It’s oft-repeated that stunt teams go largely under-recognized and under-appreciated by Hollywood. Very few people know that more than The Fall Guy director David Leitch. A former stunt coordinator and performer, Leitch cut his teeth doubling for Brad Pitt and worked on the stunt team for the Bourne franchise before hitting it big by co-directing the original John Wick. Leitch knows what it takes to risk one’s life to make someone else look good and decided to finally put those underseen performers in the spotlight with The Fall Guy, a massive, ridiculous action-comedy that starts the summer movie season on the right foot.
Loosely based on the 80s show of the same name, Ryan Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, stuntman to privileged superstar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). After being seriously injured from a stunt gone wrong, he abandons both show business and his girlfriend, camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Eighteen months later, he is goaded by Ryder’s producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) to fly to Sydney to work on Jody’s directorial debut, the sci-fi epic Metalstorm. Once Colt arrives (to Jody’s shock and annoyance), Gail drops a bombshell on him: Ryder’s gone missing, and he’s the only one who can track him down and bring him back to set before the movie gets shut down.
“The third act of The Fall Guy, especially, is just one big stunt extravaganza, and I had a blast.”
The strongest element in The Fall Guy is easily the on-screen chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Gosling continues to display fantastic comedy chops, and Emily Blunt has a lot of great moments of her own, as opposed to being a simple love interest. One of the funniest bits involves a very bitter Jody repeatedly putting Colt through a fire stunt while airing out their issues in front of the whole set. While that gag escalates in a hilarious way, it also highlights the film’s main problem: it’s much too long for its own good.
There are multiple gags in The Fall Guy that, while they have great premises, go on for much longer after the audience stops laughing. This includes moments like a meta-conversation regarding the use of split-screen falling flat due to this fact. I also found myself much less interested in the mystery plot in comparison to the romance or the making of Metalstorm. It’s a plot that’s overly complicated and also very easy to figure out within just a few minutes.
“There are multiple gags in The Fall Guy that, while they have great premises, go on for much longer after the audience stops laughing.”
If The Fall Guy had been trimmed by a solid 20 minutes, it would be a much tighter experience. That being said, every time I almost checked out, there was another great action set-piece to recapture my interest, like a wild mid-movie car chase involving a French dog. The third act of The Fall Guy, especially, is just one big stunt extravaganza, and I had a blast.
Overall, The Fall Guy isn’t a game-changer by any stretch, but it’s still an entertaining time at the movies. It’s hard to resist the collective charm of the main cast in The Fall Guy, and it’s impressive to see what goes into constructing a stunt. Hopefully, one of these days, The Academy will actually add a Stunt category to the Oscars in order to really give those brave individuals the respect they deserve.
