So my English major side is incredibly bothered by my title here, but the truth is that The Fall Guy may be the most perfect movie to hit theaters in years. In terms of appealing to action fans, romance fans, men, women, conservatives, liberals, even Red Sox and Yankee fans, it checks all of the boxes. But with the latest release of the digital version, fans can watch an additional twenty minutes of a movie that were initially left on the cutting room floor.
If you’ve missed every commercial and no one has told you to go watch (because apparently your friends don’t like you), The Fall Guy is roughly based on the 1980s television show starring Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, a stunt man by day who moonlights as a bounty hunter. In the ‘remake,’ Ryan Gosling stars as the charming tough guy Seavers, who longs to win back the heart of his director flame Jody Moreno (Emily Banks) after a terrible accident standing in for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). When Ryder goes missing, Seavers has to stand in for him during the day while also trying to locate him, or Moreno’s directing career will crash and burn like an out-of-control stunt gone wrong.
The stunts from David Leitch (John Wick, Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2) are righteous, with the audience seeing the stunt and a facsimile of how the stunts (sometimes) are made. It’s breathtaking and very, very cool. The chemistry between Gosling and Blunt is hilarious, sweet, and absolutely believable. The additional acting by other top talent like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) and Winston Duke (Black Panther) fill out a cast that has serious chops in drama and comedy. Have I mentioned it’s hilarious? When Jody encounters Colt all dressed up as an alien, I thought the theater would erupt. Now you can watch the scene over and over again!
The extended cuts look at some of the dialogue-related scenes, but if you’re into action and Leitch’s stunts, there are several longer cuts here that might not advance the plot but they still entertain. It’s wild stuff that’s sure to entertain you, whether you’ve seen the film before or not.
From a content perspective, I don’t remember a film lately that has shown a real relationship, with ups and downs, vulnerability, romance, and real effort. The stunts are for our entertainment, but the back and forth dialogue and the feelings involved are real. It’s a film about love, without having to cross lines and make it uncomfortable. It shares mistakes; it shows both people fighting for each other. Like I said, perfect.
Looking at the slate of films available in theaters, I’m still going to point you to streaming this one at home. You can’t beat perfectly perfected perfection.
