The Fall Guy (2024)
Fall Hard
The movie that waits for the full crew continues to wait for the full crews, so I decided to pocket a movie that looked like a lot of fun in the trailers. It’s another one of those ones where every time I see something about it’s always some kind of complaint about this or that, and I don’t know - I’m just not buying that this movie isn’t going to be fun from the trailer. Maybe it’s because I’m not familiar with the original show, so I just don’t have all the baggage of past plots and traits to go along with - but no matter how you cut it you show me a movie about a stunt actor getting into shenanigans I think i’ve probably enjoying myself. I hope you aren’t afraid of heights, tonight’s movie is The Fall Guy.
Our story is something that starts simple and slowly becomes more complicated, without ever actually being all that complicated. A stunt man and a camera operator are a bit of an item, and he’s having the time of his life until a stunt goes wrong and he has a bit of a mental emotional crisis and just sort of up and quits everything - the business, the relationship, all of it. Years later while being a valet, he gets dragged back into the world of stunts with a phone call from a head up mentioning how his dream girl is now directing a movie, and she wants him - which isn’t entirely true, as she doesn’t know anything about it. The plot thickens when the head up lets the stunt man know that it’s deeper than his love interest knows, as the head guy of the movie is missing and if they don’t find him in 48 hours the movie is doomed. Why not go to the cops? Because then the company panics and the movie gets shut down - so it’s up to the stunt guy to to go find the lead actor and save the movie, all while he tries to make up for the mistake he made abandoning his love.
Of course, it gets a lot more wishy washy as things unfold, but one of the big selling points is going to be the actors. They do a wonderful job here - with plenty of enjoyment to be gotten out of our main cast. Understandably, you’ll like some characters more than others given how they are written but of no real fault of the actors. Even some of the side characters will draw your little heart’s attention, being quite fun and endearing. The relationship between the lead stunt man and the lead directing lady is a good one, and the two play off of each other in a fashion that perhaps isn’t always the most realistic but certainly great as far as entertainment goes. There’s some over the top stuff in here, but it all feels like everything is set up as intended and when it goes it’s all the fun you want.
The characters aren’t horrible either. As mentioned, there are times that some characters will be unlikable - but it’s the point, a feature not a bug. Yes, some of the lovable quirks aren’t going to hit everyone with the same level of endearment, but it feels pretty solid for an action movie with some laughs - and arguably pretty good for a romance flick with action and laughs. I may not be a regular connoisseur of romance flicks as opposed to my intake of action flicks - but they do play with it quite well in my opinion - the will they won’t they doesn’t really mess around with it too much to be overbearing, but it adds enough to the situations they get an extra level of tension because they aren’t just “an action scene” for the characters - it’s a fight against a timer where they should be somewhere else and really want to be there, but things are in the way of it. Our main stunt person probably gets to have the most growth here, but I also feel a bit like that growth sort of mostly happens off screen in the intro when he realizes he’s made a mistake - but he does still progress enough over the course of the movie to find his words that he just couldn’t say before - so it’s not like there is zero progression either.
That’s a long fall, guy.
The action here is wonderful. Like i said, the emotional romance backdrop helps to provide an extra layer to the action scenes that for me aren’t entirely necessary but it’s great that it’s there anyways. A lot of stuff is added to it, and the movie even has a wonderful little stunt reel that it plays at the end with the credits. It’s one of those movies where given all it’s ties to the stunt world because the main character is a stuntman, they also take a bunch of time for their action scenes. It all looks well done, and I don’t think anyone will at any real moment care about when or not things are practical because either way it looks good. It also has what I think was a world record car roll stunt, so that’s something as well! Fights are, as with the rest of the stunts, well practiced and looking good, and the movie has a charm with things that are going on that keeps it all pretty enjoyable even when people are getting their balls bit by an attack dog.
Costumes and sets are pretty standard fair for modern flair. It makes things more grounded and believable, all without really showing off how well it’s done. That said, the movie within the movie has a bunch of aliens and props as well, so there is still plenty of stuff to look at all over, even if the main parts of the movie keep it pretty evened out. Oh, there’s also a unicorn for a while as well - and plenty of explosions to go with the stunts. The computer aided shots also add some fun stuff to help liven up already good scenes - I don’t think there is really a ton of stuff actions fans won’t like about the action here.
Audio is good here. In a surprising twist of fates I actually do remember some songs from it after it’s done - but it’s cheating because I already really liked the KISS song they used a lot in this movie. That said, it all does its job of helping out the scenes and adding extra emotion where needed. Deliveries are well done, as is the background sounds. There’s also probably a bunch that could be done as far as thinking - but this time around I’ll leave it up to folks watching it. The humor is going to be mixed because it’s always subjective, but I had a good chuckle a few times, and the constant quoting movies between the stunt guys was enjoyable in my opinion as well.
Pretty sure this stunt got them a record.
I had a good time with this movie, and honestly not entirely sure why others wouldn’t. Again, maybe it’s just a bad adaptation of the old stuff and that’s what a lot of folks were upset about - or maybe it’s just because nobody (like myself) goes to movie theaters anymore because the nearest one is like an hour drive away and they have a home theater that’s good enough in comparison. That said, I feel that it’ll probably do pretty banger in the home market if it hasn’t already, because it’s a fun darn movie. Call it a date night movie - it’s got some romance for those inclined, and it’s got some action for energy, and it’s even got itself a little bit of mystery drama in there wrapped all up in a good old fashioned comedy wrapper.