The Fall Guy Review: A Perfect Summer Action Movie that Loves Action Movies So Much
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The post The Fall Guy Review: A Perfect Summer Action Movie that Loves Action Movies So Much appeared first on Consequence.
Here’s the thing: Even the needle drops in The Fall Guy are good. The songs are well-chosen, with just a touch of randomness (never thought I’d hear The Darkness’ “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” or Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” used for a high-octane action sequence). And they’re not short excerpts — they’re a substantial part of the film, as important to the action as any other component on screen.
That’s just one example of the craft and care put into David Leitch’s new film, inspired by the 1980s drama about a stuntman/bounty hunter. (Hey, in Hollywood, it’s always good to diversify your income.) In 2024, the titular guy is played by Ryan Gosling, which in 2024 is already a good sign — beyond The Gray Man, his choices in recent projects have all been exciting ones, and The Fall Guy continues that trend while also delivering the platonic ideal of a popcorn flick.
For instead of joining the ranks of terrible and/or forgettable film adaptations of classic TV shows (remember 2017’s CHiPs? It’s good that you don’t), The Fall Guy belongs to a more exclusive strata occupied by The Addams Family and 21 Jump Street. Which is to say, it stands out because the filmmakers behind the scenes have brought real personal passion to the story, elevating the overall production to something that feels truly special.
The film begins with Colt Seavers (Gosling) on top of the world — he loves his job as a stuntman for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and he’s got a very cute thing going on with Jody (Emily Blunt), a camera operator who aspires to become a director. When a stunt goes catastrophically wrong, though, Colt drops out of the business and cuts Jody off, licking his wounds for 18 months — until Tom’s freight train of a producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) convinces him to come back to work on Jody’s directorial debut.
Turns out Gail has an ulterior motive — Tom’s gone AWOL and she needs Colt to track him down using whatever sort of stunt guy savvy he can muster. Colt, desperate to get back on a pissed-off Jody’s good side, agrees. The resulting search leads to Colt taking a lot of real life damage, while he and Jody get close to rekindling what they had before.
It takes a bit of time for all that plot to rev into gear, because Leitch spends a good chunk of the first twenty minutes or so focusing on what it’s like to make a movie: the camaraderie of on-set culture, and the surrealism of a workplace where half your co-workers are wearing rubber alien suits, and your job is to get repeatedly set on fire.
The Fall Guy (Universal)
It all works because you couldn’t ask for a better marriage of subject matter and director. Prior to co-directing John Wick and helming Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train, Leitch was famously a stuntman, and all of the marketing around The Fall Guy has put heavy emphasis on the stuntwork involved in making this film, a message carried through to the final credits. You’ll want to stay for those, as the outtakes are pretty remarkable, especially as they communicate how much was done practically (versus going digital).
The result is a real tribute to the titular profession, with bursts of imagination throughout when it comes to both the action sequences and some more surreal moments. What’s fun about Gosling’s take on Colt is that he never plays the stuntman as a secret savant — Colt’s a savvy guy on a number of levels, and when it comes to figuring out ways to fling himself into danger, he’s an artist. But he’s basically just a simple guy who loves a girl and wants her to be happy, and this character unlocks heretofore undiscovered depths of Gosling’s charm.
And while Jody’s a little underwritten as a character, Emily Blunt does a lot to make her come to life, crafting her as an effective communicator and talented director who’s still capable of being a little messed up when it comes to romance. Plus, there’s real weight to Jody and Colt’s love story, something that can be hard to buy into sometimes, when two movie stars on Blunt and Gosling’s level are cast opposite each other: Making that leap from “Hah, Ken and Oppenheimer’s wife are kissing” to “Aw, Colt and Jody are kissing” can be hard if the core characters aren’t distinct enough, but here they’re interesting enough on their own, and have enough history together, for it to work.
In terms of the supporting cast, it’s so lovely to see Winston Duke get a bit of the spotlight as Colt’s friend and stunt coordinator; he shines in the triumphant third-act climax, and the two of them serve as a formidable team-up for a few memorable sequences. (These characters are all movie dorks, too — constantly quoting classic and less-than-classic flicks at each other.) Hannah Waddingham goes brunette for her role as a heavily-caffeinated producer — making the strong choice to always be carrying some sort of beverage with her — while Aaron Taylor-Johnson brings an unhinged charisma to his satire of a movie star.
(I’m just going to take a moment here to note that there is currently a real working actor also named Tom who makes a big deal about doing his own stunts, and was for many years partnered with an older female producer, but in no way am I implying that this movie might be satirizing said real actor, not at all, don’t be silly.)
Overall, even as Colt takes his hits, there’s an ease to this movie that’s hard to identify at first, until it hits you: The vibe really is shockingly close to the original Fall Guy and other 1980s procedurals featuring unexpected crime solvers. The stakes are of course serious, but there’s just enough detachment to keep this from feeling genuinely stressful. It’s a movie that wants you to feel safe about the fact that in the end, the bad guys will get caught and the good guys will win the day. Plus, there’s a very good dog.
That spirit makes The Fall Guy a bit of a throwback, in this era of gritty and grounded productions — not to mention the fact that it exists in a bit of a heightened reality, one occasionally bordering on the cartoonish. All of this makes it a blockbuster-to-be just like the ’90s used to make; a perfect summer movie, and a celebration of the hard work it takes to make a perfect summer movie happen.
The Fall Guy drops into theaters beginning Friday, May 3rd. Check out the trailer below.
The Fall Guy Review: A Perfect Summer Action Movie that Loves Action Movies So Much
Liz Shannon Miller
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