Are you ready for your spicy margarita?
If you saw "The Fall Guy" on Cinco de Mayo, you have impeccable timing
Reader: I fell hard for “The Fall Guy.” After my final Friday afternoon appointment, I met him at 4:00. He did not disappoint.
I could not wait until Cinco de Mayo even if I tried. No sooner had I plopped myself in a center seat in a center row than a blast from the past gathered energy in the form of KISS’s 1979 disco-rock hybrid hit thrumming in the theater:
I was made for lovin’ you, baby
You were made for lovin’ me
And I can’t get enough of you, baby
Can you get enough of me?
The jumpsuits, my God, the jumpsuits. Holy stuntman, Ryan! And doesn’t every film buff say “May the 4th be with you” on May 3rd?
Anyway, it’s true, I caught a few episodes of the original television series “The Fall Guy” at the dawn of the Reagan era. Yet the new cinematic release is only loosely based on the small screen version.
Directed by David Leitch, “The Fall Guy” at your local theater is still named Colt Seavers and he’s still doing stunts. At the same time, the new Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is going through some things. You could call them “life events.” Or you could simply call them “life.”
This being a spoiler free zone, I will only say Seavers reports to the set of a new movie helmed by his ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Making her directorial debut on a sci-fi flick that involves plenty of stunts, the two exes are suddenly on set together. Did I mention Jody’s directing? What could possibly go wrong?
See for yourself. Grab a spicy margarita before, during, or after the show, depending on your theater. But the only bad decision you can make when it comes to “The Fall Guy” is to wait for it to come to streaming.
My favorite scene? Hands down, the split screen scene of the two of them talking on the phone: pure rom-com gold. In every way, Gosling and Blunt are amazeballs together. Trust me, if you’re looking for a date night outing with someone you love, “The Fall Guy” will roll out the red carpet for you.
Of course, one of my all-time favorite movies is 2009’s Oscar winner for best documentary about a real-life stunt that has zero chance of ever happening again. As the Magnolia Pictures poster above shows, James Marsh’s “Man on Wire” highlights a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit. Fifty years ago this summer, Petit
stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the New York World Trade Center’s twin towers. After dancing for nearly an hour on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released.
From Lee Majors to Colt Seavers to Philippe Petit, performing stunts is a certain kind of love language. Perhaps the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will reciprocate by creating an entirely new Oscar category for best stunt performers. Until then, stay tuned with your spicy margarita.