“The Fall Guy” wasn’t the summer’s big hit, but it still has moments worth watching.
Still in full snark mode, Ryan Gosling borrows a bit of his Ken-ergy to play Colt Seavers, an exceptional stunt man, able to do eight-and-a-half car roles, burning man bits and lots of free falls. He’s the double for a moody star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who goes all out off-screen, not on.
When the actor turns up missing, his agent (Hannah Waddingham) asks the stunt guy to find him.
Ryan Gosling, left, and Emily Blunt in "The Fall Guy."
Without a completed film, Seavers’ girlfriend (Emily Blunt) could end her directing career before it even gets started. Much of the journey, it should be said, involves all kinds of stunts – ones that justify why Academy Award voters think it should be an Oscar category.
When Seavers discovers what’s truly behind the disappearance, he’s forced to spring into another kind of action and expose the wrongs that have been hidden.
People are also reading…
Blunt and Gosling get a handful of cute moments, but this isn’t anything Sandra Bullock and others haven’t already done.
Thanks to director David Leitch, it’s a visual resume of the kinds of things stunt performers contribute daily. Watching those car rolls, for example, makes you appreciate what isn’t done in CGI.
“Fall Guy” talks a bit about Artificial Intelligence, too, and lets Waddingham show how a dark wig can transform just about anyone.
While the film hints at ones you’ve seen before (Gosling’s character even wears a “Miami Vice” jacket to commemorate his first stunts), there are questions that linger about safety.
Blunt’s film – a cross between “Mad Max” and some space journey – manages to send up some of the dumber ideas that have crossed cineplex screens. She’s fun to watch in the director’s chair and isn’t afraid to take out frustrations on her performers.
When she plots with Gosling, “Fall Guy” is at its best. Unfortunately, that’s after we’ve had an awful lot of exposition, and little more than a Post-it note to understand what Taylor-Johnson’s character is about.
Blunt and Gosling are a good team; Waddingham deserves more film roles, and “The Fall Guy’s” script could have been pruned. That’s the takeaway but it’s still a fun watch that doesn’t require more than passing knowledge of the movie business and an appreciation for all the things Tom Cruise claims he can do.
Movies in a minute with film critic Bruce Miller
Movies in a Minute: "28 Years Ago"
Movies in a Minute: "Materialists"
Movies in a Minute: "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina"
Movies in a Minute: "Karate Kid: Legends"
Movies in a Minute: "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning "
Movies in a Minute: "Nonnas"
Movies in a Minute: "Fight or Flight"
Movies in a Minute: "Thunderbolts*"
Movies in a Minute: "The Accountant 2"
Movies in a Minute: "Sinners"
Movies in a Minute: "Warfare"
Movies in a Minute: "A Minecraft Movie"
Movies in a Minute: "Death of a Unicorn"
Movies in a Minute: "Snow White"
Movies in a Minute: "Novocaine"
Movies in a Minute: "Mickey 17"
Movies in a Minute: "Flow"
Movies in a Minute: "Last Breath"
Movies in a Minute: "Captain America Brave New World"
Movies in a Minute: "Heart Eyes"
Movies in a Minute: "Flight Risk"
Movies in a Minute: This Oscar season, musicals are "pop u lar!"
Movies in a Minute: "Wolf Man"
Movies in a Minute: "Better Man"
Movies in a Minute: "Babygirl"
Movies in a Minute: "The Brutalist"
Movies in a Minute: "Nosferatu"
Movies in a Minute: "A Complete Unknown"
Movies in a Minute: "Nickel Boys"
Movies in a Minute: "Moana 2"
Movies in a Minute: "We Live in Time"
Movies in a Minute: "Smile 2"
Movies in a Minute: "Saturday Night"
Movies in a Minute: "Joker: Folie `a Deux"
Movies in a Minute: "Megalopolis"
Movies in a Minute: "Transformers One"
Movies in a Minute: "Speak No Evil"
Movies in a Minute: "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"
Movies in a Minute: "Reagan"
Movies in a Minute: "Blink Twice"
Movies in a Minute "Alien: Romulus"
Movies in a Minute: "It Ends With Us"
Movies in a Minute: "Trap"
Movies in a Minute: "Deadpool & Wolverine"
Movies in a Minute: "Twisters"
Movies in a Minute "Maxxxine"
Movies in a Minute "Despicable Me 4"
Movies in a Minute "A Quiet Place: Day One"
Movies in a Minute: "Thelma"
Movies in a Minute: "Inside Out 2"
Movies in a Minute "Bad Boys: Ride or Die"
Movies in a Minute: "Summer Camp"
Movies in a Minute: "The Blue Angels"
Movies in a Minute: "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"
Movies in a Minute: "The Fall Guy"
Movies in a Minute: "Abigail"
Movies in a Minute: "Civil War"
Movies in a Minute: "Monkey Man"
Movies in a Minute: "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"
Movies in a Minute: "Late Night With the Devil"
Movies in a Minute: "Snack Shack"
Movies in a Minute: "The Color Purple"
Movies in a Minute: "The Iron Claw"
Movies in a Minute: "Wonka"
Movies in a Minute: "May December"
Movies in a Minute: "The Marvels"
Movies in a Minute: "Five Nights at Freddy's"
Movies in a Minute: “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny”
Movies in a Minute: “80 for Brady”
Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
