'The Fall Guy' briefing

2 (out of 4)

            “I deliver hits for all you little people!” Not in real life sister.

This is one had me at the premise alone: a behind-the-scenes action comedy with a noir twist? See, regardless of David Leitch — stuntman (five times for Brad Pitt) turned capable action blockbuster magic man — or even Ryan Gosling — the coolest cat in modern drama or comedy, I’m sorry between Drive, La La Land, Blade Runner 2049 and Barbie he’s already one of the new greats — you’d still have enough genre potential to immediately intrigue the likes of me and YET, given my pleasure is theoretically prerequisite, why does so little of The Fall Guy land on its feet or some other loathsome pun?

I can’t help but feel mildly disappointed, seeing as this is guy behind Atomic Blonde, Leitch's vivid, punchy debut outside of a partial hand in John Wick alongside Chad Stahelski. I’d just care for more economy, seeing as The Fall Guy is too forgettable and fluff-festered to somehow cost 50 million dollars more than John Wick Chapter 4 and sincerely, how did The Lost City, hell even Argylle churn out more acceptably tongue-in-cheek romantic wish-fulfillment than a will-they-won’t-they between Gosling and Emily freaking Blunt? How does your romantic action comedy fail to adequately deliver any of its three intents? Thank God the closest to quota is the stunt department, as Gosling’s human test dummy (from “I Drive…” to “I Fall…”) is forced into many situations where the regular action hero wouldn’t be able give the thumbs up, let alone stand. Occasionally there’s a tangible toughness but thanks to a totally silly tone even the best fights and most impressive physical feats are stripped of their “reality” given the enterprise’s forced, farcical folly.

But as far as stuntman odes, it’s ridiculous that The Fall Guy invests so gladly in celebrity worship — Leitch doesn’t prop up any stunt performers, the Ryan look-alikes are still in the wings just like any other action movie. You know what actually gave prominence and some representation to a stunt department? When Leslie Odom Jr. couldn’t take the heat, Mission: Impossible — Fallout went with stuntman Liang Yang for that immaculate, practically perfect bathroom fight sequence and considering it’s probably the best moment of fisticuffs in the last decade just furthers my point. But then, despite such a solid homage to honest-to-god hard-boiled pulp fiction in story alone, this is one of those tangled plots that pulls apart with one tug. I think the double entendre of the title had me too hopeful even if the story did indeed gestate from the neglected stunt double scenario to the doppelgänger dope hung out to dry as is one typical noir fashion.

So it better be laughs shoring up an altogether theoretically winning, shareholder-assuring setup and ultimately generously unedited film. Sadly, even before you roll your eyes at the movie’s half-baked tinder hookup pretending to parody a sizzling summer romance, it’s just unreal how unfunny this movie is — the little in-between gags are the best things going, like the fruit platter, not tired Gen X pop culture references like The Last of the Mohicans and The Fugitive, how many can you squeeze in? There's also some appreciated but fundamentally obtuse satire of Hollywood’s many ills (Egotistical stars! Lazy writers! Bloodsucking producers!). The Fall Guy even looks good as it was shot on glorious film, continuing Leitch’s penchant for garish, brilliantly contrasted throwdowns — so the visually rewarding stunt movie with pretty good stunts (but only a fraction of the visceral, paranoid fantasy-satire of 1980's The Stunt Man), starring talented folks, poking fun of Hollywood evil NONETHELESS adds up to something feigning breezy good vibes when half the time it just blows. It’s enough to make you think of how many exciting original movies could’ve been flubbed or hampered by the slightest misconception, under- or overdevelopment.

Leitch is no stranger to keeping things light, but the far too improvisational, slapdash, shotgun-splatter comedy script (by Hotel Artemis director/Hobbs & Shaw scribe Drew Pearce) doesn’t have a singular force of fun to smooth it all over. When your best gag is the Goose sniffling in his car blasting T Swift and your most standout sequence is his character zonked out on some spiked cocktail, kicking ass by muscle memory in dark light, maybe your boom-pow-haha script should have been treated to a proper punch-up. The “it’s complicated/situationship” side of things has whispers of restraint, class and charm but I was ready to puke after the third or fourth of those ironic, fake-sincere love monologues where the plain subtext is the film’s to-be-fulfilled yearnings.

The Fall Guy is a little too eager to please everybody — I can’t even say it wasn’t entertaining enough or decently crafted because of course it was, Leitch's storied stunt performer/coordinator career of 30 years experience rubs off on his every project. That's why I hate to highlight how David didn’t suitably honor stunt performers, your own unsung heroes — sure Gosling, as the incel’s champion, is well-cast as a fellow buried in the background. But even the behind-the-scenes blooper bullshit doesn’t really exhibit this movie’s stunt team, just a shiny world record for car rolls — it’s a self-congratulatory piece of work but in reality The Fall Guy is Leitch’s weakest movie next to his Fast and Furious spin-off. This love letter isn’t really reverent or respectful through unbelievable thrills, or outpacing The Stunt Man’s Hitchcockian wrong-man-wrong-time or movie-about-movie fakeouts. Speaking of, this freshly sarcastic, nihilistic, postmodern infinity mirror of Hollywood on Hollywood hollowness/hallowedness isn’t nearly as memorable or honest as Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time, the Coen’s Hail, Caesar! or even Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. It’s only self-aware insomuch as it sets up screenwriting shortcuts.

Because of a recent Disney schedule shakeup pushing back many a Marvel movie, the PRIME first weekend of May was left WIDE OPEN and here I was praying The Fall Guy didn’t utterly waste it. Unless you count pandemic outlier years like 2020 and 2021, not since since Mission: Impossible III back in 2006 has a Marvel comics adaptation not kicked off a modern summer blockbuster season, and it’s sad how certain I am that 2025’s Thunderbolts* will be the better time next to this hodgepodge of richer genres than it deserves to clad itself in.