Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have been talking so long about “The Fall Guy” it almost seems like it came out last year.
Alas, it just hit theaters last week and it’s as familiar as the trailers that have preceded it.
The film, in fact, isn’t much of a stretch from dozens of other action films that emerged a decade or two ago.
Based on the Lee Majors television show, “The Fall Guy” finds Gosling as Colt Seavers, an exceptional stunt man, able to do eight-and-a-half car roles, burning man bits and lots of free falls. He’s the double for a moody star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who goes all out off-screen, not on.
When the actor turns up missing, his agent (Hannah Waddingham) asks the stunt guy to find him.
Without a completed film, Seavers’ girlfriend (Blunt) could end her directing career before it even gets started. Much of the journey, it should be said, involves all kinds of stunts – ones that justify why Academy Award voters think it should be an Oscar category.
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When Seavers discovers what’s truly behind the disappearance, he’s forced to spring into another kind of action and expose the wrongs that have been hidden.
Blunt and Gosling get a handful of cute moments, but this isn’t anything Sandra Bullock and others haven’t already done.
Thanks to director David Leitch, it’s a visual resume of the kinds of things stunt performers contribute daily. Watching those car rolls, for example, makes you appreciate what isn’t done in CGI.
“Fall Guy” talks a bit about Artificial Intelligence, too, and lets Waddingham show how a dark wig can transform just about anyone.
While the film hints at ones you’ve seen before (Gosling’s character even wears a “Miami Vice” jacket to commemorate his first stunts), there are questions that linger about safety.
Blunt’s film – a cross between “Mad Max” and some space journey – manages to send up some of the dumber ideas that have crossed cineplex screens. She’s fun to watch in the director’s chair and isn’t afraid to take out frustrations on her performers.
When she plots with Gosling, “Fall Guy” is at its best. Unfortunately, that’s after we’ve had an awful lot of exposition and little more than a Post-it note to understand what Taylor-Johnson’s character is about.
Blunt and Gosling are a good team; Waddingham deserves more film roles, and “The Fall Guy’s” script could have been pruned. That’s the takeaway but it’s still a fun watch that doesn’t require more than passing knowledge of the movie business and an appreciation for all the things Tom Cruise claims he can do.
Movies in a minute with film critic Bruce Miller
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Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
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