The weather round here is still dismal, but it looks like it really must be early summer as films clearly aspiring to blockbuster status have started to appear – along with the odd bit of counter-programming, of course. As long-term readers will remember, the Planet of the Apes franchise has always had a special place in the column's affections (editions #1, 200, and 350 all included a review of a newly-released Apes film) which only makes it slightly annoying that the new one will have to be subject of #851. So it goes. In the meantime let's talk about David Leitch's The Fall Guy, based on one of those 80s TV shows that everyone sort of vaguely remembers without much genuine affection.

There was a time – quite a long time – when every old TV series you cared to mention was dusted off, smartened up and sent back to the big screen, nostalgia and name-recognition outweighing originality in the dark algebra of studio heads. (You could potentially blame this on the success of the Star Trek movies, which boldly blazed a trail for this sort of thing, though probably the best and most successful example would be the Cruise-fronted version of Mission: Impossible.) After the boom in the late 90s and early 2000s where even things as obscure as The Mod Squad and SWAT ended up on the big screen, it all seemed to die down, but you do occasionally hear of another project along these lines still mired in development hell (still no sign of the big-screen Six Million Dollar Man, for example) and every now and then one does actually reach the screen.

That said, Leitch's movie doesn't bear much resemblance to the TV show which allegedly spawned it. That was about a veteran stuntman with a side-line as a bounty hunter, a premise which combines a good gimmick with a great deal of latitude for finding stories. I remember watching it when my age was in single digits but even then I'm pretty sure I rumbled to the fact that a lot of the more impressive stunts and action sequences were clearly edited in from somewhere else (standard practice at Universal's TV division for a long while – Steven Spielberg apparently got very cross when half of his movie Duel turned up in an episode of The Incredible Hulk).

At least the movie version of The Fall Guy is All New Stuff. Ryan Gosling plays Colt Seavers, formerly a top stuntman but now (literally) fallen on hard times after an accident on set. However, redemption comes a-knocking when film producer Gail (Hannah Waddington) phones him up with the offer of a job on a big movie filming in Sydney – the director has apparently asked for him personally. Never mind a second chance professionally, there's a chance of a new start on a personal level too, as the director is Colt's ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt).

So off Colt flies to Australia to work on Jody's film Metalstorm (which to be honest looks like a rather dismal sub-Zack Snyder sci-fi headbanger), where his main job is to double for horrendous action-movie diva Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson – the film was clearly in the can too late to include any allusions to the kerfuffle about Taylor-Johnson maybe or maybe not being the new James Bond or his reported grumbles about not wanting to spend the rest of his life doing action films). But Ryder has dropped out of sight, imperilling the behind-schedule and over-budget production, and so Gail prevails upon Colt to save Jody's big opportunity by tracking their missing star down. . .

As you can perhaps see, the movie retains virtually nothing from the TV show beyond the name and job of Gosling's character – although Lee Majors does turn up for the obligatory cameo (and his bionics look in pretty good nick for a man of 85). The effect of this seems to be more liberating than anything else, as the TV version was pretty thin, formulaic stuff, and the movie is honestly a lot more fun.

Leitch's own background is as a stuntman, though these days he's much better known for directing or co-directing films like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Hobbs and Shaw, and the second Deadpool – all of these have very good action sequences, but for the most part they also have an engaging sense of humour (or at least an appealing sense of their own ridiculousness). The Fall Guy really leans into this, being a comedy much more than anything else, and a smart comedy at that. It's very in tune with Gosling's usual ironic, slightly detached persona, and not afraid to assume the audience is made of intelligent, cine-literate people – though I suspect many of the jokes still work even if you don't get all the film references packed into the story. (Behind-the-scenes clips from previous films Leitch has produced or directed are inserted into the narrative near the start.) Much of the story is rather ridiculous, but the film is clearly aware of its own ridiculousness and inviting the audience to be in on the joke, which just adds to the fun. I should say I laughed more and harder during The Fall Guy than during any other recent film that I can think of.

Which is not to say that it doesn't also work as an action movie too, with some terrifically choreographed fights and chases – particularly a mid-film sequence with Gosling fighting a guy in a skip which is being dragged at high speed through the centre of Sydney. It works superbly as both comedy and a piece of action, and also carries a bizarre amount of emotional heft due to the decision to soundtrack it with Phil Collins' Against All Odds (I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was the latest old tune to make a surprise reappearance in the charts following it featuring in a high-profile soundtrack, per Stranger Things and Saltburn). The concluding set piece is particularly clever, as the script manages to come up with a big stunt sequence which happens to actually be about a diegetic big stunt sequence on the set of Metalstorm.

Even so, the film wouldn't be much without the marvellously winning performances of Gosling and Blunt – the film also manages to be a functioning rom-com, too – while Hannah Waddington's progress towards world domination should be aided nicely by a well-judged turn. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is less prominent, but pretty game considering the nature of the role. In all respects this is a much cleverer, funnier, more involving take on The Fall Guy than the TV series ever managed to be. Big studio summer movies seldom get much better than this.

Awix

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