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This review was originally published on March 12, 2024. On May 21, The Fall Guy became available to rent or purchase on Amazon and iTunes. Look, there’s no way I can be objective about any film that features a song about how there’s still no Oscar for Best Stunts , so I won’t even try.

David Leitch’s The Fall Guy , an action-comedy mystery romance set in the world of stunt professionals, is an act of pure movie love, mixing and matching genres while tossing off in-jokes and references to its illustrious (and not-so-illustrious) forebears. It’s the kind of picture that can casually use a Miami Vice Stunt Team jacket as a plot device — which of course is a reference not just to the hit 1980s TV show (and movie ) but also, presumably, to Universal Studios’ short-lived, pyrotechnics-and-jet-ski-filled “ Miami Vice Action Spectacular” theme-park attraction , as well as to the fact that Ryan Gosling can make even the dorkiest jacket look ridiculously cool. Gosling, whose comedic talents were criminally undervalued until last year’s runaway hit Barbie , gets to flex them again here, bringing his deadpan, affably dim charm to the role of Colt Seavers, a hot-shot stunt double for megawatt movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).



As Leitch introduces Colt through a long tracking shot through their latest movie set, where he’s supposed to perform a massive high fall off an elevator, we see our hero greet everyone with the kind of wisecracking, throwaway charism.

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