The Fall Guy (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Teresa Palmer, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu, Hannah Waddingham

The Fall Guy is based partly on the 1980's Lee Majors series about a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter.   The Colt Seavers (Gosling) of the 2024 movie is a stuntman who is tasked to pursue the missing star of the movie he's working on.  Bounty hunting isn't in the offing, unless it comes about in the sequel.   The movie is lots of stunts and action as promised, but the best scenes involve a will they or won't they romance featuring Colt and director Jody Moreno (Blunt), who is working on her first directorial effort and can't afford having its star Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson) go missing in action. 

The romance is soon consumed by the action, which like many in movies is overly long and uncompelling.   Gosling and Blunt are effortlessly likable, and a movie about them and the behind-the-scenes aspects of moviemaking would be perfect if The Fall Guy got out of its own way.  The movie begins with Colt, having a fling with then assistant director Jody, working as Ryder's personal stuntman and enjoying his work and life.  Then, he is nearly killed when a dangerous stunt goes awry and he retires from movies, instead working as a put-upon valet.

Jody will helm her first film and producer Gail Meyer (Waddingham), coaxes Colt into returning to the stunt game, albeit without Jody's knowledge.  This leads to banter and jokes between Colt and Jody on set, but then Colt is asked by Gail to find the AWOL Tom before the movie is kaput.  Colt, as amateur sleuth, is headed into different directions as he tries to find Tom.  Colt then becomes a murder suspect in the death of a fellow stuntman who was actually killed by Tom.  AI is introduced and places Colt's face on Tom's body when the video footage is released.  Now Colt has to prove his innocence by finding Tom. 

The Fall Guy sounds more exciting than it is.  What a missed opportunity.  Gosling and Blunt are gold, but the movie's plot doesn't play to their strengths.  Director Leitch is a former stuntman who lives to make movies like these.  The action sequences are slickly and professionally handled, but they don't stand out in the pantheon of historically great movie action.  The action has to include a plot and characters we care about.  The Fall Guy, unfortunately, doesn't deliver in that regard.