The Fall Guy

A lot better than expected....

The Fall Guy is an entertaining film paying comical homage to classic action movies, stunt people and cinema in general. Headed by Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, and Emily Blunt as Jody Noreno, Fall Guy exceeds expectations with chaotic and meaningless fun akin to 21 Jump Street.

After suffering a serious stunt accident during the filming of a Tom Ryder film, Colt loses his perfect life, a great relationship with an up and coming director and his dream job, as one of the best stuntmen of his era. Colt is encouraged back into the stunt business by Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) for another action film in Sydney, Australia, starring Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Things take a turn when Colt is given the task of locating Ryder who has gone missing while in the middle of filming Metalstorm. As Colt tries to rekindle his failed relationship with Jody, and make his comeback as a stuntman, Colt uncovers murder and nefarious plots that put himself and Jody in danger.

Fall Guy is a tongue-in-cheek action-comedy with lots of stunts and plenty of film industry references. To be honest, I avoided this movie as the trailer made it seem like an overly serious action movie primed to bomb at the box office. However, it was a lot more enjoyable than I anticipated. And while it didn’t deliver a side-bursting movie full of high stakes and laugh out loud jokes, it made me chuckle quite a bit. It does take a while for the film to find its feet though, for example, the first 45 minutes is somewhat plain. There is quite a lot of exposition and set-up without any convincing funny moments or amazing stunts to propel the film forward. There were a few moments early on when I felt like I could be wasting my time with film playing a straight bat. On top of this Gosling’s Colt is cringy at the beginning. He is hyper-arrogant and a bit too cool for the silver screen, I was worried that Gosling was going to play this a little too cool which would result in an awkward feature film that may force Gosling to seriously consider his career choices. 

But as the movie evolves, it becomes ever more comedic and chaotic. When the plot escalates in its stakes it also escalates in ridiculousness. It is almost as if the makers of Fall Guy knew that it needed to make its audience trust the movie before it could hit the zany button and then hit the button another 100 times. By the third act the film delivers on its action and its jokes similar to Beverly Hills Cop. It doesn’t excuse the many attempts of dry humour which fall flat most of the time which result in a few scenes that feel more awkward than funny.

Nor does it excuse the very basic CGI work used in this film which was akin to the B-grade movies of the last decade, however, the silly nature of Fall Guy makes me suspect this was on purpose. Plenty of action films famous for dodgy CGI and special effects are mentioned and referenced and it reinforces the point that this movie is in itself, a bit of a joke.

What was really good to see in Fall Guy was the Aussie locations and quite a few Australian actors sprinkled throughout the film. As an Australian, it is hard not to give this aspect a big tick because I think it is a no-brainer because of Australia’s incredible landscapes. It appears that more and more movies are being set there which is not only good for the country’s film industry but it allows Hollywood films to escape the tired American landscape and style that has been used for so many decades.

It is very pleasing to see so many different types of Australians in this film too. There were a variety of Australians from many different backgrounds, which helps to show Australia’s growing multiculturalism. For example, early on in the film, Colt has a few exchanges with a Pacific Islander Australian and then a Lebanese Australian. A few Asian Australians, followed by Indigenous Australians also feature throughout the film. I hope this helps break the typical Aussie stereotype of a blonde, rugged bushman ala Paul Hogan or Chris Hemsworth that the rest of the world thinks of when they think or see an Australian.

The ‘baddies’ however, is a different story. With most of the Aussie characters, they speak and act very much like they actually do but the Australian ‘hit men squad’ in this film seem to have a higher pitched and more naselly accent, likely due to American actors rather than Australian actors. This was disappointing because this was an opportunity to present bad Aussies in a more genuine light. But again, this movie is quirky, I doubt they spent much time during the producer meetings discussing the pros and cons of shaping the hit men with a genuine Australian bent. It is also just very hard to imagine a bunch of Aussie para-military men running around Sydney with bulletproof vests on and submachine guns shooting up the place. But hey, it is a start.

Another criticism is the small yet glaring mistakes that were made throughout the film. Perhaps I’m nitpicking but there were many instances where the story or the camera shot wasn’t well thought out. For instance, in an early stunt scene, Colt is driving on the beach in a spacelike vehicle. In one extended shot of the car moving along the beach, the car begins to bounce quite significantly. This is then followed with a close-up shot of Colt in the car and there is no bouncing at all. It is indeed a minor thing but it is significant enough to be noticed and that is enough for the enchantment of the film to break a little on us, the audience. Another example of not thinking things through can be found in the story too. Colt is hastily brought to the film shoot in Sydney and without any work on choreography, training or practice he is filming car stunt scenes and complicated fight scenes with the ease of someone who has personally mapped out each action scene in the film from its inception months and months beforehand. Again it just makes the movie feel a tad rough for the viewer and leaves doubt in our minds about fully buying into the story. Finally, in the third act there were so many instances that if with more rational thought, the characters could have avoided the dramatic action ending. It was somewhat frustrating that the characters had to make certain choices in order to have the eventful climatic scene at the end.

But again, Fall Guy is in that realm of movies that wants to make you laugh and enjoy it for what it is, not to have you stress out and clench your butthole nor for you to linger on it for weeks on end due to the layered themes it wants to impart on you.

Gosling is good in this film as he is very much able to weave that cool dude persona with great comedic timing, Waddingham is a gem as well and she was perfect for her role as the diabolical film producer we all assume is behind stupid action films that are punched out every single year. Blunt, on the other hand, I feel sorry for. She is very good in Fall Guy as she is with almost everything she has ever been in. I loved that she was able to stay British and didn’t have to morph into her American acting accent because I think we are able to see her give more for the role. But she is very much a plot device in this film. She plays the love interest slash straight-man (woman). Everyone around her is the oddball but she isn’t. Yes, every film needs to have someone playing straight but I felt there was a lot more she could have done in this film. She could have had a larger role, one that took much more screen time and many more of the jokes. For most of the film, she is oblivious to the main plot of the movie and I think with her more involved, especially inadvertently working against Colt, it would’ve brought more fun to the movie overall.

Rating: 6.7/10