THE FALL GUY

The Fall Guy gives stunt people their due credit, but with a needlessly convoluted script and a surprising lack of chemistry between Gosling and Blunt, it falls far short of top entertainment value.

I never saw the eighties TV series that The Fall Guy is based on, but I’d wager a bet that it was a lot easier viewing than this overblown effort that’s being positioned as the official start of the summer blockbuster season.

As Colt Seavers, the titular stuntman who gets caught up in a web of lies, deceit and murder, Ryan Gosling is an excellent choice. His charms carry the movie throughout, even if his romantic involvement with Emily Blunt, as a female film director, mostly falls curiously flat.

But even Gosling cannot make the hodgepodge narrative any better. That the plot is just an excuse to go from one action set-piece to the next, I can forgive, but some simplifications in the meandering mystery would have greatly benefitted The Fall Guy.

Unsurprisingly, as director David Leitch started out as a stunt man, the love for the profession shines through consistently, with a wide variety of fun stunts sprinkled throughout the film. But because of the questionable editing decision of consistently intercutting the action with other subplots, the momentum is totally sapped from even the best of those stunt sequences.

Overall, for me The Fall Guy just didn’t work, as the film struggles to find the perfect mix between action and humour, action and romance, light-hearted entertainment and serious filmmaking.

release: 2024

director: David Leitch

starring: Ryan Gosling, Emimy Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham