The Fall Guy [Extended Cut] (2024)

PG-13 for not-nothing swearing.  There's an f-bomb in here, which surprised me in front of my kids.  (It's weird that I have a line in the sand for things that they can and cannot hear.) There's a decent amount of violence and some death.  In terms of sexuality, it is a rom-com, but I can't think of anything that raised any red flags.  It's pretty mild in that camp actually.  PG-13 seems accurate.

DIRECTOR:  David Leitch

I don't know when to watch the Extended Cuts of things anymore.  I used to exclusively watch director's cuts and extended cuts of things because it felt special.  But if you don't really have a comparison on things, I never know what is the preferred cut of a film.  I did watch the extended edition on this one, simply because it felt like I was getting something special.  I just Googled it and it seems like there's no real consensus about the real version of the film.  That oddly makes me happy.  It means that none of it matters and that the universe has no purpose and oh-my-God-I'm-Going-to-Die-One-Day.  Sorry, I got too far into my head.

I'm actually going to have a hard time writing this one.  It's silly and I should be able to knock this out in two seconds.  It's a rom-com action movie.  It's kind of the perfect date movie...except for the fact that my wife finds no joy in stunts.  Listen, if you are looking for a good time for most personalities, The Fall Guy absolutely nails what it is supposed to be.  Okay, some people can now sign out of the blog and do their own thing.  But I do need to pick apart the movie now and talk about how this movie's biggest problem is that it nails exactly what it is setting out to do.  

The Fall Guy is not a great movie.  It's fun.  I'm even going to say that I deeply respect what this movie does.  If you wanted a perfect double feature with this movie, I'd suggest Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.  Considering that The Fall Guy is a film spin-off of a television show from the '80s, it kind of treats that premise with kid gloves.  Ultimately, what The Fall Guy does and does incredibly successfully is pay homage to the unsung hero: the stuntman.  (I say unsung right after saying that Death Proof also does the same thing.  You get what I'm saying, right?  The purpose of language is to communicate ideas.  If I do that, you can let things slide?  Let's not be pedantic.) I honestly think that his movie was conceived on the premise that the filmmakers were going to gather a bunch of stuntmen, have them come up with the most insane stunt gags that they could, film it, and then wrap a story around those stunts.  And if that's what the goal was, mission accomplished!  On top of that, the movie works enough to make those scenes work?  That's all very impressive.

It is heartwarming to watch these stunts.  This is a movie, as silly as the whole thing might seem, that was made out of love.  Perhaps it is the scream against AI and CGI when it comes to making well-crafted action sequences.  But when a bunch of people get together to make something that they're passionate about, that's something to celebrate.  With that in mind, The Fall Guy is pretty darned great.  It's hilarious.  I am often frustrated when people say that The Phantom Menace is one of their favorite movies because of the lightsaber fights.  I want people to like what they like, but I also want it to be because of substance.  With The Fall Guy, I'm incredibly forgiving of the exact same argument.  If you fall in love with The Fall Guy because of the gags that they set up as action sequences, then you nailed the purpose of the movie.  As much as we can find Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt shippable and charming --which I absolutely do! --it's really about celebrating this craft of creating elaborate action sequences. 

But like I said, my wife doesn't really lose her mind over crazy stunt sequences.  I got the best compliment the other day.  My wife said that she was grateful that I was like Tim Walz.  I wasn't an alpha male who spewed toxic masculinity.  I loved that.  I pride myself on just defining myself by what I genuinely like instead of what society expects me to like.  (I'm also incredibly full of myself right now, so I'll try to get out of this line of thought.) But one of those traditionally masculine things that I enjoy is a great action sequence.  Again, it isn't a make-or-break thing.  I don't actually care for The Phantom Menace that much, despite having admittedly awesome lightsaber fights.  I enjoyed the whole thing because the action sequences enhanced a story that I was mildly engaged in.  But my wife seemed to enjoy the movie for the rom com elements.  Here's where we disagreed, though.  I thought that Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt had incredible chemistry.  You might not be able to trust me on that because very rarely do I argue that people don't have chemistry.  My wife disagreed, but also put the caveat that she can only see Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, not Colt Seavers and Jody Moreno.  That can be a problem.  I had the same problem with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III.  So I can respect that.

So let's break down the big problem.  I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I am struggling to come to a conclusion on this one.  1) The movie is good, but not great.  2) The movie accomplished all of its lofty goals, which wasn't necessarily to make the best movie ever.  3) I enjoyed it, but not enough to lose my mind about it.  Where does this leave me?  I mean, ultimately, this is the type of movie that you want to watch regularly, but not this specific movie.  We used to have a lot of these kinds of movies, but it's a lot of money to throw at something not to be remembered.  Ultimately, I have to go with my gut.  This is a recommendation for a low-stakes good time.  A lot of television spin-off movies have the same vibe.  Listen, it's a good time.  It's not great, but it will entertain the whole time.  Also, Gosling is borderline untouchable at this point.