Film review: ‘THE FALL GUY’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

The low-budget 80’s action-comedy TV series The Fall Guy, which starred former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors as stuntman/ bounty hunter Colt Seavers, isn’t a show that seemed to be crying out for a cinema adaptation. It was amiable, undemanding TV, typical of mystery/crime/action shows of the late 70’s and early 80’s where everyone but the actual police solved crimes while cruising around scenic Southern California, cracking lame jokes and often beating up some venerable Hollywood actor who happened to be that week’s guest villain.

This is not the first time a questionable piece of TV history has been re-imagined for the big screen, they did it with the A-Team, a film that kindly refrained from troubling the box office too much. Of course, the idea with a film like The Fall Guy is to lure the Gen-xers by appealing to their boundless nostalgia, even though this one is set in the present day and has a very different aesthetic to the TV show.

Here, director David Leitch has tried to turn the concept into a hyper-kinetic action-comedy romp. While there is a decent helping of violence, unfortunately a dodgy script, juvenile dialogue and misfiring humour leaves an unpleasant taste, a little like we experienced watching one of the Crocodile Dundee sequels.

Ryan Gosling stars as the contemporary Colt Seavers, a movie stuntman who makes his living doubling for obnoxious action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).  Following a serious on-set accident, Colt gives up the stunt game but is lured back when producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham from Ted Lasso) offers him a job in Sydney in a film directed by the love of his life, Jodie (Emily Blunt). Colt, however, soon finds himself entangled in a murder mystery where someone is trying to frame him.

While this film is unashamedly silly with some of the attempted humour venturing into the ludicrous territory of the 21 Jump Street films, there’s no excuse for the rambling childish plot.  The story is really just a loose collection of gags and noisy action scenes and despite a frenzy of activity, there’s almost no sense of narrative momentum.  A few of the gags are vaguely amusing but that has more to do with Gosling and Blunt’s acting smarts than anything in the script.  Much of dialogue is borderline unlistenable as the characters constantly babble over the top of each other.

The action is fairly dynamic, most of the big set pieces, which involve fights and car chases in front of Sydney landmarks, are pretty ludicrous but offer some exciting moments. Tellingly, Leitch spends a surprising amount of time on the film Jodie is directing, sci fi adventure Metal Storm which actually looks better than The Fall Guy.

Gosling is quite different to the Lee Majors incarnation of Colt.  Majors, 45 at the time played him as a laconic, middle-aged urban cowboy.  Here Gosling is essentially doing his Ken character again – a vain but likeable pretty-boy goofball – but this time without any of the perceptive gender politics of the Barbie film for context.  He seems to be having fun but it’s an odd career choice for a guy who was establishing himself as Hollywood’s leading man.   Emily Blunt makes the best of a thinly written love interest character, bringing some wit and feisty attitude to the role of Jodie.  Director Leitch also takes every opportunity to frame her stunning features in close-up.

For some, The Fall Guy will be perfectly acceptable ‘brain in neutral’ cinema escapism but given the calibre of its two leads this is pretty disappointing stuff.

Nick’s rating: **1/2

Genre: Drama/ Action/ Crime/ Comedy.

Classification: M.

Director(s): David Leitch

Release date: 24th Apr 2024.

Running time: 126 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

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