Year: 2024
Country: USA, Australia, Canada
Language: English
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance, Crime
Director: David Leitch
Screenwriter: Drew Pearce
Music: Dominic Lewis
Cinematography: Jonathan Sela
Editor: Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Cast:
Ryan Gosling
Emily Blunt
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Hannah Waddingham
Winston Duke
Teresa Palmer
Stephanie Hsu
Ben Knight
Matuse
Zara Michales
Adam Dunn
Dan Reardon
Jason Momoa
Lee Majors
Heather Thomas
Rating: 6.8/10
Taking the skeletal premises of 1980s TV series “The Fall Guy”, running for 5 seasons from 1981 to 1986 (whose stars Lee Majors and Heather Thomas also crop up in the mid-credit scenes), about a Hollywood stunt performer Colt Seavers, David Leitch’s eponymous action flick is a pyrotechnic panoply of stunt works grafted upon an inane plot which calls attention to the creativity drought of the Dream Factory’s mainstream filmmaking.
That said, Drew Pearce’s script is silly but in a non-offensive way. Intimated by the title, Gosling’s Colt is “a fall guy”, set up by an egomaniacal action star Tom Ryder (a wackadoodle Taylor-Johnson doing a risible Matthew McConaughey impression. For my money, the rumored next 007 is more akin to a Bond villain than a charismatic, hard-nosed spy master) and his Janus-faced producer Gail (Waddingham, chewing the scenery as an unrelievedly exasperating eager beaver, a villainess should at least have some subtleties in herself!), the cliched thick-as-thieves combo of irredeemable baddies in the industry, to take the rap of a crime. However, it is implausible that they actually makes a production of seeking out Colt to be that scapegoat, any dispensable, tractable patsy nearby would do the same trick thanks to the deep-fake technology, at least it could’ve saved the flight ticket to bring Colt from USA to Australia, where the production of “Metalstorm”, a Sci-Fi movie directed by Colt’s ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno (Blunt), is under the way.
The chemistry between Gosling and Blunt wobbles from the reunion of two long-lost siblings to a low-risk infatuation, their G-rated passion doesn’t set the screen alight (as we might expect). But with a freewheeling and radiating Gosling doing his usual “movie star” stuff spiked with his recently minted “Kenergy” (that beta-male sensibility in front of his high-flying love interest), THE FALL GUY is afloat in terms of star appeal. As for Blunt, also a legit action star (don’t miss out Doug Liman’s EDGE OF TOMORROW, 2014), it is somehow disappointing that she isn’t given more scenes to execute her chops in kickassery, her Jody, modeling on Greta Gerwig, has enough agency to command but less showcase to perform on it.
It goes without saying the movie’s real deal is the stunt performances, covering vehicle chases and scuffles in all three departments (aerial, waterborne and terra firma) and delivering a persuasive plea to the Academy for acknowledging the prodigious works of stunt teams. The climax is a more than gratifying, smoothly designed-and-orchestrated set piece culminates with the anticipated rollercoaster thrill and contentment.
On a whole, THE FALL GUY makes for a typical popcorn cinema experience, delightful, engaging (though not persistently) and stress-free, interspersed with occasional longueurs (sorry, that Taylor Swift song is a cringy, forced trending placement). Leitch’s status as a pillar in the actioner genre is further secured, though whether the evolution from belabored mano-a-manos in ATOMIC BLOND (2017) to the film’s ballyhooed spectacles is a beneficent one, the answer seems moot at this moment.
referential entries: Leitch’s BULLET TRAIN (2022, 6.9/10), DEADPOOL 2 (2018, 6.3/10), ATOMIC BLOND (2017, 6.6/10); Shane Black’s THE NICE GUYS (2016, 6.9/10); Richard Rush’s THE STUNT MAN (1980, 6.1/10); Doug Liman’s EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014, 7.3/10).
Cinema Omnivore 