunt double), to track him down and get the movie back on track…
…all while rescuing the stunt department of the film and trying to rekindle his relationship with Jody.
So The Fall Guy is an action film, wrapped up in a detective film, with a side of rom-com.
Oh; and Jody doesn’t know he’s coming.
Get that?
Much like the world of Hollywood it spends a good deal of time parodying (think Tropic Thunder), Nothing is as it seems in The Fall Guy: except the stunts.
Those are awesome.
The Fall Guy veritably trips all over itself to cram in as much stunt and stunt-related work as it can, both on the set of the film-within-the-film and in Colt’s desperate search for Tom Ryder. From parkour to falls, to fights, car chases, Colt uses all the skills he’s amassed over the years to get out of (and sometimes into) trouble with a great many ne’er-do-wells who know something about Ryder’s disappearance, and who certainly don’t want Colt to figure it out.
And it works the entire time.
The chemistry between Gosling and Blunt as the wounded lovers somehow manages to play both as a middle-school crush and a stirring, Bronte-esque romance.
Wadddingham’s performance put me in mind of Tom Cruise’s marvelous comedic turn in the aforementioned Tropic Thunder, and the cameos of both Lee Majors and his costar Heather Thomas were welcome, as was the soundtrack. Throw in a bit of Gosling’s great turn in the under-appreciated The Nice Guys and you get a sense of what you’re in for.
Not only do we get an updated version of the Major’s-sung theme (“The Unknown Stuntman”) over the credits, but the rest of the music choices were great. evoking the early original time period (and completely BANGIN!), so much so that I didn’t even mind the one intrusion of today’s music (sorry Swifties).
Quick note: I remembered that in 1986, Orion Pictures released another, less comedic, film which celebrated a different, also under-appreciated specialty film job: F/X , starring Bryan Brown as a master effects man pulled into a plot to frame him for an assassination (umm…).
Just a thought that runs through my head.
Anyway, check your harness and make sure your airbag is fully inflated, then drift on over to your local theater and check out The Fall Guy!
The Fall Guy is in theaters now and stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Stephanie Hsu.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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