KSL Movie Show review: Get ready to laugh and get excited with ‘The Fall Guy’
May 3, 2024, 10:00 AM | Updated: Aug 5, 2024, 1:10 pm
Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — No movie star is hotter right now than Ryan Gosling.
He was nominated for an Oscar for playing Ken to Margo Robbie’s Barbie. He blew the Academy Award night away with his ensemble performance of “I Am Ken.”
And, he hosted one of the best episodes of “Saturday Night Live” in a while just a few weeks ago.
Now, he’s the lead dog in “The Fall Guy” – which is going to be a huge hit.
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Loosely based on the 80’s TV series starring Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, Colt Seavers (Gosling) has been setting himself on fire, rolling cars and throwing himself off buildings for years.
In real life, Ryan is terrified of heights, so he dons a pair of sunglasses in his first stunt, so you can’t see the horror in his eyes.
Colt suffers a near-career-ending injury in that jump and is so despondent that he goes into a deep funk, pulls away from his friends and sweetheart, and eventually takes a job valet parking cars for an L.A. restaurant.
How humiliating, especially when people recognize him as this once-famous stuntman.
The sweetheart he left behind is Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) a budding filmmaker who eventually gets the call to direct her first major motion picture called MetalStorm, a sci-fi, action-adventure featuring famed actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for whom Seavers used to be his go-to stunt double.
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But Colt burned a lot of bridges after his accident. So it may be a tough sell convincing his former love interest and future boss, Jody, that he is the man for the job.
Enter film producer extraordinaire, Gail Meyer (Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham). She knows Colt Seavers would be the perfect fit for their movie, if only she can convince the ghosted Jody that Colt deserves a second chance, both in love and in life.
Get ready to laugh and get excited as Gosling shines as the lovesick stuntman who will do anything to win back his love’s affections, including a series of stunts that are out of this world.
I didn’t know there was a Guinness World Record for the number of rolls a car can make after it begins to tumble in a chase scene. Eight and a half “cannon rolls” is the new record and every inch of it is on the big screen.
So why only a B+ rating? The film doesn’t feel as tight as it should have been. It has what appears to be three or four endings thrown together at the conclusion.
They feel like afterthoughts. Just one more scene should do it… and then there’s yet another.
It’s still one of the biggest action-adventure blockbusters to come along… until Tom Cruise does something even more insane in the next Mission: Impossible. But that’s going to be a while, so enjoy!
“The Fall Guy” (B+) Rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language. Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Winston Duke. Directed by David Leitch (“Bullet Train” “Deadpool 2”) – filmed in Sydney, Australia. Running time: 126 minutes.
