“MOTIVATED BY LOVE”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
THE FALL GUY is non-stop action with many laughs. The movie is very entertaining, though the villain isn’t revealed until halfway, and the third act lingers a little too long. The title character’s motivation in THE FALL GUY is love. He risks life and limb to make sure Jody’s movie is a success. THE FALL GUY has many intense action scenes. However, its biggest problem is lots of gratuitous foul language.
CONTENT:
Light redemptive, moral worldview where the hero is motivated by love to help the woman he loves and charm his way back into her good graces and the villains are criminals;
26 obscenities (including two “f” words and many “s” words), one profanity using the word Christ, six GD profanities, 13 light profanities, some obscene gestures flipping a bad person off;
Lots of nearly constant action violence and stunts include multiple fight scenes, two chase scenes, man flies through windshield and lands on the ground, bad guys fire machine guns at hero, gun battle inside a house but the hero actually has a prop gun using blanks, people hit with objects during fight scenes, woman wielding sword fights with man until he realizes that she’s actually using a prop sword, real explosions and movie set explosions, actors pretend to fire guns in two battle scenes, man flips a car multiple times in a movie scene, fight occurs around a flying helicopter so hero dangles from the helicopter several times in the lengthy fight scene, it’s implied that a bunch of explosions kill a man;
No sex scenes but a romantic couple briefly discuss in two scenes going away to a beach, drinking and “making bad decisions,” plus some sensual dancing is seen in the background briefly, and the romantic couple kisses;
Brief upper male nudity in two or three scenes;
Some alcohol use;
No smoking, but hero has his drink spiked by a drug dealer who may be involved in one man’s disappearance, and hero gets woozy (he asks the drug dealer when he’ll stop hallucinating, and the drug dealer replies, “When you stop seeing unicorns,” and sure enough the hero starts seeing a white unicorn around him); and,
Selfish, conceited villains are motivated by that and engage in lies and manipulation.
MORE DETAIL:
THE FALL GUY is an action comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in a story about an injured stuntman who returns to the movie business because he thinks his former girlfriend wants his help directing her first movie, but he finds she’s still upset with him for disappearing on her and, worse, that someone’s trying to frame him for murder. THE FALL GUY is non-stop action with lots of laughs, but the third act goes on too long, and the movie has lots of foul language.
The movie opens with stuntman Colt Seavers complaining about performing a car flip on a beach in the new action movie starring Tom Ryder. Colt is Ryder’s main stuntman. He tells the camerawoman, Jody Moreno, and the stunt coordinator, Dan Tucker, that the sand is too lose for the stunt. However, he performs the stunt anyway.
After the stunt, it’s clear that Colt and Jody are an item. Colt tells Jody that, after this movie, he wants to go to a beach, drink and make “bad decisions” with her.
Before that can happen, Colt has one more stunt to do, a fall from a third story inside a large building or mall. However, Ryder isn’t happy with the fall. He claims Colt showed too much of his face during the fall. So, Colt agrees to perform the stunt again, but this time falling backwards. The stunt doesn’t go well, though, and Colt brakes his back, being taken away in an ambulance.
A year later, Colt is parking cars at a fancy Mexican restaurant. He’s left the movie business and has stopped seeing Jody. In fact, he’s actually disappeared on her.
However, the producer of Tom Ryder’s movies, Gail Meyer, calls Colt out of the blue. She tells him Jody requested him to be Ryder’s stuntman again for her first directing job, an epic science fiction movie. Gail also tells Colt that Jody needs him to find Ryder, who’s suddenly disappeared and isn’t answering his phone. The fate of the movie, and Jody’s career hangs in the balance, she assures Colt.
Reluctantly, Colt agrees to look for Ryder. However, while he charms his way back into Jody’s good graces on the set, Colt becomes ensnared in a sinister criminal plot that could take his life or his freedom.
THE FALL GUY is non-stop action with lots of laughs.
In one funny scene, Jody makes Colt earn his way back into her good graces. She makes him perform the same physically demanding fall against a large rock while she describes the love story in her movie, which sounds suspiciously like the ups and downs of their romance. In the stunt, Ryder’s character is fighting when an explosion sends him flying into the rock. In reality, Colt’s body is attached to wires that fling him against the rock.
In another funny scene, three thugs, including a driver, kidnap Ryder’s personal assistant, Alma. They put her in a large dump truck, and Colt follows them in his own truck. Colt has a stunt dog with him, and the dog can bite anyone in the groin on command. Colt and the dog eventually manage to leap onto the speeding dump truck, and while Colt’s fighting the two guys one at a time, he commands the dog to bite one or both of the guys while the driver of the truck fends off Alma.
Meanwhile, Jody is celebrating the end of the day’s shooting with the crew in a karaoke bar. While the dump truck passes by the window with Colt fighting the two thugs, Jody wonders why Colt isn’t there like he promised.
The villain in THE FALL GUY isn’t revealed until past the halfway mark. So, it remains a mystery until then as to why Ryder has disappeared from the movie set. Also, the movie’s second half is actually one long action sequence, so the third act seems to go on for a long time. That said, the action is top notch, so it maintains the viewer’s interest. Also, in the end, the villains get their just desserts.
The title character’s motivation in THE FALL GUY is love. He risks life and limb to make sure Jody’s movie is a success. Then, when the villain is finally revealed, Jody helps Colt bring him down, in essence returning the favor. Thus, ultimately, the movie’s main theme brings together romance, sacrificial love and justice.
THE FALL GUY has a lot of intense action violence, including multiple fight scenes, two chase scenes and stunts. At one point, the villain’s henchmen fire machines guns at the hero. No one is hit, however, and there’s not much of a body count and no blood or gore. The hero takes a lot of physical abuse, though. Also, the movie shows the stunt people engaged in battle scenes where the people pretend to fire guns at one another. There’s a fight on a helicopter, a fight in the dump truck, and two fights in a house, including a fight where a woman wielding a sword comes after the hero. He eventually realizes she’s wielding a prop sword.
The biggest deficit to THE FALL GUY is that it has lots of gratuitous foul language. The movie has more than 35 obscenities and about 20 profanities, including seven strong profanities. There’s also a scene where the hero’s drink is spiked, and he sees a white unicorn everywhere. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.