Avis Metacritic

There are many elements that make The Fall Guy enormous fun, but what makes it genuinely artful is the way that Leitch and his team (including writer Drew Pearce and stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara) have conceived the film’s stunts as extensions of the characters.

This is a major motion picture built on the hope that audiences will want to see a cast of attractive, charming, interesting actors bounce off each other on screen, trading barbs and dashing looks. There's no franchise-building here, and no ambitions beyond offering the audience primal, pure pleasures.

Yes, it’s a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy thriller, but first and foremost, it’s one big-hearted ode to the artists responsible for movie magic.

On top of being a no-holds-barred action movie, The Fall Guy is also the best studio rom-com since Crazy Rich Asians. Gosling and Blunt make for an intoxicating duo, and Gosling really runs away with the rest of the movie, too.

The Fall Guy is funny, it’s sexy, and it features the boy toy version of “Barbie” MVP Ryan Gosling — which is to say, this time around, he embodies the ultimate action figure.

It’s all a fizzy, funny, convincingly romantic delight, a tribute to the craft of making big movies with big stunts that is heartfelt in its appreciation without taking itself too seriously.

Leitch strikes a balance of showmanship and mechanics. He teaches audiences to appreciate the number of people it takes to pull off a car crash or a human torch stunt. The action sequences in The Fall Guy vary, but each one offers a level of gripping precision.

The Fall Guy is at its best when it captures the frenzied energy, the multiplicity of artisans, and the devoted precision necessary to bring a scene together.

The Fall Guy is a wonderful movie about love and collaboration mashed up with an aggressively fine summer thriller.

The Fall Guy feels like an entire feature of scattered ideas that have been done better elsewhere.