Movie Review: The Fall Guy

 Movie Number 14 of 2024

The Movie: The Fall Guy

The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

Stars: 4

I remember watching the television show, The Fall Guy, when I was at high school. Lee Majors was Colt Seavers, the stunt man who had a sideline as a bounty hunter. Standard American fare. 

Ryan Gosling brings back Colt Seavers as the hapless stuntman, who get embroiled in a bit of tricky situation. 

However, gone are the bounty hunter storylines. Instead, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a stunt man who comes back to work after a nasty on-set accident. Gone is his budding relationship with Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) a camera operator who's not getting a shot at directing. In the time it's taken for Colt to recover, she's moved on. As the stunt man for the pretty boy Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his marvellous abs), he is now working on Jody's film. Tom's agent, Gail (the inimitable Hannah Waddingham) brings the ailing Colt in to be his stunt man for the film Jody is directing. 

And all hell ensues. 

I'm not going to say too much about the plot - it's pretty thin on the ground - needless to say, Colt wants to get back with Jody, but before anything happens, he gets framed for murder. 

It's not really a film you go to see for the script.

It is, however, very entertaining, and rather funny in places. David Leitch, the director responsible for Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train is no stranger to action, and this brings it in droves. These scenes are great. It's not unrelenting action, but it's very good fun. There is also a dog. I'm still unsure where he fits in, but he's a wonderful addition to the movie. 

Another thing which I enjoyed about the film was it was filmed, almost in its entirely, in Sydney. It was great to see the city streets and the harbour being used not only for the scenery, but as a set for a lot of very fun action sequences. In particular, the scenes with the rubbish skip going down George Street were great fun. 

The sound track is also fabulous with some excellent 1980's standards from KISS, AC/DC, The Darkness and even Taylor Swift, just to name a few of the artists.

Is this the best film I've seen this year? No. But is it really good fun. maybe a film for date night, something easily consumed and enjoyed? Definitely. 

And if anything, it's worth going just for a peak at our new James Bond, Aaron Tayor Johnson's abs. Like hubba hubba...

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