Appealing, nonsensical love letter to industry
We are in Sydney, Australia. Which, as tens of thousands of expat Kiwis could tell you, is a pretty good place to be.
Specifically, we are on the set of a brand-new, $200 million feature film called Metalstorm, which appears to be some sort of gold-lamé-clad mash-up of Independence Day, Cowboys and Aliens and a whole bunch of out-takes from David Lynch’s Wild At Heart. Again, none of which is a bad thing.
At the monitor, making her directing debut, is a young woman named Jody, who only a year before was a humble camera operator on a movie set in LA on which a stuntman was badly hurt, when a harness was incorrectly rigged.
Jody was in love with Colt the stuntguy. But since Colt decided to vanish after his fall, change his number and take a job as a car valet at a classy Mexican joint just off Santa Monica, Jody has had to move on with her life.
And directing this unwieldy behemoth of a picture, with action sequences that are threatening to wipe Sydney’s State Opera House off the map, will be enough to keep her occupied.
But, wouldn’t you just know it, from out of the smoke and dust of a staged car crash, a familiar pair of stubbled cheekbones appears. It is Colt, summoned back to set by Jody’s producer and apparently the only person who can save Jody’s film from collapse, since her actual action-hero has vanished.
Look, none of us are here for the plot. Which is probably just as well, since the trailer pretty much tells you the whole story anyway. But The Fall Guy, once you step back and get the smoke and glitter out of your eyes, makes absolutely no sense at all, even by the standards of the ropey 1980s TV show it is named for.
And, worse, The Fall Guy also teases us with the idea that Hollywood would entrust a massive sci-fi blockbuster to a woman, when there are so many male directors who have failed in this genre, and apparently still deserve one more chance.
But the script then turns that kickass woman into a distracted rom-com lightweight the moment her ex-squeeze shows up. Yes, that bugged me. And it should bug you too.
But, with Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling churning out the star wattage in the leads, and actual ex-stunt performer David Leitch (Bullet Train) in the director’s chair, there is still a lot here to like, and I’ll always have something kind to say about a film that actually lives up to the promises its own marketing and trailer are making.
The Fall Guy, viewed through a generous lens, is a love letter and a salute to the film industry and everyone who loves it. There are movie references by the yard, in-jokes and meta-humour in every scene and damn near every line, and genuine, oldschool, deathlessly impressive stunt work of the highest order.
One set-up needed a car to cannonroll – to be flipped by a concealed hydraulic ram, while travelling at high speed. Stunt driver Logan Holladay set a world record with 8½ rolls completed.
With Hannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Winston Duke (Black Panther) all chewing up the scenery in support and a load of Australia’s most scenic city streets and deserted beaches getting smashed to bits in the background, The Fall Guy is a film that knows how to put on a show and leave any audience who actually want to pay to see it, feeling they’ve had their money’s worth.
If it had a story that made just a tiny bit more sense, and was smart enough to generate any tension or intrigue at all, I might even have liked the damn thing a bit more myself.
As it is, The Fall Guy is a numbingly stupid film that is clearly made by a lot of very clever and talented people.
Just make sure you stay for the credits, which play over a montage of genuinely great behind-the-scenes footage of the actual stunt performers doing their work. For those five or so minutes, The Fall Guy really does come alive and put a smile on my face.
The Fall Guy is in cinemas nationwide.