The Fall Guy sprinkles TV reboots with a little Meta Movie Making Magic
Old TV shows never die, they just wait for the Hollywood reboot machine to kick them back into life. THE FALL GUY is, perhaps, a title overdue for the big screen. Popular enough in its mid-eighties heyday, it’s typically high concept setting benefited enormously from the affable charisma of its leading man, former SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN Lee Majors as well as its action-focussed blend of movie making glamour and bounty hunting righteousness. It’s fitting, then, that this reimagining hangs its crash helmet on the current standard bearer of affable charisma, Ryan Gosling.
Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a once-famous stuntman now relegated to the sidelines after a career-threatening injury. Called back to the filmmaking front-lines when he’s tasked with locating the missing star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) of a blockbuster helmed by his ex-girlfriend, director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), Seavers soon finds himself caught up in some shady shenanigans in and around the movie set while also trying to repair and reignite his romance with Jody.
There’s perhaps no more appropriate director to have helmed this action-packed reboot than David Leitch, himself an ex-stuntman and stunt coordinator on movies including THE MATRIX and FIGHT CLUB. Leitch brings a wry authenticity to the filmmaking scenes and a knowing flair to the stunts, making them a highlight of THE FALL GUY. While the fourth wall remains resolutely intact as far as the cast goes, there’s an abiding sense of Leitch winking at the audience as he mines his own personal experience of filmmaking to give the crazy caper onscreen a send of being grounded in real life experiences. In idea and execution, the film pays homage to the often-unsung heroes of Hollywood – the stunt performers – without ever straying close to becoming a polemic. But yeah, it’s ridiculous there’s no Academy Award for best stunt.
As they demonstrated on the publicity tour for the movie, Gosling and co-star Emily Blunt share an easy and easily likeable chemistry, even if their frequent banter occasionally feels a bit forced or indulgent. While the action is consistently top-notch (it would be churlish to criticise a film about stunts and filmmaking for never knowingly passing up the opportunity for a gratuitous action sequence) , the comedy doesn’t always land and a good 15 to 20 minutes could easily be cut from the runtime without harming either the story or characters. For a film keen to champion the unsung heroes of movie making, it sure could have done with championing an editor too.
In blending a manhunt in with movie making mayhem, the film finds a smart way to update THE FALL GUY’s TV roots while keeping it relevant for a modern multiplex audience. It’s a nice touch, too, that there are (late in the day) cameos for both Lee Majors and Heather Thomas but the best thing by far is that the movie’s credits (featuring behind the scenes footage) is accompanied by the song “The Unknown Stuntman” – a far cry from THE EQUALIZER franchise’s refusal to give us even a sniff of Stuart Copeland’s TV theme tune.
Entertaining in an almost old-fashioned way, THE FALL GUY delivers on the action and adventure and while it may not perfectly pull off every narrative flourish it attempts – especially in a finale that tries to pack in a few too many twists and turns – it’s an undeniably good time as well as giving stunt teams their moment in the movie-watching rather than movie-making spotlight.
