“The Fall Guy,” the latest epic actioner from writer Drew Pearce – who collaborated with Shane Black on “Iron Man 3” (2013) – really wants to be a Shane Black film, but instead it stands in contrast to why Black’s movies are so much fun. Calling to mind “Last Action Hero” (1993), it’s ultra-meta and it’s not interested in genre lines, as it’s simultaneously a chick flick and a macho-man actioner.
A stunted concept
Unfortunately, it’s more like director David Leitch’s previous effort, “Bullet Train” (2022), in that we have a bunch of stuff happening, with one thing leading to another in almost stream-of-consciousness style, yet the pacing is slow amid the franticness. Unlike in a Black film, the action is undeniably the point here, with everything else – the plot, the (would-be) quips, and the romance between Colt (Ryan Gosling) and Jody (Emily Blunt) – contrived on the slightest whims.
Based on a 1980s TV series that’s unknown to most modern viewers, “The Fall Guy” is hyper-aware that it’s a movie highlighting stunt work by centering on stunt man Colt and featuring tons of fights, explosions and vehicle rolls. However, the lampshade-hanging doesn’t let Pearce and Leitch off the hook, because the “stunt-laden film about a stuntman” gag is the only gag. It gets even more extreme if you go beyond the text to find that former stuntman Leitch’s ambition was to encourage the Oscars to add a Best Stunt category.
“The Fall Guy” (2024)
Director: David Leitch
Writers: Drew Pearce, based on the TV series by Glen A. Larson
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Most hurting “The Fall Guy,” though, is that the viewer is always ahead of the story – a “Fugitive”-esque plot about actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) putting a frame job on Colt. The vibe is “Aren’t we clever?” but the answer is “Not particularly.” And also, it’s 126 minutes long. I admit I gave passing grades to Leitch’s “Deadpool 2,” “Hobbs & Shaw” and “Bullet Train.” Those movies are also full of themselves, but they land more many more gags.
Gosling and Blunt – and certainly “Ted Lasso’s” Hannah Waddingham as the Diet Coke-guzzling producer of actioner-within-an-actioner “Metalstorm” – find the correct tone. But the humor in the script stage and energy in the editing stage are missing. The closest “The Fall Guy” comes to meta cleverness is when we see a trailer for “Metalstorm,” but that’s too little, far too late.
And when the mid-credits Lee Majors cameo hits, the movie sinks to the level of, well, a 21st century remake of a mid-range IP. And it also reminds us of how much better these things have been done, like in the amusing “21 Jump Street” movies.
It’s all a stunt
“The Fall Guy” is a gold nugget of an idea that’s so caked in dirt that only the tiniest shine emerges, namely from the soundtrack. Featuring well-chosen needle-drops from the 1970s to the Aughts, this is the best soundtrack to a bad film since “The Blue Beetle,” and another reminder that James Gunn’s wonderfully soundtracked “Guardians” films are superior because they do not get by on song selection alone.
But also, I admit I’m burned out by these overlong lowbrow high concepts. I’m one of the few who found “Everything, Everywhere All at Once” to be – in modern parlance – a bit much.
As time goes by, “The Fall Guy” will be seen as a Twenties movie of a piece with that 2022 Oscar-sweeper (which likely would’ve won for Best Stunts, too). We’re in a bizarre era where attention spans are so short that baseball has changed its rulebook and longform non-You Tube movie reviews are almost dead, yet people are happy to test their bladders at the cinema.
The only thing urgent about “The Fall Guy” was, seemingly, the pre-production process. The stunts likely came first, and I can imagine the filler material (the contrived plot) came from a free-flowing meeting in a conference room, like that “Key & Peele” parody of “Gremlins 2” (another superior meta movie).
The stunts are real here (except when they’re CGI, of course), as the behind-the-scenes footage over the end credits shows. But ironically, the actors get top billing like they always do; you’ll have to dig into the credits to find the names of stunt coordinator Keir Beck and the four fall guys who doubled for Gosling (Troy Lindsay Brown, Justin Eaton, Logan Holladay and Ben Jenkin). There are likely guild and union rules preventing the movie from doing anything special, but still. Aside from the technically great stunt work, “The Fall Guy” rings false.