David Leitch has already proven that he knows how to make fast and funny action movies that interest and entertain. He tried to do the same thing with ‘The Fall Guy‘ (2024) which borrows the title and the profession of the main character, but nothing more, from a television series of the 80s. The director also bet on the fact that Hollywood likes to make movies about Hollywood and raised the stakes of the production by adding a plea for the stunt job, with its risks and frustrations, a job threatened by advances in digital cinematography that make it possible to program and execute any action scene on computers, as well as to replace actors by computerized doubles. Even if this combination of entertainment and message does not work perfectly, and despite a running time that seems too long, mainly due to repetitions, ‘The Fall Guy‘ manages to be engaging and funny at times.
Colt Seavers is a stuntman. He loves his job, even if he knows that his face is intentionally hidden for the benefit of famous actors and his name is squeezed among many others towards the end credits of movies. His happiness is amplified by the fact that he can film together with his girlfriend, Jody Moreno, a set director. When he’s at his best, during the shooting of a movie, what appears to be an accident happens, threatening to end his career. He leaves the movie world and Jody. 18 months later he is called to participate in the filming of the huge production of an interplanetary wars saga, which for Jody is the chance to debut as a feature movies director. Arriving at the filming location, Colt learns that Jody knew nothing about the fact that the producer had called him, and his participation as a stuntman in the filming is only one of the reasons, the main one being the search for the lead actor who mysteriously disappeared. We are in the world of special effects and stunts, where no one is what they seem to be and nothing we see on the screen is real. The adventure is just beginning, and the life of the stuntman and the renewed love between the two heroes will be in danger.
The screenwriters and director David Leitch intended to combine the action film with the parody, putting in the center of the story the stuntmen – people with special qualities who do not hesitate to risk their lives to create the illusions on the screen. The parody works up to the point where the lines become too serious. The film is also a little too long, the story is rather routine (within the genre) and predictable, and when the jokes are repeated and the emphatic lines pile up, the effect is diluted. I enjoyed many of the action scenes. ‘The Fall Guy‘ is a film with and about stunts, and the stunts are done in the style of classic action movies, performed by professionals. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are perfect in the lead roles. Their charisma and the chemistry between them drives the film to a great extent. Fans of the two actors will leave, I think, very satisfied from the viewing. The rest of the viewers will have to settle for a little too long two hours and something of action romantic comedy to be consumed with popcorn. The themes of the fate of stuntmen in modern cinema and of the effects that kill emotions remains to be addressed more deeply by other films.