The Fall Guy (2024)

Jack and I liked very much this action/rom-com/homage to movie stunt people, loosely based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, with Ryan Gosling as the dedicated title character. Emily Blunt is his multi-faceted love interest, Aaron Taylor-Johnson the narcissistic leading man in the movie within the movie, and Hannah Waddingham that movie's determined producer. Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, who starred as the stunt man and his love interest in the series, have cameos in a final scene after the credits (don't miss it!)

Director David Leitch is a former stunt man, and Drew Pearce's screenplay gives credit to Glen A. Larson, the writer of the series. This project has been in development for fourteen years with a number of filmmakers attached. That said, this doesn't take itself too seriously and the movie is loaded with "Easter eggs," some of which we got, others that went over our heads.

I'm streaming the exciting soundtrack by Dominic Lewis on Apple Music as I type. 

This movie is helping with the campaign to get stunts recognized as an Oscar category, both in its subject matter, and directly in dialogue. Chris O'Hara's credit as stunt designer hasn't before been used, and imdb's list of the stunt department is quite long. Also quite long is that site's trivia list. It's fascinating, and includes that Gosling has a fear of heights, but still did the 150-foot fall at the beginning of the movie and that with 8.5 car rolls, this movie breaks the Guinness World Record of the most car rolls (a fact which Waddingham's character actually mentions in the dialogue).

It was shot almost entirely in Australia (the country's film commission helped with the budget), and, impressively, got to shoot one sequence right in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Because you follow my lead and will stick around for the final bonus scene, you will also see a short documentary about stunts as the credits begin.

Gosling was last blogged for Barbie, Blunt for Oppenheimer (they joked at the Oscars about being the love interests in the two smash hits), Taylor-Johnson for Nocturnal Animals, Leitch for Deadpool 2, Pearce for Iron Man 3, Lewis for Money Monster. Waddingham is best known for 34 episodes of Ted Lasso as the team owner Rebecca, and we also liked her in 14 of Sex Education as one of Jackson's two moms. I've seen almost none of Majors' hundreds of credits, other than three episodes of Weeds, one of Community, one of Grey's Anatomy. He's 85 years old now and apparently has four upcoming projects right now. Thomas, 66, was in all 112 episodes of The Fall Guy and I've seen nothing of hers. 

We have seen quite a few movies with O'Hara's stunt work, including two Kill Bills (2003 and 4), Spider-Man 2 and 3 (2004 and 7), The Hangover, The Hangover Part III, Water for Elephants, We Bought a Zoo, Iron Man 3, and Baby Driver, to name just a few.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are rolling with averages of 81 and 86%, respectively. We rented it on Apple TV May 28.