Time: 126 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence, offensive language & drug references
Cast:
Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers
Emily Blunt as Jody Moreno
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tom Ryder
Winston Duke as Dan Tucker
Hannah Waddingham as Gail Meyer
Stephanie Hsu as Alma Milan
Director: David Leitch
The Fall Guy is Atomic Blonde and Bullet Train director David Leitch’s next movie, which is about a stunt guy, and stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. I liked Leitch’s movies, but the trailers for this weren’t really doing it for me. Thankfully the movie was pretty good.
The writing is a real mixed bag unfortunately. Getting out of the way, the movie clearly has a great appreciation for stunt people and the work they do. So I liked seeing stunt people really get honoured in this. That aside, the plot really wasn’t that good. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but at the same time it is a bit uneven as it tries to juggle so many things including action, romance, comedy, crime, and mystery thriller. It doesn’t really come together that well and isn’t helped by the needlessly convoluted plot. I was actually a little concerned in the first half, I found it to drag quite a lot but thankfully towards the middle of the movie it picked up a little. The Fall Guy wasn’t as consistently funny as I thought it would be, but there are some moments of genuinely good humour here. The biggest exception is a very brief but incredibly out of place and off-putting domestic violence joke that somehow made its way to the final cut. That aside, some of the other jokes just didn’t really work for me. There are some extended sequences of comedy, and if you don’t find the jokes particularly funny, those scenes are going to feel very long for you. The movie is definitely self aware and while I don’t mind it, the meta humour doesn’t always work and can occasionally feel grating.
The cast work well in their roles, particularly Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, delivering some solid performances with good charisma. Gosling is particularly excellent with the comedic beats. The central romance between the two leads is a prominent part of the movie. Unfortunately, I just didn’t buy into the romance, it isn’t the most believable and not much is really explored with them. It doesn’t help that Blunt’s character doesn’t have much to her compared to Gosling. It really feels like they are relying on the actors’ chemistry, so it’s just as well that Gosling and Blunt’s chemistry is great and they work well together. The rest of the cast are good too, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke and Stephanie Hsu.
I would say that The Fall Guy is on the lower half of David Leitch’s filmography, but his work as director here is still good. As expected, the action is very well done, with some over the top and entertaining fight scenes, car chases and more. And of course, the stunts are top notch. I’ve noticed that in pretty much all of his post John Wick films, Leitch has used so many needle drops and that’s continues through to his latest movie. While I don’t usually get that annoyed with needle drops, it did get on my nerves sometimes in this movie. I lost count of how many times they used “I Was Made for Lovin You”, even if I’m fine with it being a repeated theme throughout the movie, it was a bit much.
The Fall Guy is an uneven, but entertaining and decent enough action comedy, with some good humour, action sequences and solid performances from Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
Leave a comment