The Fall Guy (2024)

While I found enough in The Fall Guy to enjoy, and the metatextual layering should be especially delightful for fans of cinema and stunt work, it's easy to see why it didn't exactly set the box office alight. I was depressed by the amount of people reviewing this who felt the need to mention that they were unaware of the original TV show, a favourite in my household when I was a young boy, but failing to have enough "brand recognition" is really the least of this movie's problems. 

Ryan Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a talented stunt performer who ends up leaving the business for some time to recuperate after one stunt went horribly wrong, seriously injuring him. He hides away from everyone, including the woman he was growing close to (Judy Moreno, played by Emily Blunt). Hollywood calls him back, however, when producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) tells him that Judy wants his help in her feature directorial debut. He could also help her by locating her AWOL leading man (Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

Directed by David Leitch, and written by Drew Pearce, this is a film that feels as if it has been crafted around three or four major set-pieces. There’s an impressive opening, a decent car stunt that shows our lead character fully back into the stunt life, a few enjoyable fight sequences, and a finale that almost works as a classic stunt checklist. It works well as a star vehicle that also serves to celebrate the stunt performers who are responsible for some of the great cinema spectacles.

Sadly, it doesn’t work well as an action romantic comedy, mainly because it doesn’t allow enough time for Gosling and Blunt to be onscreen together, but also because it is too cutesy in a way that I thought was a bit smug and irritating (prime example = a scene in which the leads are on the phone discussing the pros and cons of split-screen sequences . . . displayed via a split-screen sequence). It is also annoying to have the title be made so literal in at least two different ways, which makes a couple of the plot points more predictable and tiresome than they might otherwise have been.

Gosling is great in the lead role, but he is at his best when his character is quickly reacting to a dangerous situation whirling around him. He really shines in the second half, which is coincidentally when the action and daring nature of the stunts really appear to ramp up, but his presence is a boost for the whole film. Blunt, on the other hand, doesn’t fare so well. I like her as a performer, but she lacks whatever quality is needed to make her the best choice here. Maybe she’s just made to play things too cool. It’s a shame. Taylor-Johnson is fun, and hilarious when delivering his “film within the film” performance in a great Matthew McConaughey style, Waddingham does fine with a character who steers everything in a very obvious direction, and Winston Duke does well as a stunt co-ordinator and good friend to our reluctant hero. There are also small roles for Teresa Palmer and Stephanie Hsu, both completely wasted, and I am not sure why their characters were even kept in the film.

The pacing is helped by the building momentum, there’s a great soundtrack and score that is boosted by repeated riffs from “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”, and fans of stunt-work should love seeing how the staples of that discipline are constantly reworked and refreshed throughout this. It just doesn’t quite make one completely satisfying bit of blockbuster entertainment, despite being enjoyable enough. I would definitely rewatch it though, and a rewatch might get me to like it even more, especially when I consider how the small treats at the very end of the film kept me smiling as the long list of credits rolled.

6/10

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Bullet Train (2022)

A comedy action movie, emphasis on the comedy, starring Brad Pitt as a professional criminal who wants nothing in his life but good vibes, Bullet Train has a lot going for it. On paper. Directed by David Leitch, starring Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Michael Shannon, and Hiroyuki Sanada, and mixing action and comedy on the titular bullet train, what’s not to love?

Pitt is on a simple mission. He is given the codename “Ladybug” and tasked with retrieving a briefcase from the bullet train. Ideally, he should get on, grab the case, and then get off at the next stop. Meanwhile, Lemon (Henry) and Tangerine (Taylor-Johnson) are looking after someone they are supposed to keep safe, in exchange for a decent payday. Meanwhile, Prince (King) wants to get revenge on a number of people, as does Wolf (played by Bad Bunny. MEANWHILE, others start to board the train with their own deadly agendas. Ladybug shouldn’t even be there, as he is filling in for an agent named Carver, and it isn’t long until he wishes he hadn’t taken the job.

Based on a book by Kôtarô Isaka, turned into a screenplay by Zak Olkewicz, this is a bizarre throwback to a time when every other film was trying to rip off Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. I am not sure if the problem lies with the source material, having not read the book, but there’s a smugness throughout that isn’t matched by the dialogue or plotting. Everything feels far too much like a Rube Goldberg machine, an excessive amount of moving parts and complications leading to a very underwhelming final result, and the eclectic cast isn’t good enough, overall, to help it all along.

Leitch, who has spent the last five years directing films that mix action and comedy better than this one, fails to find the right way through the dense plotting. There aren’t enough moments of impressive action, the comedy always feels like a separate component, rather than an intertwining strand, and any sense of entertaining spectacle is undermined by the overuse of CGI. This is a busy movie in so many ways, often painfully so, and I only felt that working in its favour during an enjoyable finale that somehow managed to tie up every strand and provide a punchline for every running gag (so fair play to Olkewicz for saving his best work until the end of the movie).

Pitt is fine in the lead role, playing a character we have seen a version of in a number of different movies now. The main thing that allows him to stand out is what he views as a constant string of bad luck, something that allows the script to keep getting bigger and wilder, but there’s a moderately interesting idea tucked away here about perspective, and how bad luck in one way may be good luck in the long run. Taylor-Johnson is bad, I just didn’t like him in this role (and I can only imagine how much this movie could have been improved with someone else there), but Henry does a bit better, helping to make their scenes together more bearable. I don’t want to rate every single main player, especially when I can spend some time highlighting just how good both Shannon and Sanada are. Both get in on the action for the third act, and both take this movie up an entire notch or two. King is okay, Bad Bunny is . . . okay, Zazie Beetz is great, but sadly underused, and there are a few cameos that properly amused me.

It certainly tries to keep the momentum going for most of the 2+ hour runtime, I will give it that, and the soundtrack has some great choices, although I wanted even more. I MIGHT revisit and reappraise this at some point, to see if I enjoy it more while spending less time trying to unpick the various plot threads, but for now I have to tell people that it’s not recommended. It’s tonally very messy, it’s comedically very hit and miss (but one hit, a sequence showing two men tallying up the numbers killed in their most recent job, is superb), and it spends a lot of time going off the rails before sorting itself out just in time for that enjoyable finale.

4/10

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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Anyone who knows my view on the Fast & Furious franchise should predict that I was optimistic, yet also very cautious, about this spin-off. The car-based core series has often entertained me, they peaked with the mix of action and ridiculousness in the sixth and seventh instalments, and then eight just went too far over into the kind of silliness that kept taking me out of the movie. This film, pairing up Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham for their own action-packed adventure, looked enjoyably silly from the first trailer I saw.

And it is. Which was a huge relief for me. This film makes it obvious from the very beginning that the central characters are almost superhuman and your brain shouldn't spend too much time calculating the odds of all of their plans and stunts being physically possible.

Written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, the story concerns a deadly virus, a cybernetically-enhanced supervillain (Brixton, played by Idris Elba), and a young woman named Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) who has already tried to defeat Brixton, but finds herself defeated. Fortunately, Hattie is the sister of Shaw (Statham), which is why he is asked to help, along with the one person he really doesn't want to be paired up with, Hobbs (Johnson). This isn't a one-man job though, and working together may be the key to any chance of success, which would also basically save the world.

Directed by David Leitch (who previously did such good work on Deadpool 2), this is big dumb fun that runs for just over two and a quarter hours (do any major action movies nowadays manage to come in at a brisk 90 minutes?) and manages to entertain from start to finish, thanks to the comedic tone of the script, the charisma of everybody with a major role, and the pacing. The set-pieces are enjoyable loony, with as many challenges as possible thrown at our heroes while they generally outrun, out-think and out-fight everyone around them.

If you enjoyed the interplay between Johnson and Statham in Fast & Furious 8 (which, let's be honest, was at its best when they were onscreen) then I don't see any way that you wouldn't enjoy this. They remain amusingly antagonistic towards one another, and competitive when it comes to who can despatch the most disposable henchmen, and both men get an equal amount of time to show off. Elba is a fantastic villain, and he appears to be having a lot of fun in the role, and Kirby is as good as, if not better than, anyone else onscreen, with a tough attitude and a badass skillset ensuring that she can hold her own in any of the major action sequences (including a scene in which she believably takes on Johnson). Helen Mirren reprises her role, as the mother of the Shaws, and entertains once again in her one main scene, and Eddie Marsan is good value in a small supporting role, a Russian Professor who may be able to help ensure the virus can't harm others.

Plenty of punches are thrown, you get a few moments of vehicular mayhem, there are a couple of fun cameos (which I won't spoil here), and those who are patient enough to sit through the end credits will be rewarded with numerous little extra scenes, which are also a lot of fun. I doubt anybody is going to spend too much dissecting this, or searching for hidden meanings or metaphors, because it's absolutely not that kind of film. But I am pretty certain that it will please most action movie fans, and be on regular rotation when it comes to the home media market later in the year. I know I'll be getting it, and am already looking forward to a rewatch.

8/10

Deadpool 2 (2018)

It's a running joke with people who know enough of my general movie opinions that I tend to be Mr 7/10. I can't really deny this, and yet I don't see anything too wrong with it either. Because, despite trying to see every movie that I can fit into my busy schedule, I will always tend to a) prioritise movies I think I am going to enjoy, and b) look for the good in any film I am watching. What the hell does this have to do with Deadpool 2, you may be wondering, apart from the obvious foreshadowing of exactly what my rating might be. Well, I rated the first Deadpool movie a 7/10 and felt the need to mention it here. It is, in a number of ways, a better film than this sequel, but it also had enough drawbacks to knock it down a few points. Not least among them was the fact that I'd seen the best sequence of the film in a rough version that was used to get the project support and traction, which it very much did.

Basically, you will know a lot of people who rate Deadpool higher than I did, but don't think that I disliked it. I laughed quite a lot. And I laughed quite a lot while watching Deadpool 2 (the biggest laughs involving some brilliant cameos and a mid-credit sequence that may well be the best superhero sting yet). It's a very good sequel . . . but it also has enough drawbacks to knock it down a few points.

Assuming you know the merc with the mouth, what's the story this time around? Well, DP (Ryan Reynolds again, of course) ends up trying to protect a young lad named Russell (Julian Dennison) from a time-travelling badass named Cable (Josh Brolin). There are still only a few X-Men allowed to join our (anti-)hero, budget allowing, but it's obvious that the success of the first film has made it possible to have even more fun this time around.

A lot of the main names return, with the notable exception of director Tim Miller, and that shows in the final product. This is a film that tells an interestingly different story from the first movie while maintaining a consistent tone and style, a "same but different" approach that is exemplified by the hilarious opening credit sequence. David Leitch is no stranger to the character, having directed the wonderful short film "No Good Deed" that showed Deadpool taking far too long to change costume while his help was needed, and he seems comfortable directing what we all know is essentially the chance for Ryan Reynolds to act like a kid in a candy store. If the kid was foul-mouthed and fast-talking and the candy store was full of dismembered limbs, drugs, and objects that could be used as improvised sex toys.

It goes without saying that Reynolds is superb again in the lead role, bagging all the best lines from the script (which he had a hand in, alongside Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick). Dennison gives another fantastic performance that has a number of nods to his previous star turn (in Hunt For The Wilderpeople) and Josh Brolin gives a "supervillain" performance that only comes second to the other main antagonist that he has portrayed recently. Karan Soni returns as taxi-driving Dopinder, Morena Baccarin is the love of Deadpool's life, Brianna Hildebrand still isn't allowed to smile much as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and T. J. Miller manages to bag some of the better lines not being kept for Reynolds. Zazie Beetz is very enjoyable as a newcomer, Domino, with luck as her superpower, Eddie Marsan is enjoyably horrid, and there are some other people I won't mention because spoiler-free is the way to be.

You get the witty dialogue, another lively soundtrack, and some excellent action set-pieces, but it's interesting that Deadpool 2 falters when it slows things right down and attempts to show some proper emotional depth. It's interesting because it doesn't need to do that. There are some moments that work, judged perfectly between the comedic and the dark and the potentially cheesy, and some that really don't (the finale features a couple of them), but the fact is that the movie was doing a bloody good job before it started to show just how hard it was trying. Throughout most of the runtime, Deadpool 2 is an interesting look at personal responsibility and consequences, whether the actions are good or bad. It looks at cycles of violence and how the abused may damage themselves as they set out to damage their abusers, and there are times when it effortlessly does this better than any of the other superhero movies we have had over the past couple of decades (with the exception of Logan perhaps, ironically enough). But it doesn't do it in a way that interferes with the action or comedy . . . unlike some of the other emotional beats that are crammed in there.

Deadpool 2 - go along for the laughs, stay for the sheer entertainment, and leave while thinking about what they managed to slide inside you while you weren't even noticing (oo-er). Things may not feel as fresh this time around, inevitably, and there's a lack of REAL villainy, but I'm already looking forward to a third film. And everyone should try to see this one before some idiot blurts out some of the best gags.

Can you guess my rating?

7/10

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John Wick (2014)

Oh boy. John Wick is jaw-droppingly good. There's no point in holding back here. This is the most fun I've had with an action movie since The Raid 2: Berandal or The Guest. Which makes 2014 a bit of a banner year for action movie fans.

Keanu Reeves plays the titular character, a skilled killer who is now retired. When one character remarks that he is made to sound like the boogeyman, another immediately corrects him. John Wick is who you would send to kill the boogeyman. So why is anyone bothered about him if he's retired? Well, a daft lad (played by Alfie Allen) decided to break into his home, beat him up a bit, kill his dog, and steal his car. And it's the death of the dog that spurs Wick back into action. The daft lad may have a powerful criminal for a father (played by Michael Nyqvist) but that won't help him. Perhaps nothing will.

I'd like to read the screenplay for John Wick, written by Derek Kolstad, because I can only imagine that there are a few pages of character set-up before eighty pages that just contain the words "Wick shoots everyone in the face" - possibly scrawled in red ink. Because that's what makes this movie so fantastic. It's not a sanitised film trying to get a more lenient rating that will allow younger viewers to check it out in cinemas. This is a violent, bloody, brilliant piece of choreography.

Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch (who co-directed and co-produced with Stahelski), can bring the pain. They obviously worked closely with the stunt team to showcase physical routines that blend cinematic magic with details and moves that feel very real. Throw a lively soundtrack on top of the frenetic action and you have an easy crowd-pleaser for action junkies.

Reeves is better than ever here, adding to his not-inconsiderable roster of classic action movie heroes with another performance that requires him to be at his very best, both physically and in terms of attitude. The fact that none of the supporting players feel completely overshadowed is testament to the efficient script and the great casting. Allen is amusing as the hot-headed youngster acting brave until in very real danger, Nyqvist is great as the man who fears and respects Wick, while also doing everything he can to protect his foolish son. Willem Dafoe may be out to help our main character, may be out to harm him. Either way, he's excellent. And Adrienne Palicki is enjoyable as a dangerous female looking to score big when a price is put on Wick's head. Lance Reddick, Ian McShane and John Leguizamo round things out nicely, all making the best of their limited screentime.

It's genuinely hard to imagine any action fan disliking this movie. Okay, animal lovers will be upset by the motivation for the main killing spree, but it's that seemingly minor plot point that also makes this such a pure, enjoyable experience. Wick is a good man capable of very bad things, and you never once feel that he's going too far when the extent of just what he's had taken away from him becomes clear.

One to see/buy as soon as possible. I know that I'm already dying to rewatch it as soon as I've finished writing this review.

9/10

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