‘The Fall Guy’: It Took a Former Stuntman to Make an Action Comedy This Badass
Welcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we’re celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.
David Leitch cut his film-industry teeth as an acclaimed stuntman, and having evolved into one of the medium’s finest action directors, he now pays tribute to the art of taking a punch, rolling a car, and being set on fire with The Fall Guy, a loose adaptation of the Lee Majors-headlined 1980s TV series.
Starring Ryan Gosling as down-on-his-luck stunt maestro Colt Seavers, who gets a second shot at beat-’em-up glory when he’s hired to work on the debut feature of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), the director he adores but foolishly spurned, Leitch’s summer spectacular blends comedy, romance, and mayhem to ideal popcorn-blockbuster effect. Featuring a steady stream of showstoppers, it’s a self-conscious love letter to the craftsmen who risk it all to make the movies magic, all while simultaneously proving—courtesy of Gosling and Blunt’s magnetic lead turns—the unrivaled power of A-list charisma.