The Fall Guy (3/10)

by Tony Medley

135 minutes

PG-13.

There have been many movies made about Hollywood. Some have been serious and good, like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Some have been terrific and humorous, like Singin’ in the Rain (1952). 

Unfortunately, this one about a stunt man, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), in love with a director, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), is a waste of exceptional talent. It’s directed by David Leitch, who was a stunt man, and claims to be based on Glen A. Larson’s TV series starring Lee Majors who played a stunt man who doubled as a bounty hunter. It ran for seven seasons.

I don’t know why they had to credit Larson’s series because this is nothing like that. Colt is not a bounty hunter; he’s an out of work stunt man working as a valet parking cars.

With Leitch’s last effort, Bullet Train (2022), as a precursor (which I called quisiquilious tarradiddle) one should not be surprised that this is just more pretentious nonsense. Leitch seems to populate his films with idiotic, violent fights, so the first 90 minutes of this is mostly mindless violence, consisting of ludicrous stunts and fights and car crashes seemingly ad infinitum, for no discernable reason. There’s one fight in which Colt breaks into an apartment/condo and gets attacked by a woman with a sword. It went on for what seemed like five minutes, with little or no raison d’étre.

During most of these fights, I kept thinking, “who are these people and why are they fighting?” Followed up immediately with “Who cares?” And then, “Let me out of here!” but that was not copacetic because, since I was there, I might as well stay so I could write a review that might save people time and money. There is virtually no plot except a troubled romance between the two stars and Colt searching for a missing star until it suddenly reveals itself as a murder mystery for the last half hour, which was too little too late. Even though Blunt and Gosling have exceptional talent, I didn’t perceive much chemistry between them.

Leitch’s movies have been similar, immersed with grotesque viciousness (including 2017’s Atomic Blonde, which wasn’t bad). Since the story and  script (Drew Pearce) are weak, all he has to offer are graphic car crashes and mayhem. But he’s smart enough or lucky enough to people his films with huge stars like Charlize Theron for ‘Blonde, Brad Pitt for Bullet Train, and now Gosling and Blunt for this. That’s the only way I can explain why Bullet Train grossed over $100 million, and this one probably will, too. Such is star power and today’s audiences who seem to be drawn to violent dreck and fantasy.