‘The Fall Guy’ showcases stunt actors as unsung heroes

CEBU, Philippines — The closest thing we would get to a “Barbenheimer” crossover is Ken and Kitty Oppenheimer starring together in action-comedy “The Fall Guy”, which is adapted from the ‘80s show of the same name.

One thing to note, this is not a straight-up adaptation of the television series. The television show and the movie focuses on a stunt double named Colt Seavers with a partner-in-crime named Jody. But that’s where their similarities end.

Here, Colt (Ryan Gosling) attempts to bounce back as a stunt actor after a near-fatal injury on a movie set forced him into an 18-month hiatus. As he walks back on set in Australia, he finds that his love interest Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) is making her directorial debut after spending most of her filmmaking career as a camerawoman.

Jody holds a grudge against Colt for ghosting her during those months but is willing to make amends for the sake of the production and secretly hopes Colt still cares for her.

Things get complicated when the film’s star and Colt’s collaborator Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing and is tasked by the film’s producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) to look for him.

Despite being an experienced stuntman, Colt didn’t expect his mission to be dangerous as he faced the real bad guys seemingly hunting down the missing movie star.

It is not every day we get to see stunt doubles as the main characters and the film wastes no time to explore this concept, which fulfills expectations successfully of what a movie starring stunt doubles would look like. It pays homage to the stunt actors who have no issue risking themselves to get a good action shot.

This is David Leitch’s fifth movie as director. Anyone familiar with his filmography which includes “Deadpool 2” and “Bullet Train” to his name knows he can direct a great action-comedy flick. The way the action scenes mixed with humor were shot felt very real and thrilling to watch on the big screen.

Having done “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Sicario”, Blunt is no stranger to the genre, and she is usually an effective action heroine. This time as Jody, she takes the backseat, while Colt takes over most of the stunts. However, there was one scene that shows how strong Jody is when action is necessary, which may explain why her character is a fan of the genre as a filmmaker.

After the success of “Barbie”, people are excited to see what Gosling does next. This film only reminds audiences that he is a strong action star who can do anything including comedy and drama.

Gosling and Blunt are highly effective leads as they share a strong chemistry in their comedy and romantic scenes together – which the movie has no shortage of.

Even in their scenes with different characters, such as Gosling and Winston Duke who plays Colt’s best friend Dan, and Blunt and Waddingham together, they work well with other actors that truly cement them as strong movie stars.

Fans of the original television series will be pleased to see that its stars Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, who played Colt and Jody respectively, made cameos in the end credits in a wink to its source material.

Unless you are a Marvel fan, most people don’t stay during the credits. But “The Fall Guy” has a behind-the-scenes montage of how the production crew was able to shoot these action scenes. These outtakes are normally reserved for bonus features seen in DVDs or online, so to have them attached as part of the movie’s credits highlights how much of the stunt actors are the unsung heroes in filmmaking.

With a fun and engaging action-comedy story that is led by the Oscar-nominated leads, “The Fall Guy” is a worthy movie to kick off this year’s summer theater blockbuster. Four stars out of five. — (FREEMAN)