Review for The Fall Guy

Introduction

I was too young to watch The Fall Guy when it was on TV. It’s nothing to do with age ratings or content, it’s just that I was still of an age where TV shows were real, were windows into wonderful fantasy worlds. I was yet to discover that there was such a thing as ‘behind the scenes’. To that point, Lee Majors simply was Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, and my naive little brain just couldn’t comprehend that ‘acting’ was a profession. I grew up, but my preconceptions remained set for the following five years. So I missed out on a show that was a staple for so many of my friends.


That doesn’t really matter with the current trend in adapting old TV shows to the big screen. I’ve noticed this on more than one occasion, but the big thing is the origin story, taking us before the point that the original TV show began. The A-Team movie showed us the A-Team get arrested for a crime they didn’t commit, and then promptly escaping from a military stockade. Fans didn’t appreciate the violence (and accuracy of gunfire) which was unlike the cuddly TV series. The Man From U.N.C.L.E introduced the main characters prior to the formation of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. There hasn’t been a sequel. The Fall Guy feature film then tells the story of the eponymous stuntman long before he takes up bounty hunting.


Colt Seavers was a stunt double for one of the most famous actors on the planet, Tom Ryder, before a gag went wrong and he broke his back. 18 months later, Colt is working valet parking wondering what happened to his life. Then he gets a call from producer Gail Meyer. Colt’s ex-girlfriend Jody has finally got a directing gig, and she’s asked for him personally to work the stunts. That’s all the excuse he needs to jet off to Australia, but when he gets there, he learns that this isn’t exactly the truth. The star of the movie, Tom Ryder has vanished, and Gail needs Colt to find him within 48 hours or Jody’s movie is dead.

There are two discs in this release, two versions of the movie. The Theatrical Cut lasts 126:22, while the Extended Cut runs to 146:24.

The Disc

Both versions of the film get identical 2.39:1 widescreen 1080p transfers. The theatrical version gets Dolby Atmos English, German and French, with Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 Surround Italian and French, along with DD 2.0 English and French Audio Descriptive tracks with subtitles in these languages and Dutch. The Extended Version gets Dolby Atmos English and German, and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 Surround French with English, French, German and Dutch subtitles. I think we’re getting to the point where with big budget movies, it’s impossible to tell if they’ve been shot on film or digitally, either that or digital cinema has brainwashed me. Either way, The Fall Guy looks excellent on this release, clear and sharp, with excellent detail, great contrast, and rich consistent colours. The audio too serves the story well, making the most of the action, and the eclectic pop soundtrack while keeping the dialogue clear.

Extras

You get two discs in a thin BD Amaray style eco-case with holes cut into the plastic. Disc One has the Theatrical Cut and the listed extras; Disc Two has the Extended Cut alone.

Gag Reel (4:36)
Alternate Takes (5:52)
Stunts on Stunts: Breaking Down The Action x5 (18:58)
Making a Meta Masterpiece (16:03)
How to Break a World Record (6:04)


Nightclub Mayhem (3:30)
The Art of Doubling (4:22)
Making Metalstorm (4:31)
Falling for The Fall Guy with Bob Reese (4:24)
Feature Commentary with producer/director David Leitch & Producer Kelly McCormick

Actually you also get the Feature Commentary on the Extended Cut disc, and the commentary is extended too.

Conclusion

If there is just one reason to love The Fall Guy, it’s that after a couple of decades it seems, we get a fun action movie that doesn’t have a single superhero in it. It’s just so refreshing that the film actually feels original, although when you think about it, films like this used to fill the summer multiplexes once upon a time. But the good thing is that there are more reasons to love The Fall Guy, as it’s a good movie too, a fun action comedy that just flies by, decently paced, with an entertaining story, enjoyable characters, and of course some great stunts.


The story unfolds around the relationship between Colt and Jody, stuntman and camera operator, blissfully in love until Colt has his accident and drops out of life completely. The opportunity arises to reconnect months later, when Jody’s directing her first film, and the producer Gail calls Colt to tell him Jody wants him on the movie. It’s a lie of course; the real reason is that the film’s lead actor has gone missing, and Gail wants Colt to find him before the film gets shut down. Colt gets sucked into the mystery of the actor’s disappearance while trying to mend a relationship that seems terminally toxic, especially when the director is determined to repeatedly set the stuntman on fire.


Speaking of stunts, this film is filled with them, and there’s a delightfully minimal use of CGI to ‘enhance’ them, Given the film is about the film industry, many of the stunts are in context on film sets, as well as those bits of action that take place during Colt’s search. This also means that a lot of the film’s humour is meta in nature, commentary on the film industry itself, and for me, I found it to be quite a hoot.


There’s added value in this release, as we get the Extended Version on a second disc. Often times, extended versions are director or studio vanity projects, sticking back deleted scenes willy-nilly just because they are cool, without a thought to the movie itself. You can think of Star Wars with its Jabba scene, repeating dialogue that would come later with the Greedo scene, the final Lord of the Rings movie with its never-ending endings, or Lethal Weapon with three beginnings. But The Fall Guy’s extra 20 minutes beg the question why this version wasn’t released to theatres. You get more character beats, you get more action and more stunts, and you get a couple of plot holes plugged too. The only downside is that it lacks that brilliant AC/DC soundtrack sting from the opening that is on the theatrical version.


The critics really liked The Fall Guy; moviegoers not so much. I guess we won’t see a return to this kind of filmmaking any time soon, and we’ll still have to deal with comic book movies at cinema multiplexes for the foreseeable future. Perhaps, despite its meta comedy, it’s because it harks back to an older style of filmmaking that it didn’t get traction with modern audiences, who tend to watch older films directly to sate their nostalgia. Maybe in a few years, the film will be revisited, and belatedly gain an audience, in much the same way that Guy Ritchie’s Man From U.N.C.L.E. seems to be doing now. Either way, I doubt that there will be a Fall Guy II. I think it’s worth a watch though, and I enjoyed it enough that it will get plenty of re-watches from me.