Review: The Fall Guy is the Unsung Hero of Action Rom-coms
Maybe you watched The Fall Guy on TV in the '80s, maybe you didn’t. It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that The Fall Guy movie is an action film starring Ryan Gosling, who brings over all the leftover Kenergy from the Barbie movie, and directed by David Leitch, one of the best action film directors in Hollywood today. Throw in Emily Blunt, and the movie crosses into that uncommon genre, the action rom-com.
The TV show in the '70s featured Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, who uses his background as a stuntman to moonlight as a bounty hunter, sometimes with the help of stuntwoman Jody Banks, played by Heather Thomas. The modern remake reinvents the dynamic between the lead characters turning it into a full-on romance with Gosling’s Seavers, still a stuntman, and Blunt’s Banks, a production assistant who dreams of someday directing her own film.
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Gosling and Blunt have electric chemistry that bleeds off the screen, with banter that's sweet and cute without being cheesy. Seavers and Banks' on-set romance gets torpedoed by a freak accident that nearly kills Seavers, sending him on a self-loathing spiral, which results in him pushing everyone away, including Banks. Gosling can't shake his "Ken-ness," and that’s perfectly fine. The Fall Guy works precisely because Gosling is so likable and funny; he carries the film on his perfect, sculpted shoulders, making it look easy.
Blunt shares the load, but The Fall Guy also features Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham as producer Gail Meyer, who is freaking out over the disappearance of her big-name star, Tom Ryder (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), in an over-the-top send-up of action stars who claim to do their own stunts.
When Ryder goes missing in the middle of production, Meyer brings Seavers out of retirement by informing him that Banks, now a director, has requested for him specifically. What ensues is a comedy of errors involving guns, goons, and a gold and brown kelpie named Jean Claude.
Gosling and Blunt have electric chemistry that bleeds off the screen, with banter that's sweet and cute without being cheesy.
Director Leitch knows action. He made his debut as Chad Stahelski’s uncredited co-director on John Wick, arguably the film that’s moved the needle for the action genre the most in the past decade. Since then, Leitch has beefed up his resume with an impressive slate of action films, from Atomic Blonde to Hobbs & Shaw to Bullet Train.
The Fall Guy is peak Leitch, and even though rom-coms aren’t strictly in his wheelhouse, it works because Seavers and Banks' romance is comedy. Seavers is a jacked specimen of a manly man who sings his heart out to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well alone in his car while pining for Banks because, again, it’s basically Ken.
The Fall Guy fully embraces its '80s roots, featuring classics such as KISS’s I Was Made for Lovin’ You (which, incidentally, was also featured in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) and Any Way You Want It by Journey. Some films capitalize on the unearned goodwill and cool factor lent by iconic songs like Taika Waititi’s egregious abuse of Disney’s licensing budget in Thor: Love and Thunder, but The Fall Guy uses its soundtrack to complement its cool moments and not use it as a mere crutch.
Gosling brings over all the leftover Kenergy from the Barbie movie.
Hollywood's obsession with remaking old television shows into feature-length films has been a hit-and-miss endeavor. The Fall Guy is so old and obscure — Majors' earlier television show, The Six Million Dollar Man, probably deserved a movie more — that you wonder who it's made for. Even little Easter eggs, like the iconic Six Million Dollar Man bionic sound effect used in the film, serve as an homage only Boomers and Gen Xers will appreciate. The mid-credits cameos by Majors and Thomas are nice but are wasted on an audience more likely to have been raised on TikTok than on CRT televisions. That said, the homages are just a bonus in what's already a pretty solid and entertaining film, anyway.
The Fall Guy doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and neither is it particularly memorable, but it’s a whole lot of fun. Leitch gives equal focus to action, comedy, and romance that between action Ken, '80s rock songs, and Leitch-orchestrated action sequences, this ode to the unsung heroes of cinema is one hell of a good time.
