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The Fall Guy review: A comic action movie starring Ryan Gosling that wears its absurdity with pride
Ryan is perfect as the unruffled hero, always on the hunt for a coffee, even when his life is in danger
THE FALL GUY
(12A) 125mins
★★★★☆
WHAT makes a great stunt? Certainly not plausibility.
The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, is a comic action movie that understands this perfectly.
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In this big-screen adaptation of the hit Eighties TV show, Ryan is daring stuntman Colt Seavers.
As with the original starring Lee Majors, Colt transfers his fighting, driving and leaping skills away from set.
Although Ryan’s version is not a bounty hunter, he is still called upon to track someone down.
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Nothing is too ridiculous for have-a-go hero Colt.
Chase after three bad guys driving a skip through the heart of Sydney in Australia? No problem.
Get punched by one of the goons as the dislodged skip spins repeatedly on the tarmac? Sure, why not?
Need to get away in a speedboat when your hands are tied?
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That’s a cinch.
This is a film that wears its absurdity with pride and sticks a ton of pyrotechnics underneath plot continuity.
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The fact that Colt is suffering from a terrible back injury after a stunt gone wrong is forgotten after about ten minutes.
Ryan is perfect as the unruffled hero, always on the hunt for a coffee, even when his life is in danger.
Emily also has a lot of fun as Jody Moreno, an ambitious camera operator who is the love of Colt’s life.
But the person most taking a leap of faith by turbo-charging their dialogue is Hannah Waddingham.
The Ted Lasso actress is more than a match for Ryan when burning a sexy bacon metaphor to a crisp.
It is just a shame we don’t see more of Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The man predicted to play the next James Bond shows he can send up his profession beautifully by playing obnoxious movie star Tom Ryder, who Colt doubles for.
The most credit should go to director David Leitch, who started his career as a stunt double. His love for the profession shines through, but he is also more than happy to poke fun at his colleagues.
This is a film that shows you the wires, with some meta jokes at Hollywood’s expense.
The only place where it falls down is the romance, whose obstacles feel false.
But lovey-dovey stuff was never going to be the reason why you fell for The Fall Guy.
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LOVE LIES BLEEDING
(12A) 105 mins
★★★☆☆
THIS is a new take on the incredible hulk, but it ain’t no Marvel movie.
Kristen Stewart plays Lou, whose miserable life is turned upside down when homeless bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) turns up in the gym where she works.
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They fall in love and Lou introduces the iron pumper to steroids, which have a very similar effect to gamma rays. You wouldn’t like Jackie when she’s angry, which she is a lot.
Love Lies Bleeding is made by A24 films, and in that production company’s signature style, things get pretty weird.
It is a schtick that is wearing thin. Do we need to see so much throwing up?
Particularly if the stomach content being disgorged is a human?
Even their less odd choices seem tired.
The Eighties retro setting, close-up shots of grisly injuries and the lovers throwing each other against doors during a sex scene are all in vogue.
What gives Love Lies Bleeding the kiss of life is Ed Harris as Lou’s bug-eating baddie dad.
Creepier than any crawly you can imagine, Ed is on another level to everyone else in the production.
THE IDEA OF YOU
(15) 115mins
★★☆☆☆
THE idea of this seems to be to create a gender-reversed Notting Hill.
Anne Hathaway plays American art gallery owner Solene who meets English boyband singer Hayes Campbell in an amusing chance encounter at a rock festival.
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The added complication to this Amazon Prime Video rom-com is that the single mum is 16 years older than the 24-year-old heart-throb.
What Notting Hill had, and this really doesn’t, is big laughs, loveable characters and half decent dialogue.
Lines such as, “Please just let me go”, with the reply, “Are you not going to fight for us”, would embarrass a daytime soap-opera scriptwriter.
It doesn’t help that a talent such as Hathaway displays the range of a constipated cannonball.
Her expression for happy is doe-eyed, sad is doe-eyed and angry is doe-eyed.
As for British actor Nicholas Galitzine’s take on Hayes – he’s an unconvincing Harry Styles tribute act.
Just because Harry and Hayes have tattoos and a habit of dating older women doesn’t make them equally interesting.
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Harry has style, while Hayes is boy bland.
Time to go back to the drawing board.
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