With The Fall Guy releasing on Friday, May 3, it’s officially summer movie season. The Ryan Gosling-Emily Blunt led action rom-com isn’t just a long-overdue homage to the stunt community, it’s an homage to the film industry as a whole.
Gosling is undeniably and utterly charming as Colt Seavers, a top-of-his-game stuntman until a terrible accident turns his life upside down. Seavers gets back into the stunt world when he thinks his former love, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) needs him to help finish her first film as a director.
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From there, it’s just chaos as Seavers is enlisted by producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) to help track down the movie’s star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), after he finds himself in some trouble.
Where The Fall Guy succeeds is in it’s cast and the action. Gosling and Blunt have incredible charisma and chemistry together, and (unsurprisingly) the film has never-ending stunt sequences that are just flat out fun to watch. Director David Leitch, who used to be a stuntman and stunt coordinator himself, took such obvious care to show the physical and emotional toll taken on the unsung heroes of the movie world.
Supporting performances from Winston Duke and Stephanie Hsu are expertly deployed, as is the introduction of Jean-Claude, the trained stunt dog that only responds to commands in French (Allons-y, Jean-Claude!).
There’s so much to like about The Fall Guy, and it’s the kind of movie that reminds you just how much fun it is to go sit in a theater, relax, eat some popcorn and let the magic flow over you.
Movie: The Fall Guy
Release Date: May 3
Director: David Leitch
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars