The last time I walked out of a film was in the 1990s (Highlander 3: The Final Dimension) and 20 minutes into The Fall Guy I was feeling all those vibes again - and i've seen plenty of questionable dreck in the intervening 30 or so years.
This is a huge disappointment as I'm a fan of both leads and the idea of them in an action rom-com sounded appealing. But boy, what a misfire. I haven't seen anything this badly put together and clunky in forever, so here's what's wrong
The dialogue is awful. It feels like two people who aren't naturally gifted at ad-libbing have been asked to ad-lib. It's about as inane and facile as you might fear, and it just keeps going ... on and on and on. This film is already long for a rom-com, and it really feels every minute of it because the dialogue is utter torture. Both Gosling and Blunt seem oddly unemotional and disconnected from everything, as if they can't wait for the whole thing to be over, which brings me to..
The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling is non-existent. It's almost as if they detest each other - the best scene between them is when they're talking on the phone - and when they're together I can barely remember them wanting to be near each other. Nada. Nothing.
The stunts. I love stunts - I grew up watching Steve McQueen hop barbed wire on a motor bike and scoot around San Fran in a Mustang, the French Connection car chase, James Bond barrel rolling a car over a river, Burt Reynolds romancing Sally Field with a Trans Am - and always thought there should be an Oscar for them (there still should). But there's no stunt here that hasn't been photographed better in other films, which brings me to...
The direction. Leitch may be a terrific stunt guy, but as a director he sucks the life out of scene to the point where there's a ho hum quality to the whole thing. But those rolls, you say - so what? There's no sense of threat or thrill, and again. Any one of the numerous car flips in Fury Road easily surpasses this particular stunt in terms of visual flair. The pace is leaden throughout, it trudges through pages and pages and pages of stiff exposition and mind-numbingly witless banter, interspersed with fight scenes that feel rote and an overall sense that the director didn't know what kind of film he wanted to make.
5 of us, of varying ages from 20s-60s, went to see it and while I was the harshest critic of it, the most any of us gave it was a generous 5.
There's a much better film about stuntmen called The Stunt Man, an 80s flick with Peter O'Toole, or even Hooper with Burt Reynolds.
But yeah, there definitely should be Oscars for Stunt people because they invariably make some of the strongest and long-lasting moments that films have to offer. Just not in this case.
Lastly. Our iMax screening was preceded by the longest trailer I've ever witnessed for a film: Furiosa. If you've ever thought you've seen a trailer that gave too much away about a film, you ain't seen nothing yet. I've never seen a trailer than came in parts, literally with intertitle parts and names (all that was missing was an intermission). Overall feeling, besides the sense that I've just seen the entire movie, is that this looks like a massive dud and there's a desperate air of being battered over the head with shiny visuals demanding I go see it. That and ATJ, an otherwise fab actor, looks horribly miscast. Nope.
This is a huge disappointment as I'm a fan of both leads and the idea of them in an action rom-com sounded appealing. But boy, what a misfire. I haven't seen anything this badly put together and clunky in forever, so here's what's wrong
The dialogue is awful. It feels like two people who aren't naturally gifted at ad-libbing have been asked to ad-lib. It's about as inane and facile as you might fear, and it just keeps going ... on and on and on. This film is already long for a rom-com, and it really feels every minute of it because the dialogue is utter torture. Both Gosling and Blunt seem oddly unemotional and disconnected from everything, as if they can't wait for the whole thing to be over, which brings me to..
The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling is non-existent. It's almost as if they detest each other - the best scene between them is when they're talking on the phone - and when they're together I can barely remember them wanting to be near each other. Nada. Nothing.
The stunts. I love stunts - I grew up watching Steve McQueen hop barbed wire on a motor bike and scoot around San Fran in a Mustang, the French Connection car chase, James Bond barrel rolling a car over a river, Burt Reynolds romancing Sally Field with a Trans Am - and always thought there should be an Oscar for them (there still should). But there's no stunt here that hasn't been photographed better in other films, which brings me to...
The direction. Leitch may be a terrific stunt guy, but as a director he sucks the life out of scene to the point where there's a ho hum quality to the whole thing. But those rolls, you say - so what? There's no sense of threat or thrill, and again. Any one of the numerous car flips in Fury Road easily surpasses this particular stunt in terms of visual flair. The pace is leaden throughout, it trudges through pages and pages and pages of stiff exposition and mind-numbingly witless banter, interspersed with fight scenes that feel rote and an overall sense that the director didn't know what kind of film he wanted to make.
5 of us, of varying ages from 20s-60s, went to see it and while I was the harshest critic of it, the most any of us gave it was a generous 5.
There's a much better film about stuntmen called The Stunt Man, an 80s flick with Peter O'Toole, or even Hooper with Burt Reynolds.
But yeah, there definitely should be Oscars for Stunt people because they invariably make some of the strongest and long-lasting moments that films have to offer. Just not in this case.
Lastly. Our iMax screening was preceded by the longest trailer I've ever witnessed for a film: Furiosa. If you've ever thought you've seen a trailer that gave too much away about a film, you ain't seen nothing yet. I've never seen a trailer than came in parts, literally with intertitle parts and names (all that was missing was an intermission). Overall feeling, besides the sense that I've just seen the entire movie, is that this looks like a massive dud and there's a desperate air of being battered over the head with shiny visuals demanding I go see it. That and ATJ, an otherwise fab actor, looks horribly miscast. Nope.
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