Movie stars and plenty of action kick off the summer in The Fall Guy
Loosely based on the 1980s television series starring Lee Majors, The Fall Guy is an ode to stunt work. Stunt teams have been providing the thrills of action sequences since the era of silent movies and Buster Keaton, to the present day Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious franchises. Director David Leitch, who has helmed numerous stunt-centric projects, such as Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, and he even co-directed the first John Wick, is the perfect figure to pay homage to the stunt profession. In doing so, The Fall Guy is also properly kicking off the 2024 summer movie season. The movie highlights movie stars, aka the beautiful celebrities recognized worldwide, as much as it highlights stuntmen and stuntwomen, aka those who likely aren’t recognized anywhere. It wouldn’t work without two top-of-their-game A-list actors with incredible chemistry, and it wouldn’t work without great stunt work. The Fall Guy has all the ingredients of an escapist popcorn flick, and rises to the occasion.
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have been, and still are, bonafide movie stars. Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a world-class stuntman in love with a camera operator, Jody Moreno, played by Emily Blunt. Colt’s work is primarily as a stunt double for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). After suffering a major accident on a film set and retreating from the profession for a while, Colt is suddenly pulled back in for a Ryder-vehicle film production helmed by Jody, making her directorial debut. Careers are on the line, and Colt gets dragged into (action-filled) extra-curricular activities when Ryder goes missing. The plot is purposefully ridiculous, coming up with one excuse after another to dive into a wide variety of action set pieces: car chases, gun fights, fist fights, explosions, and more. The stunts are fantastic.
And even with fantastic stunts, the chemistry between Gosling and Blunt is even better. They are so fun to watch, excelling at charming banter, one-liners, and romantic magnetism. The Fall Guy needed actors with Gosling and Blunt’s charisma to carry the film so it could be more than just stunts. A traditional summer blockbuster has faces you love to see alongside spectacle made for a large theater screen. The Fall Guy is a great summer blockbuster, requiring very little advance thought to watch it, and very little analysis after you watch it. It’s a wild two-hour ride, and (thankfully) nothing more. Stay for the mid-end credits footage to give The Fall Guy stunt work the appreciation it deserves. And also, to whom this may concern: make stunts a category at the Oscars, for heaven’s sake!
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The Fall Guy opens in Bay Area theaters on Friday, May 3rd.
