Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 6 minutes, Director – David Leitch
Track down the missing star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), try to make up with the ex-girlfriend director (Emily Blunt), evade thugs after discovering a dead body and be on set in time to cannon roll a car, just the return to work stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) didn’t want.
The Fall Guy’s ode to stunt workers is somewhat what causes the film to shoot itself in the foot. Opening with various stunts from other films, including behind the scenes elements, a narration detailing the work of stunt people and later scenes showing some of the tricks of the film set; I subsequently spent a good number of the ensuing action sequences looking for the cuts where these figures were on screen instead of the leading cast. It’s only as I was experiencing a proper sense of tension during a fight in a skip being dragged along the road by a vehicle full of thugs, cut with the karaoke evening at the bar where the main character should be, that I realised I’d not been properly caught in the flow of these big, but brief, sequence until this point.
Perhaps it’s the better establishing of stakes, and reminder in the moment of all that protagonist Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is trying to achieve, that makes this particular sequence, and the third act spectacles, that creates the tension. A reminder that while his life may be at risk, he’s largely doing this to save the sci-fi blockbuster he’s been called in to work on at the last minute. Back after a serious back injury he sees Metal Storm – the kind of exaggerated film-within-a-film that you think likely wouldn’t exist until you see the fake trailer – as a chance to make amends with ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a camera operator making her directorial debut.
There’s a long build-up as the pair reunite and make the tensions of their relationship clear for the cast and crew around them. Colt is thrown head first – sometimes literally – into the moviemaking process as Jody has him set on fire multiple times and begin with a major cannon roll car stunt; making up for the missing leading man, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). It’s here that the narrative properly kicks in as Colt is sent by producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) to track down Ryder, leading him to the discovery of a dead body and a gang of gun-wielding thugs on his tail.
As the film brings together its elements its biggest successes lie perhaps in its humour. While not everything may land there’s a ZAZ-style quality to a number of the gags, although here the humour is somewhat recognised rather than played straight or away from, which helps establish a funnier film than some may be expecting. There’s a good deal of comedy within The Fall Guy and it helps to keep things moving until the bigger bursts of action, outside of the Metal Storm set, start to unfold. Moments which, while the opening scenes of the film might remove something from them, do have an enjoyable nature when it comes to some of the ideas within them. Ideas which are occasionally few due to the brief nature of the earlier sequences.
When it’s combining its elements and reminding us of what’s at stake – particularly for Colt – The Fall Guy is at its best. Tension begins to rise up, and a bigger entertainment factor is created. Particularly in the latter half of the film, the third act in particular brings things together and rounds them off in explosive and entertaining fashion. When one style or element dominates as a thematic priority it creates a slower pace, even during fights and action scenes which grow in scale as the film goes on, and has you looking for the spots where the key stunt performers are present – which doesn’t happen when you’re given more to focus on and think about, as is the case for Gosling’s central figure. The Fall Guy generally sticks the landing, but it does occasionally meet some obstacles on the way to the airbag, although dodges them well enough.
ZAZ-style humour and some good ideas help the lengthy build-up of The Fall Guy to pass by with more ease before it escalates to deal with bigger action sequences and character strands at once, leading you to stop thinking about where the stunt performers are in certain shots.
Just A Little Bit Random 