David leitch started his career as a stuntman, then worked his way into being a film director, and is now one of the most notable mainstream action directors working on hollywood. If you know the basic premise of the film & his backstory, it isn't that difficult to guess the fall guy being a tribute & love letter to the stunt people. This is clearly a passion project for leitch. People that don't often get the recognition they deserve despite their hard work, often life-threatening. But the actual film is that and much more - an inspiring ode for the directors as well. Being proud of one's work, feeling responsible and powerful over it, and potentially inspiring more people like you via your work. Despite the hurdles in the way such as dipshit entitled actors or sinister/anti-art producers, in the end love triumphs, both love for your man and for your work. Happy ending is possible.
The fall guy didn't quite work for me in the first act, with the relationship/sorta-romantic subplot and conversations feeling like they're getting in the way of much more interesting mystery/main plot. The meta-ish narrative and some creative directing choices, while being bold, wasn't enough to fully grab my attention and pull me into the story. I was ready to slap a two-and-a-half star into this thing, maybe even lower, but as the 2nd act hits - the story finally gains its momentum and is a pretty much non-stop great ride til the end credits. I'd say this is quite the opposite of leitch's previous film - bullet train (a film i had a blast with) was a film that quickly invested me and was consistently fun.. until it kinda lost its steam in the cgi-filled third act. The fall guy on the other hand, slowly works its way through the first act until it fully takes off in the second act and onward. What i also appreciated is the minimized/almost non existing usage of cgi - almost every david leitch movie since deadpool 2 had a similar problem of mostly having great cinematography then ultimately delves into grey cgi sludge later, in the climax or sometimes little earlier. The fall guy does have some flat looking scenes or cgi, and sadly leitch may not reach again the visual heights of the first john wick or atomic blonde but overall this is visually strong. Considering the subject matter/theme, i appreciated the third act looking great and real, you can very much feel that those were made with talented stunt people and crew both in front of & behind the camera, putting their hard work in. I guess there were some cgi elements put into them but they weren't that distracting.
In the end, david leitch may not reach the greatness that his fellow john wick director chad stahelski achieved with JW sequels, especially in terms of action, but i'd say his movies get job done greatly for being a fun action films. And i'm very careful in saying this but leitch's movies may have been better in thematic elements.... i'll come back to this statement later. Anyways, good movie!
+) very heartfelt and feels like it was made by human. Which may sound weird, but considering the recent hollywood climate & some themes of the movie, it should come off as a compliment.
The fall guy didn't quite work for me in the first act, with the relationship/sorta-romantic subplot and conversations feeling like they're getting in the way of much more interesting mystery/main plot. The meta-ish narrative and some creative directing choices, while being bold, wasn't enough to fully grab my attention and pull me into the story. I was ready to slap a two-and-a-half star into this thing, maybe even lower, but as the 2nd act hits - the story finally gains its momentum and is a pretty much non-stop great ride til the end credits. I'd say this is quite the opposite of leitch's previous film - bullet train (a film i had a blast with) was a film that quickly invested me and was consistently fun.. until it kinda lost its steam in the cgi-filled third act. The fall guy on the other hand, slowly works its way through the first act until it fully takes off in the second act and onward. What i also appreciated is the minimized/almost non existing usage of cgi - almost every david leitch movie since deadpool 2 had a similar problem of mostly having great cinematography then ultimately delves into grey cgi sludge later, in the climax or sometimes little earlier. The fall guy does have some flat looking scenes or cgi, and sadly leitch may not reach again the visual heights of the first john wick or atomic blonde but overall this is visually strong. Considering the subject matter/theme, i appreciated the third act looking great and real, you can very much feel that those were made with talented stunt people and crew both in front of & behind the camera, putting their hard work in. I guess there were some cgi elements put into them but they weren't that distracting.
In the end, david leitch may not reach the greatness that his fellow john wick director chad stahelski achieved with JW sequels, especially in terms of action, but i'd say his movies get job done greatly for being a fun action films. And i'm very careful in saying this but leitch's movies may have been better in thematic elements.... i'll come back to this statement later. Anyways, good movie!
+) very heartfelt and feels like it was made by human. Which may sound weird, but considering the recent hollywood climate & some themes of the movie, it should come off as a compliment.