Last night I went to see The Fall Guy looking for a fun summer blockbuster and that is exactly what I got! After an accident on set Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), the stunt double for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), walks away from the movie business and his camerawoman girlfriend Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Eighteen months later producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) convinces him to return to Tom's latest movie because it is being directed by Jody and she has requested him. When he gets to set he discovers that Jody is not over their break-up and that Gail really summoned him to locate Tom because he has mysteriously disappeared. Soon he is being blown up, shot at, and set on fire both on set and in real life as he tries to find Tom. Eventually, he becomes the fall guy in more ways than one and it takes the stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), Jody, and the entire crew to help him clear his name in an epic stunt. The story is an absolute mess (I think they should have spent more time developing the central romance rather than the mystery) but the action sequences, and the accompanying adrenaline-fueled soundtrack, are so much fun. It is definitely an homage to stunt work, and filmmaking in general, and I enjoyed seeing glimpses of what it takes to create the stunts we see on the screen as well as all of the nods to recognizable stunts from other movies. Gosling, especially, and Blunt are charismatic as the leads and they have sizzling chemistry with each other (as previously mentioned they should have had more interactions together). Some of the humor doesn't quite land but I laughed out loud during a relationship montage to "All Too Well" by Taylor Swift and several scenes involving a French speaking stunt dog named Jean-Claude. There are flaws but it is wildly entertaining and the perfect start to the summer blockbuster season.
No comments:
Post a Comment