A stunt heavy action flick with its heart on its semi burnt sleeve

David Leitch storms into the summertime scene with an action movie that, on the surface, is as dumb as a bag of bricks. Yet under that hard surface and soulless twist, there’s an intelligent piece of theatre which raises a high brow middle finger at Hollywood studios whilst catering to what those same cretins would expect of an action-packed comedy. 

Leitch’s story is based on the 1980’s tv show of the same name and follows Colt Sears (Ryan Reynolds), a stuntman and adrenaline junkie whose daredevil life of dangerous stunts eventually leads to a horrific injury and a break for the master of action on the screen. Colt is eventually called back into action by Gail (Hannah Waddingham), producer and agent for Colt’s stunt-counter part Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor Johnson). 

Lured out to Australia as a ruse to work for his former flame Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) on her directorial debut Colt is set on a path of mystery and intrigue as he struggles to find the missing Tom Ryder whilst uncovering a conspiracy that is both outlandish and hilarious. 

The subsequent action leads to a two-hour action-packed comedy that packs the elements of a cliché action flick into a less than subtle ‘f you’ to studios who so often look down and bully crews on big budget productions. 

Fall Guys is by no means an intelligent movie, but its clever enough that it manages to give some measure of subtle on its carefully layered critique of movie making culture that got it passed the cutting room floor and into cinemas. It’s a film that is rather per4fectly timed, given how it was scarcely so long ago that many of us were watching entire crews along with numerous actors ranked A to D list calling out the bosses of big production companies. 

Gosling and Blunt are both fantastic in their roles, though at times it feels as though Gosling tethers the line between stunt man out of his depth and action hero doing a regular day’s work. In some ways this makes sense, as a stunt man high charged and over-dramatized stunt scenes are a part of everyday life. 

Recognising this as satire would be one thing, however the line between reality and fiction is so skewered I was often uncertain how much I should be buying in to the plot (which is, as one would expect, completely ridiculous and over the time). Hannah Waddingham, star of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, shines as producer Gail who is often shown to be playing all sides in a manner which feels like a narcissistic form of manipulation. 

Waddingham radiates the exuberant false cheer and egotistical self-confidence I would expect from a studio exec. Quite honestly, of all the elements of the film it was oddly her I found the most grounding. Johnson, for what few scenes he is present, is very good and owns his part. 

Whilst his super-star actor acting feels over-exaggerated, that plays well to the more ludicrous moments of the movie where Leitch is blatantly making fun of modern action cinema (think Fast and Furious or Transformers). 

Fall Guys never feels like a movie that breaks the mould, but it certainly will crack a smile for the unsung heroes of big cinema which this movie makes great effort to acknowledge. 

A solid 7/10 movie that’ll will make your weekend.