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Truly great, but also delightfully ludicrous
A modern masterpiece of Hollywood excess, a movie that swings for the fences and ends up in the parking lot, yet somehow, that’s exactly what makes it great. We love funny Gosling, we love Emily Blunt… And together they make something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Joe’s Back of the Box
When stuntman Cole Seaver (Ryan Gosling) is injured on a movie, his life falls apart. A chance call from an old producer puts him back on set as he tries to shake the rust off and rekindle his lost love (Emily Blunt,) Cole gets caught up with nefarious villains trying to frame him for murder. Can he take a punch or be another Fall Guy caught in a web of lies?
The REAL Back of the Box
The plot of this movie is not even worth repeating. It is bonkers. But if you’re watching this movie for the plot, then you probably have bigger issues in your life. Just sit back and watch this slightly navel gazing stunt fest pat itself on the back while blowing stuff up. Let’s be honest, we are all here to see the stunts anyway.
DJ Kool Herc’s “L Brothers vs The Herculoids”
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Greg: Joe in the movie we watched this week. Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman who feels underappreciated when we work together at Baskin Robbins in high school. Did you feel underappreciated at that job?
Joe: I 100% felt underappreciated in that job. I thought I could do everything better. Not much really has changed. And most of my employment. Sure. So I worked there for two years, two months and two days. I have that memory, and for some reason I didn’t really get along with. Randy was run by Randy and Claudia, who are a married couple who own this Baskin franchise.
Joe: And I felt totally underappreciated, especially doing terrible menial tasks like in the summer, people expel ice cream everywhere and you have to go out and mop the outside. Yeah, cement and sidewalk and inside. And it was just awful. Don, we hated the customers so much.
Greg: They would just go away. Yeah, I would have been so much easier.
Joe: And now we could have just eaten all the ice cream and gone from there, so definitely felt underappreciated. What about you? Did you feel underappreciated at that job?
Greg: Oh my gosh. Well, this was the second time I had worked at Baskin Robbins, so I’m pretty sure I felt like I was the greatest scooper in history.
Joe: Soda jerk. If you are going back to the 1950s.
Greg: I was just thinking, if your jobs now remind you of your job, then you should have a shirt on. The Ta says still scooping because that’s what you’re doing. Yeah. Today I worked at Baskin Robbins when I was 14. I don’t know who hires an eighth grader, but I was hired in California.
Joe: I don’t think that’s legal. I guess it’s legal in some states. Now, they lowered the age, but.
Greg: I could only work like 15 hours a week or so. I couldn’t work more than three hours in a shift, and I brought my report card from eighth grade to get the job. And I remember there kind of like, what is this? I was like, I don’t what else do I show you? That’s a good point. And they like started by the pretty one.
Greg: Social studies.
Joe: That’s amazing.
Greg: And I think because I had already worked at Baskin Robbins, I got the job pretty easily in Bellingham. I’m trying to think of if I felt the preciate it. First of all, I didn’t remember the owners names. I think I felt appreciated, okay, I don’t know. I think my expectations were low.
Joe: Yeah.
Joe: What’s your favorite flavor of Baskin-Robbins ice cream?
Greg: Oh, man. Back then, it would have been Jamal. Common fudge.
Joe: Solid choice.
Greg: And if that was a little bit too bland, it always paired really well with mint chocolate chip. So kind of bouncing between the two. I really liked the contrast there. At some point I started kind of celebrating more of the salty side of the world with like a peanut butter ribbon inside a chocolate ice cream.
Joe: Yeah, I struggle with theirs, but it’s like a crunchy peanut butter and I feel like ice cream. Peanut butter needs to be the creamy peanut butter and chocolate is the better.
Greg: Okay, well, that makes one of us.
Joe: Guess you’re wrong. That’s okay.
Greg: You know, what is amazing is I love a crunchy ice cream, but like, the frozen crunchiness are not necessarily like, it doesn’t even have actually peanut chunks in it, but oh, my gosh, we are going to devolve into a half hour conversation. Listeners, we have accidentally spent 35 minutes probably on ice cream flavors.
Joe: You have to understand, we love ice cream dearly. It is my Kryptonite. If it’s in the house, I will eat it. So I have to be very careful with ice cream. We used to watch movies together. That’s true. And get pints of ice cream. Yeah, at the store. My go to that time was usually Haagen-Dazs coffee, which I still loved.
Joe: And then some of the Ben and Jerry’s. Yeah, we. Maybe there’ll be a spinoff podcast called Great Bad Ice Cream flavors, I don’t know.
Greg: Speaking of great bad ice cream flavors. I have some pickle ice cream for you to try. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Think we’ve lost every listener in history.
Joe: But we’ve gained new respect.
Greg: All right. Should we get to the show?
Joe: Apparently, yes.
Greg: All right, let’s get to the show.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Clip: The star of the movie is missing. You need to bring him back. Save Jodie’s film. You get the love of your life back.
Clip: I’m not the hero. I’m just the double. But today you’re not.
Clip: He’s got himself involved with some shady people.
Clip: They were trying to kill me. And not in a fun way. You can make it a.
Clip: Collab in your face. You look terrible.
Clip: You look amazing.
Clip: Do you fall down? Get right back up. How far would you go for the one that you love?
Clip: In the year.
Greg: 2024? Our guy David Lynch, one of our favorite filmmakers in history, but also in the last ten years, decided it was time to team up with Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt. We’re also talking about Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Shue, Winston Duke, Joe Skye Tucker. They have a few brand new things for us today.
Joe: We’re in person.
Greg: For the first.
Joe: Time, and we watched the movie together at the same time.
Greg: So right before our taping.
Joe: Yeah. So this is all new. So if it feels a little different, that’s because it is. Yeah, absolutely. We’re coming in hot.
Greg: Welcome to the office. Is amazing.
Joe: Yeah. This is this is going to be fun.
Greg: Let’s get into it Joe Skye. Tucker. So we are going to talk about a movie that there’s a chance no one listening this has seen yet. This has just become available for rent. It is the fall guy from like three months ago. Yeah. And it just is now available for rent. Two months ago maybe. And so we’re going to try something kind of new.
Greg: We’re going to try and do it a little bit spoiler free at the beginning to give our general thoughts. And then we’ll move into kind of more spoilery territory. So we’re not just like abandoning everybody. We don’t know how to speak spoiler free because our movies are always like 30 years old. So Joe’s guy Tucker is the fall guy, a great bad movie?
Joe: I think it is a great bad movie. David Leech, as one of our favorite directors, as you said, came up as a stunt coordinator stunt man. So this is his homage to his former trade. Yeah. And so they pull the curtain back a little bit on some of, like, how some stunts are done and really put the stunts front and center for this.
Joe: So if you’re coming to this movie to see some crazy stunts, this movie is great. Yeah. I am so in the tank for Ryan Gosling. I think he is such a great and a leading man. He is legitimately funny in this movie. His comic timing is so impeccable. The chemistry between him and Emily Blunt in some scenes, it’s great.
Joe: It’s perfect. I wonder, though, how much of that was ad lib just between them, just because it felt so like two actors being in the moment, knowing their characters and just kind of riffing off of each other because there are some scenes that really aren’t driving the plot forward at all. They’re just kind of funny to watch and fun to watch.
Joe: It’s definitely at times where it skews to the bad for me becomes a little too self-referential. Sure, a little meta at times around what’s happening in the movie, the fights. There’s a movie that’s being filmed, and then they’re talking about movies in general that is mirroring the movie you’re watching, which is kind of fun. Sure. I kind of wrote down in my notes as like the player, but as an action movie, if you ever watch the Robert Altman film from the early 90s.
Greg: One of the greatest movies.
Joe: Yeah. So it’s fun, it’s silly, and it’s action packed with great stunts and real stunts, which I always appreciate. They. Yeah, they do talk about it in there. You know, all we can do is put into v CGI. Yeah, but they don’t do that. Real stuff blows up. So the plot is a little it’s a little rough, but I think it’s a really fun movie.
Joe: But I turn the tables on you. Greg’s fine heart is this. Or why is this a great bad movie? Or is it a great bad movie?
Greg: First of all, I do think this is a great bad movie. I’m super hesitant to say it’s a bad movie, though, and that’s because of this. The central question of this movie is, can we have fun? And I feel like the answer is we can absolutely have fun. And this movie was a ton of money. It was like 125, maybe $150 million at this early on.
Greg: We don’t quite know what the budget was. It made like 178, which means it lost money because you have to make like twice the amount of budget to break even. And we can have fun in movies. And it sacrifices some things script wise, potentially. I feel like they just kind of they whiffed a few things with the plot, but overall the whole movie is so much fun.
Greg: I will say that in the David Lynch rankings, I liked this movie more than Bullet Train. I’d love to hear your take on that.
Joe: Wow, that is a big statement. I don’t know that I like that more than Bullet Train, although I do need to watch this again. This is definitely a movie that you need to watch multiple times, 100%. Especially the action sequences are so full and it really is. I mean, you can just tell how much love and care they are putting into this.
Joe: I feel like they got together and they said, what can we do that either hasn’t been done or just done really well and fun. And so you can tell that they’re having a good time blowing everything up, breaking as much plate glass as they can. I think they mentioned a couple different world records for stunts in it. They have a car that flips like eight and a half time, which is a record, and then they have a jump across the spoilers.
Joe: Wow. All right, this failed already. I guess I should spoil the plot if I’m going to spoil anything because the plot of the movie is so ridiculous. But yeah, yeah, it’s hard to call it a plot. It’s some fun scenes stitched around the action sequences.
Greg: Yep. And moments of true chemistry between Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling. Yeah.
Joe: I mean, watch it for those two together. Yeah. You watch this with Nicole.
Greg: Yeah, we love romcoms. And so I was like this one. This is a rom com with punching where you watch it with me. And she was all in.
Joe: What was her take on this movie?
Greg: I think she liked it. So you’re right, this is a movie that we will probably have to watch many times, and I feel like it’ll benefit from lower expectations or proper expectations every time you watch it. Yeah, this is the kind of movie that reminds me of some of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life that I didn’t totally love.
Greg: The first time movies like Tommy Boy, I’m thinking back to like old comedies. Wayne’s world movie. Is that the second time I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, this part’s kind of dumb. But the really funny parts coming up, you know, you kind of you learn how to gauge while you’re watching, right? There’s a few times in the fall guy where I kind of thought, what on earth are we doing right now?
Greg: Like, where are we going? And then we would land in some set piece of action or some funny scene where I was like, okay, well, I’m glad we got here. It was a little bit of a rough bridge to get to this spot. So I think the fall guy will go down as a classic, but you kind of have to watch it a few times to set your expectations properly.
Joe: Yeah. So yeah, it’s a cult classic in the making in this.
Greg: And absolutely I think it is. I really do. And it doesn’t surprise me that I like this movie more than Bullet Train. And you’re the opposite, because that kind of skews towards the kinds of, yeah, movies that we like in general.
Joe: Yeah. I like darker movies and stuff in general. And then I am also putting Atomic Blond in this, as I think that’s his first movie. If you take out John Wick or the co-director on. Yeah. And Hobbs and Shaw, I mean, those four movies.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Any you pick, any one of those. It’s a great night for me. Deadpool two. Yeah. I love Deadpool two. I think he’s five for five and my book.
Greg: 100%, so.
Joe: It’s quibbling. I would need to watch this because I’ve seen all of those other movies at least twice, if not more. Yeah, bullet train I liked more the second time because, you know, and I don’t know if you’re like this, but I’m always kind of following along like, where is the movie going? Yeah. And then when I it’s the second time, and the third time I watch it, like I can just enjoy it and sit back and go, oh, here’s the scene that’s coming up or oh, I know what they’re setting up, right?
Joe: Because there are a lot of little Easter eggs or kind of moments that come back in this. And so they set those up really well throughout the movie. And I think those will even ping more the second, third time you watch it.
Greg: Yeah, sure.
Joe: So I can’t put it above bullet train yet. Give me a couple times watching it and maybe I will.
Greg: Well speaking about genres that you like and that I like. What genre would you say that this movie is.
Joe: This is an action movie.
Greg: An action movie. Just an action movie. There is a.
Joe: Romance in it, but I don’t feel like it. The rom com in that sense. But it’s an action movie, and I feel like now we have enough sample size on a David Leitch action movie to be able to kind of see what that is. Yeah. Taking Atomic Blond out. Yeah, yeah, he’s kind of like comedy action or action comedy, however you want to do that with interesting characters and really fun action sequences.
Joe: Atomic blond is a great movie. Yeah, I think it’s a better movie as a movie kind of start to finish is, but it’s got a different feel. He definitely has a sense of humor that he want that comes out. I feel like kind of in everything after Atomic Blond. Yeah. What genre is this for you?
Greg: I’m going to say that this is comedy, romance, action, mystery. And it’s probably action, romance, comedy, mystery. That might be where it it I think it is. Okay. I’m super invested in the characters getting back together. Yeah, their scenes are just magic. They’re magic. They’re so good. Yeah, there’s so much better than they need to be. Yeah, they are not moving any sort of plot point forward for the most part in the scenes that I’m thinking of, like there’s like 2 or 3, just them being together scenes.
Greg: I’m thinking specifically when they are on the movie set together at the beginning. This is not a spoiler. They were kind of movie together. They’re also in the fall Guy GMC truck with a little conversation, and there’s just all these little moments where they really let kind of the scene play out. Not in a way that I would have expected.
Greg: There’s no cutting. There’s just them sparking, you know?
Joe: Yeah.
Clip: What are you doing?
Clip: Oh, just, chilling down.
Clip: Were you chilling down to Taylor Swift?
Clip: Yep. So the Australian.
Clip: So really I’ve been in for six months. I’ve never heard it chilling down under.
Clip: You know it’s shorter to say chilling even crying. Not at all. Are you crying.
Joe: I’m also invested in them getting back together because they’re so it’s so perfect. Yeah. They’re just like this perfect little couple that are they’re hilarious together and they’re just moments. There’s a moment where she rubs like his face. He’s like, been crying. And he lied about being crying. I there’s no way that that was in the script. No.
Joe: You know, wipe his face. It’s just like it was like a moment between.
Greg: Hey, you’re a mess. Yeah.
Joe: Ryan Gosling we’ve known in comedies and on SNL and stuff like that. Sure. I think Emily Blunt is a sneaky comedic actor as well. Because she’s got some really funny moments in this, as well as not just him being the the funny lead. Yeah, she’s got some really funny moments when he’s not even in the scene with her and when they are together, it’s not just kind of him being funny.
Joe: Right? And her just kind of being the straight man to him or the straight woman, but they’re really awesome together. So fun to watch.
Greg: I feel like everything I want to talk about is should be behind a spoiler wall. And so let’s talk a little bit more about the rest of the cast. Winston Duke plays the stunt coordinator on the movie that they’re making, and he is hilarious. And he and Gosling are super funny together. I can’t wait to see more Winston Duke.
Greg: He was in Black Panther, and so he was in Endgame and Infinity War. He’s been in a few other movies, but I think he has a long road ahead of him. Teresa Palmer plays a woman in the movie who is also starring in the movie that they’re filming. And, she’s pretty funny, underused in my mind.
Joe: Agreed. I’d like to see the director’s cut of her character, because it’s super kind of like she then one, maybe two scenes. Yeah, really. And then to just kind of a background person. But there’s a pretty funny scene that she then in the beginning of it, for sure.
Greg: Stephanie Shue is pretty funny. Doesn’t have a lot to do. She seems to be in charge of, I don’t know, walking the dogs. I had a tough time tracking with. She’s in the universe of making the movie.
Joe: So Ryan Gosling as a stunt man, the main character, he’s. And usually the stunt man for this actor. So he she was the actor’s personal assistant, I think.
Greg: Oh, okay. And that actor is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays Tom Ryder, who is the biggest star in the world. We don’t know exactly who he is. I guess I assumed he was like a Tom cruise. I don’t know who. Do you think the Tom Ryder is kind of a the doppelganger of?
Joe: I think they’re trying to set him up as Tom Cruise’s. Yeah. You know, he always is saying that he does his own stunt even though he doesn’t, even though we know Tom cruise does, famously does all of his own stunts. But yeah. So yeah, I would add maybe Brad Pitt, but I don’t I’m sure you know, he’s also in Bullet Train plays Tangerine.
Joe: If you haven’t seen that kind of a chameleon actor in a sense, right? Yeah. It’s completely different from that role to this one. Pretty funny in both of those. He really is over the top and it works. And this as the like the main actor. Yeah I’ve heard rumors he’s going to be the new James Bond I don’t know if that’s official.
Joe: Official interesting. But that’s the rumor that I have heard that he might be the next James Bond.
Greg: But I have mixed feelings about that.
Joe: Can David to direct the next James Bond? Because then I’m all in 100%.
Greg: He can direct it. Well, he doesn’t do it well, yeah. If it’s atomic blond. Sure. He did do drama pretty well there.
Joe: Yeah. Well and he has done some crossover into like the Marvel and the Fast and Furious world. So he can kind of, in a sense, meet the moment of what those movies are and what that kind of universe is. Yeah. And still kind of have his own take on it, because Hobbs and Shaw is a sneaky funny movie.
Greg: Oh, we loved that movie. Yeah, but not the first time. I felt the same way watching it the first time. Like, I mean, yes, I loved it, but I don’t know that it all stitches together super well. But now I will watch it any time it’s on.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. So I would say David Lynch, if you listen to our podcast, please direct the next James Bond.
Greg: You know, it’s so funny that you mentioned Marvel and Fast and Furious. I think there’s such fatigue in both of those franchises. It makes me think that, like, you know, I’m sure James Bond is looking to the future. What is the next thing? If they weren’t going to lean into those things in the moment, what is the next moment?
Greg: Do we know what the next moment is? And is that maybe why the James Bond movies aren’t rushing forward? They’re kind of letting it sit for a minute.
Joe: It could be. I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but famously Pierce Brosnan was fired as James Bond after The Bourne Identity comes out. Right. Because that was kind of the new moment for action. Then you have Casino Royale, which kind of leans into that. I’m wondering if there’s some fatigue with, John Wick, kind of, which is kind of where we are with some of the action or one of another one of our favorite directors and kind of genres.
Joe: But I don’t know what is next. The fall Guy feels like a throwback in a lot of ways to older movies. There’s a lot of references to older movies in it, the music as all some of it is redone, but it is not really of this generation. Except, yeah, maybe the Taylor Swift song, but I don’t even, I don’t know her catalog, so I don’t know if it’s like a song that’s ten years old or not.
Greg: Wow. Spoilers.
Joe: Yeah, all over the place. Taylor Swift does not make a cameo in this movie, so I can tell you that.
Greg: I have no idea how to not spoil a movie while I’m talking about it, so I think we should just say that if you don’t want something spoiled about the fall guy, rent the movie and then and then come back to the episode and you know, if there’s a chance you’re like me and you don’t really care if if something is spoiled for you.
Greg: We’re saying it’s awesome. And the thing that’s amazing about this movie is watching it, watching the performances, but hearing about how awesome the performances it are, I don’t think that’ll ruin the movie for you.
Joe: Yeah, and we can walk you through the plot of the movie and still not really ruin it for you.
Greg: Sure. Yeah. So I think you’re okay listening to this, but, you know, if you don’t want anything ruined, turn us off now and, watch it and immediately come back and listen to this episode. Okay, so the song All Too Well is from Red, which is the album before 1989, and that song is just perfectly used in this film for the nostalgia, the flashback moment of Ryan Gosling thinking back to when he and Emily Blunt were dating Hannah Waddingham from Ted Lasso.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Unbelievable.
Joe: I’m steals every single scene.
Greg: She’s variously.
Joe: She is magnetic on there, even when she is on screen with all of these amazing actors. Yep, putting on perfect light comic performances. She still shines above them and she’s. Yeah, she’s awesome as a producer and almost like to a t of like what you think the stereotypical producer would be in a movie like this? Yeah. Also nails it.
Joe: Knows exactly what this role is as just right on the edge of going too far, but never does. And, I won’t spoil, you know, her character, but it’s awesome.
Greg: You can wear it. Spoilers.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I think she’s better in this movie than she is in Ted Lasso.
Joe: Oh, that’s that’s a big statement for Ted Lasso. I’ve never seen Ted Lasso, so.
Greg: Oh, wow. That’s a big statement. Yeah.
Greg: She’s a little bit more stiff, her character is more stiff. And Ted Lasso in this, she’s allowed to have a bit more fun and oh my gosh, the comic timing of her. I notice there’s this one scene where Ryan Gosling is laying on a couch, and he’s kind of replaying what they’ve talked about. Yeah.
Clip: Okay, let me get this straight. Nihilism is the sexy bacon. Yeah, the audience are dogs.
Clip: There we go.
Clip: And when you fall down, you get back up.
Clip: Thank you.
Clip: I’m glad we did this.
Joe: That scene felt really ad lib to me of just like, again, two actors being in the moment. Yeah, just kind of riffing with each other. And it is so funny. We’re probably denigrating all screenwriters who wrote perfect like witty scenes and stitched them together. But yeah, there are some great moments between them. That scene is hilarious, where she’s talking him into, you know, getting back in the stunt game and all of that, and like the whole reason for them for movies.
Joe: And then so perfect.
Greg: When she talks about the nihilism is an acceptable worldview. And she’s like, no, that’s just that’s just the sexy bacon we wrap around. Yeah. You know, to make it more palatable. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that whole scene is just incredible. And then I will spoil it. Spoilers yeah he fall guy. She ends up being kind of the bad bad guy.
Greg: And that lands a little false to me. That was a note that Ryan Gosling gave to Drew Pearce, the screenwriter. He said, no, I think we should keep this world smaller, like the bad guy is on the set with them. And so I think her character was tweaked to be the bad guy.
Joe: Interesting. To me, it was it felt pretty telegraphed from the beginning. Oh, really? I was not shocked that the movie producer on a movie that’s so referential about movies was the bad guy. So to me at all like it landed perfectly for me with her character.
Greg: Anyone who drinks a soda with a straw and trouble.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Anyone who demands that her assistant block the sun with an umbrella for her right as she walks, which I’ve seen a bunch on, like, movie sets. That’s like a real thing.
Joe: Parasols are making a comeback. Apparently.
Greg: So that is so bizarre to me to walk down the street and have somebody else hold the umbrella for you. Yeah, that is really bizarre.
Joe: You’ve know you’ve made it. If someone is holding, an umbrella for you.
Greg: And so there are some moments in this movie where, well, first of all, it starts with this just incredibly. Well, I don’t know if it’s the very first shot, but there’s a really long one shot of Ryan Gosling walking into the set of the film that they’re they’re making in the very beginning, and they need to redo a shot.
Greg: And Aaron Taylor-Johnson is complaining that you can sort of see the stunt man’s face, so he needs to face the other direction while he’s doing his stunt. And so there’s just all kinds of character that’s created in this single shot as he walks through the set, and then he gets on an elevator, and then they as he’s standing there, they kind of clip him in, and then he drops 12 stories all in the same shot.
Greg: Just crazy.
Joe: And then they make reference to it and the movie that’s being made, and I call it a oner. And then by proceeding, that is another one shot. Yeah. Of Emily Blunt character on set. And so there are some really fun moments like that. Both of those scenes are really intricate and awesome. And you know, if you’ve listened to extraction, you know how much of a big of a fan we are?
Joe: About one shot? Yeah. I mean, it just takes a lot of coordination. And to me, there’s a lot of winks to the camera of movie making. Stunt coordinator, stunt men, women, all of that. At times I grew a little tired of it being little, so referential. Got to me a little bit at different points.
Greg: But yeah, let me say.
Joe: It didn’t take away from the movie. It was. It pushed it to our movie where it’s definitely a great bad movie.
Greg: Yeah. And it’s super fun. Yeah, we can have fun.
Joe: Yeah, we can have fun. We can have fun at the movies and still root for the good guys and root for them to get together in the end and all of that and.
Greg: Get back.
Joe: Together. Yeah, get back together. And they can reference that in some. There’s some really. I mean, the scenes between Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, there’s a scene when they’re on the phone together and then they talk about split screen, and then they put it on split screen. You’re like, you know what? I knew it was coming. Yep. I was ready for it.
Joe: And they mirror each other. I was like, did they do this at the same time on set? They or are they talking to each other or are they just like talking? Whatever it was, they were perfect in it.
Greg: Did that happen in Hobbs and Shaw? Wasn’t there a split screen in Hobbs and Shaw where they did that? Everyone smile? Or maybe that was the way they transition between scenes. Occasionally it would go to sync. So I loved the split screen scene in this movie, because Emily Blunt is talking about the movie that they’re making. The chopping it up is what he keeps saying.
Greg: They’re talking about the script. Yeah, it’s just chop it up. It’s fine. We’re just chopping it up. Which would make another great name for this podcast. Probably could have just been chopping it up with John Craig. Yeah, but she’s talking about the movie and he is talking about their relationship. Yeah, I mean, a little strained but pretty good.
Joe: Yeah. It was a little writerly in like they how they did it. Sure. But you know and this kind of movie, it’s not if it was a movie that was taking itself more seriously, I would be like annoyed with it. But for this, it’s like, that’s what this is. I mean, it’s a it’s fine. Yeah. To find out.
Joe: Funny she throughout the scene has like the alien hand on. Yeah. Which is really distracting and really hilarious that he’s having a serious conversation about her movie while wearing this fake rubber hand and then, like, putting her face in her hand. So it’s awesome. They’re just little moments like that throughout this movie that make it just a joy to watch.
Greg: She’s talking about the character of Ileana in the movie and her an alien, his relationship with the space cowboy, yet she has an alien hand on. Yeah. And yeah, there were definitely a few moments in this movie where it was stretching a little bit at the seams, where it was kind of like they were just throwing plot points at you, that it was just so obvious.
Greg: We’re going to need to know about that as a concept later on. Like when he first arrives to the movie that they’re filming that she’s directing called Metal Storm, which I think was an old universal movie could.
Joe: Have been.
Greg: I think there’s like an Easter egg there as far as, the universal movie lore. But anyways, when he arrives, they take like a full 360 view of his face so they can digitize his face onto Aaron Taylor Johnson’s film. And he goes, okay, so this is like a deep fake scenario. And there’s like a bit of a pause.
Greg: It’s like, what? Wow. They’re really just serving this up to us on the car. Well, the post-it note thing is a funny gag, but also like, well, that’s going to come in handy later on. Yeah. You know, there’s just like plot devices that are just not so subtle. I guess what I’m trying to say.
Joe: Yeah. Subtle. Yeah. I don’t want this movie. If you’re expecting a slow, subtle burn with a payoff at the end, this is all. Yeah, yeah, they really hammer home some of the things that happen in it that, you know, are going to come back. You know, his first stunt job was on Miami Vice. And he can drive a boat backwards through a flaming thing.
Greg: And like there it is ten minutes later.
Joe: On cue. And you’re like, okay, I think they even say chef’s kiss to something in there. Yeah. So like, that was like the chef’s kiss homage to. Yeah different things. And I wonder you know was David Leach on Miami Vice as a stunt I wonder.
Greg: And I think they were saying that it was a Miami Vice stunt show. Would that have been at Universal Studios? I don’t know, it’s been Waterworld at Universal Studios forever, but apparently this last summer or maybe it is right now, the fall guy is the first couple minutes of the Waterworld show.
Joe: Awesome.
Greg: Waterworld. Obviously a movie we’re going to get to. I don’t know how many times we need to say this. Yeah, yeah, I wonder I wonder if that was something that David Leach did back in the day. That’d be interesting. Things I look forward to googling. Yeah.
Joe: Someday. Exactly.
Greg: There’s a kind of running gag throughout the whole movie where Ryan Gosling is just wanting a cup of coffee. Yeah, strong allusions to Hudson Hawk. Were you thinking about Hudson Hawk with Bruce Willis?
Joe: I wasn’t, I was I’m trying to think of what I was thinking about, but spoiler alert on the drinking games. That is one of my drinking games. Ryan Gosling trying to get coffee and failing every single time.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. What was I trying to remember? But it could have been Hudson Hawk.
Greg: I don’t know, it definitely happens in Hudson. Yeah, because we used to host Bruce Willis parties and we would watch an episode of moonlighting. Some Die Hard probably. Yeah. And I want to say Hudson Hawk was a featured movie at our parties for a long time. Yeah. He just wants a cup of espresso.
Joe: Can’t get it.
Greg: Can’t get it. So there, there was kind of a world where Ryan Gosling was going. You know what I realized I’m getting into the plot here. And just in case people don’t remember this movie or they haven’t seen it yet, Joe, why don’t we take him down the halls of a video store like Blockbuster Video, and they’re trying to figure out what movie they want to rent?
Greg: What if they picked up a box of The Fall guy, and they were trying to figure out if they were going to rent it? What would the back of the box say for the fall guy?
Joe: It’s the back of the box. When stuntman Carl Seaver, Ryan Gosling, is injured on a movie, his life falls apart. A chance call from an old producer puts him back on set as he tries to shake the rust off and rekindle his lost love, Cole gets caught up with nefarious villains trying to frame him for murder. Can he take a punch or be another fall guy caught in a web of lies?
Joe: Wow, I’d rent that movie.
Greg: Do we get the answer?
Joe: I think the answer is he can take a punch. Okay, okay. And he doesn’t get caught in a web of lies. Or he does and then magically gets out of it with the help of pyrotechnics. Wow.
Greg: Further things do you need to add that on? Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, he can take a punch.
Greg: All right. So that is the official back of the box. But you know what? I’m wondering what the real Joe Skywalker back in the box would be for this movie.
Joe: The real back of the box is the plot of this movie is not even worth repeating. It is bonkers. But if you watching this movie for the plot, then you probably have bigger issues in your life. Just sit back and watch this slightly navel gazing stunt fest pat itself on the back while blowing stuff up. Let’s be honest, we are all here to see the stunts anyway.
Greg: So should we talk about the stunts?
Joe: Yeah, let’s get into it. They pack them in. It’s fun.
Greg: It’s pretty amazing. Like every different kind of stunt you would be looking for. They roll a car eight and a half times, which I think was a world record. There’s all kinds of, like, falling off things.
Joe: There’s throwing over counters and, yeah, falling off of lofts through plate glass windows. Rain. Yeah, definitely some great bad shots in there. Not as much. There is some gunfights, but not as much.
Greg: Yeah, which I appreciate it. Obviously that gets entailed.
Joe: There’s a car chase with, you know, a fistfight on it, and then they’re on a garbage truck that is like the dumpster is spinning around.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: There’s a fistfight on a helicopter. Yep. Lots of cars kind of blowing up and rolling. So they definitely throw everything at you in this. It is it is glorious for all of that.
Greg: At the end, he flies from a camera boom over to a helicopter to hold on to the skids. Yeah, and it totally reminded me of do you remember that scene? And so I married an ax murderer.
Joe: Yeah, right. Trust me.
Greg: What’s that guy’s name? Anthony LaPaglia.
Joe: Is it? Yeah.
Greg: Is complaining to Alan Arkin, his boss, and he’s like, I’ve never been. I’ve never grabbed on to that part of the helicopter. You know, the part I’m talking about?
Clip: I’m. I’m having doubts about being a cop. You know? It’s not like how it is on TV. Oh, I do all days. I fill up forms of paperwork. I mean, this is what I do. It’s a point well taken, Tony, but you must understand. Although it’s not exciting, it’s a very important part of our work. Yeah, but in all my times of the car, I’ve never.
Clip: I never, like, chased a guy across a crowded city squares. I’ve never. I never hung on to that part of the helicopter. You know, the part underneath the thing where it lands. Do you do you know the parts? I know that I’ve never hung on to that.
Greg: Oh my gosh, Alan Arkin is just amazing. Anyways, so he jumps on, he says, I’m going to jump onto the skids. I did not know that was what that was called me in there. So that’s incredible. So he does that stunt, but then when he falls off of the helicopter, he does like a if something like a, I don’t know how high it was, but he falls off backwards to the ground and a real stunt happening and not a stunt that happens in movies anymore.
Greg: They found a guy who was like the last guy on the block to do it. He did it way longer than everybody else. And that guy had trained his son how to do it. And his son did that stunt in the movie. So it was like some, you know, luminary, but it’s just amazing. There are definitely digital things happening in the frame during stunts sometimes, but you just can’t replace guy falling from that high.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, there’s a few moments, there’s a CGI effect, you can see this happening, or green screen or blue screen.
Greg: Or sparks on the on the road. Probably not real.
Joe: Sparks, but for the most part it’s real stuntmen and women running into stuff over stuff. Yeah, taking punches, jumping off of blowing stuff up and right for us. We love that. Like I just I cannot get enough of a real explosion in a movie.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: There’s a great scene where cars are coming through and they have like the smoke, and it’s like every war chase movie you’ve ever seen.
Greg: Very Fury Road ish, you know, colors to the explosions.
Joe: There are lots of references to other movies in this, even some scenes of David Lynch’s other films. And yeah there’s definitely like that scene. There’s definitely a Fury Road homage. There’s a Dune reference, a couple of them in this actually.
Greg: Metal Storm is kind of a Dune movie.
Joe: I can totally see that.
Greg: A little bit of a Fury Road movie. Yeah, I don’t know. That might be the two things. Yeah.
Joe: So it’s. Yeah, it’s just they pack so much into it. It’s really. Yeah. It’s so fun to watch.
Greg: In fact, when Ryan Gosling starts going out in the world to kind of stumble upon this mystery of where is Tom Ryder, Tom Ryder has disappeared. And he goes to his drug dealer. His drug dealer’s name is Dune. Yeah, with two O’s, but. And then he gets drugged by that guy. Yeah. Dune’s goons dirtied my Shirley.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: That’s Shirley Temple.
Joe: You can hallucinate a unicorn. And. Yeah, that’s one of my favorite lines in the movie is like, when does it wear off? He’s asking the drug dealer. It’s like when you stop seeing the unicorn and he turns to the right, and there’s the unicorn and the flash. It was not it wasn’t a cartoon then. It was all right.
Joe: A horse with a horn. It was perfect. It’s just one of those moments. And then you see it kind of throughout that, that night that he’s going on trying to track everybody down. So it’s awesome.
Greg: Emily Blunt says that she’s okay, that Tom rider has disappeared because she could just digitally replace his face onto Ryan Gosling’s face. So then Ryan Gosling can just do all the scenes and she can just put him on later. And when she’s complaining about him, she says he runs weird and he can’t do action.
Joe: Yes, she says yeah, who is that person?
Greg: That’s my question to you. I feel like they’re taking shots.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: They mentioned Tom cruise a few times. I don’t think they’re taking shots at Tom cruise.
Joe: No, I don’t think so.
Greg: But he does say like they can put Tom Cruise’s face on my body and say it’s him and nobody would know any different. Right. It makes me wonder.
Joe: I feel like it’s either it’s a reference either to Tom cruise because he runs in every movie.
Greg: Yeah, but we love that.
Joe: Yeah, we love that he.
Greg: Can do action.
Joe: Yeah, it could be Keanu Reeves who yeah, has a distinct run or the John Wick movies. But also I wouldn’t do that. Yeah. David Leitch loves no, probably both of those actors. So I don’t know. Wait, with some due diligence on the internet needs to be done on who that who that actor is that can’t run.
Greg: So luckily, you know, we’re in a spot now where this movie came out, I don’t know, two months ago. And so there’s been a lot of online speculation about this. And I want to say it was the vulture that the like kind of ran through the whole list of who they thought it would be if they are taking shots at anyone.
Greg: I think the consensus is it’s Dwayne The Rock Johnson, because it turns out Dwayne The Rock Johnson doesn’t show up to set. He will make people sit there for six hours. He and Ryan Reynolds had a huge blowout during Red notice. And if you’re wondering who loved Red notice, it’s me. I loved that movie. And, that’s what makes this podcast amazing.
Greg: We could be purchased by Netflix and be like, that is totally fine. We love everything you guys are doing.
Joe: Yeah, keep it up. Oh, no. We’re in.
Greg: He was suppose to have a Christmas movie come out last year, and it was pushed to this year because he just kind of wasn’t showing up.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: So David Leach did do a movie with the Rock tribe.
Joe: Hobbs and Shaw, which went along at home.
Greg: Yeah, and we would love to see another one, but I wonder if they’re taking shots.
Joe: They’re taking shots? Yeah. I don’t think it would be Ryan Reynolds. No, I’m trying to think if I’ve ever seen Dwayne The Rock Johnson run in a movie.
Greg: Oh, that’s a good question. He did run in skyscraper, a movie we will for sure get to,
Greg: I was pretty shocked when I was hearing about this, as I was kind of studying up on this this week because I have been in camp, the Rock and Antifa and diesel in their beef. And apparently on the sets of the Fast and Furious movies, like everybody who works in those movies, they love Vin Diesel.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: And I wonder if the Rock made them wait.
Joe:
Greg: It is pretty interesting.
Joe: Yeah. Send in for those listening. I will take any, any sleuthing that you all can find for this. Absolutely. I’m dying to know. I’m going through all the movies that David Lynch has done. Who that could possibly be. It might not even be one that he’s directed. It could have been one that he.
Greg: Probably.
Joe: Not. You know some movie was like that stunt man for on in the 90s or something like that.
Greg: And they’ve been the stunt coordinator, he and Chad Stahelski that his name, the guy who directs the John Wick movies. I mean, their company has done movies for years doing all the stunts and like second unit direction. So it’s impossible to say Johnny Depp. It could be, you know, you know, I don’t think it’s Tom cruise, although they do kind of call out Tom cruise a couple times, which was like, shots fired.
Greg: Yeah. Maybe there’s a scene where Ryan Gosling is encouraging Emily Blunt, saying, you have to finish this movie. He says something like, A whole generation of little Jodie is her name is Jodie. Whole generation of little Jodie is won’t pick up a camera or you should make this movie because then a whole generation of little, which I think is an allusion to a famous Francis Ford Coppola quote where he was talking about, I think, just some little girl somewhere picking up a camera.
Greg: That was why he did what he did.
Joe: Right. Interesting.
Greg: I was just thinking about how we’ve recorded a bunch of episodes that we haven’t released when we were like practicing for great bad movies. The first great, great movie we watched that we were just suddenly what do we do with this was The Nice Guys. Yeah. Which is maybe a better version of the fall guy as far as like a plot, a mystery, that funny Gosling is kind of making his way through.
Joe: Yeah, I would agree with that. It’s like the fall Guy and LA confidential had a baby. It would be the name. Yeah. Nice guys.
Greg: Wow, that’s really well put. Russell Crowe is in L.A. confidential, right?
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: That’s amazing.
Joe: That was an accident on my part. I shouldn’t say that, but.
Greg: Drew Pearce, who wrote this movie, co-wrote Iron Man three with Shane Black, and they worked together. Shane Black also directed that movie. So Drew Pearce was really kind of the one in charge of the script, making sure it was it was working, but that was his first, I think, big movie he had credit on. And Shane Black wrote and directed The Nice Guys.
Joe: Right.
Greg: So interesting. I wonder if Shane Black got to have any input on the script or it wasn’t evident, really.
Joe: No, they didn’t kind of have the the harshness that Shane Black and sometimes bring that his movies.
Greg: The second great, great movie where we were like, oh no, we’ve done it again. And back then, you know, we’re kind of like, well, we have to throw this out. It’s not a great bad movie. We have officially abandoned that because time is precious. And if it’s a great movie, you just call it a great, great movie. Yeah, but the second movie was Atomic Blond.
Greg: You know, I also had Covid and didn’t know it where when we recorded that episode. So I was a bit out of it, I think.
Joe: Yeah, Atomic Blond feels more in the world of John Wick than any of David Lynch’s other movies.
Greg: Totally, totally.
Joe: And it could be James Bond with Charlize Theron as James Bond. Yeah, almost. I mean, there’s it definitely feels like his first movie where I don’t know if he had as much say about, like, tone. The visual story of it is I can definitely see it. But yeah, it is. There’s not one laugh in that movie.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: If he made that movie today or if he made the sequel, which I’ve heard rumors that they might do a sequel. Yeah, I bet that they’ll bring a little bit more warmth and humor into it, because there aren’t really there’s like one character who’s good in Atomic Blond and she’s killed, and Charlize Theron makes a comment of, like, letting her mask slip with that person and like, but everyone else is pretty.
Joe: It’s pretty dark, it’s awesome. And there’s some beautiful action sequences in that. And I think the story is I think it’s a great movie. It is a great, great movie. But it’s not a fun watch. It’s not a fun movie. I don’t mean in the fun on that movie.
Greg: Sure, it’s interesting to think about how Chad Stahelski and David Leech co-directed John Wick. David Leitch was uncredited. They weren’t allowed to both direct it because they aren’t brothers. I think is what the Directors Guild said. It was a very weird.
Joe: Thing that this weird role.
Greg: Oh yeah, totally. But as you look at their careers, they really do kind of have distinctive voices. And David Lynch’s humor has been pretty pronounced. Yeah. Like he wants to make silly movies that are fun.
Joe: Yeah I would yeah, I agree with that. And we haven’t seen Chad Stahelski next Mike outside of the John Wick averse. Yeah, I know he’s got a lot of stuff in production, so I’ll be curious to see if that tone stays the same, because I understand that the universe of John Wick and it’s not sure. Super. It’s not silly, right?
Joe: But yeah, they’re beautiful and they tell a story. And the action sequences I feel like and some of them are second to none. But yeah, they’re not not going for laughs and action. You know, you wouldn’t put comedy in the the three words that Netflix put to the bottom of them of a show, you know, funny and John Wick are never going to be in the same sentence.
Greg: But it is hilarious. Yeah, but the first one was maybe the funniest of.
Joe: The John Wick. Yeah, probably.
Greg: When David Leitch was around, you know, kind of whenever they say it was John Wick’s dog, there’s that oh moment, you know.
Joe: Yeah. Anyways, I can see it.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of needle drops in this movie. Starts with a kiss song. The darkness has,
Joe: This that song.
Greg: I believe in a thing called Love. Yes.
Joe: Yeah, yeah.
Greg: Yeah. I love growing on me more than I believe in the thing. Called love from that album.
Joe: All right.
Greg: I’ve done my album for the right for this guy. Me. So I’m just dropping that. I’m just doing that. There and walking away. Are there any other needle drops that you live in this movie?
Joe: I want to mention the music and the movie because I feel like it’s, he kind of uses music similar to how I feel like Quentin Tarantino sometimes used music in his movies where, you know, there is a soundtrack. That’s our score that’s going along with the movie. But there’s really big, loud moments when the the music or the songs are on.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. And I feel like they really kind of punctuate the different either the action scenes or setting up the scenes. And so music plays a really key part in this. So I was paying attention to the songs that they were choosing. Yeah. Where they were from. If I had had more time, I would have googled, like, was there an action scene that used that song, you know, way back when?
Joe: Because I feel like there’s always a reason that directors put songs in movies, and I feel like David Lee, too, would have used songs that were from maybe movies that he was on. I don’t know, I feel like there’s a longer story with the songs, so they aren’t the classic songs that you hear in a lot of movies, except for maybe was The Thunder by AcDc, which is kind of in in a lot of stuff.
Joe: Thunderstruck. Yeah. Thunderstruck. Yeah.
Greg: Well, are there any movies that come to mind that reference stunt people the way this movie has? You kind of have to go way back. You mentioned the player. I think that’s a great call out for like somewhat recent history, I guess, right? Yes.
Joe: I mean, it’s based really loosely on the fall Guy TV show, which you and I both watched. Sure. Lee majors, I love that show, but he’s more of like, he’s, a stuntman that goes around. But also is kind of known to, like, solve crime wasn’t so he was. Yeah, it’s a little different. So they kind of referencing that a little bit.
Joe: That’s the one I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure there are others. What do you have?
Greg: Oh, I’m just I’m just laughing at how little this movie is like that show. Really? Yeah.
Joe: It really there’s I mean, aside from sharing a name, if you’ve put that movie on and took the title off of it. Yeah. And like they, they reference fall Guy or you’re just a fall guy, which is like 2 or 3 times in the movie, you wouldn’t go, oh, this movie is definitely based on this TV show. You know, it’s probably the same, although Mission Impossible is a little different.
Joe: But if you watch the TV show to what the movies are. Yeah, if you took them the title off and the theme song, we’re not in the same universe.
Greg: Totally. Like if you didn’t drive that GMC truck and if his name wasn’t called Seavers and her name wasn’t Jody, whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, that’s really interesting. There’s a movie called The Stunt Man, which was a very serious movie from, I want to say like 1980. There was a movie a couple of years before that, I want to say called Hooper, maybe a year or two with Burt Reynolds.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: And Sally field, and I think it was the movie they did when they were dating, and they did it after Smokey and the bandit. And so they were making like, silly pants movies. But that movie, which is entirely on YouTube, I watched a bunch of it the other night. It’s very silly, but it’s also quite sarcastic towards the industry.
Greg: Maybe even more sarcastic than this movie was just about how ridiculous directors are and the power dynamics of a set. This gang I wanted to hang out with, you know? Yeah, everybody that was working on the set, the production assistant and the fall guy who’s just screaming at everybody all the time. He could have done that eight more times in the movie.
Greg: I laughed every time he opened his mouth.
Joe: They really do give some of the just kind of bit character side characters moments to have a real character. That’s that’s funny, but there’s another assistant on the set that’s singing or watching him sing. Yeah, but she’s got a moment where it could have just. Yeah, I could have easily just written totally throwaway lines and gone from there.
Joe: But they went for they went for the joke whenever possible, which I appreciate.
Greg: And Venti Kushner was the name of that character, Zahra michaels. Yeah. The universe that this movie takes place in the gang is pretty, pretty strong.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: There’s a main plot point in this movie where Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Ryder has accidentally killed his stunt man Henry in. The guy who played Henry was actually Ryan Gosling and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Stunt man. Awesome. He’s not even listed in the credits as Henry, but his name is Justin Eaton. He was one of the stunt people on this movie.
Greg: All right, Joe, people are going to get together and watch this movie. Everyone should get together and watch this movie, to be honest. And when they do it, how about we prepare them with some drinking games?
Joe: Oh, let’s do it. And it doesn’t have to be alcohol. It can be water, coffee if you can get it. Unless you’re Ryan Gosling in this movie, and then you can’t have a cup of coffee. Could be soda. Like the producer in this movie, just constantly drinking out of a straw and a big soda cup. It’s awesome. Sure.
Joe: So yeah, there’s lots of ways that we can get into drinking games. So we have our stop drinking games. Starting off with a silent helicopter, I’m going to give a nod to the silent helicopter because there’s a scene on a helicopter where they’re talking to each other without headphones, without any mikes, and they can hear everything that they’re saying.
Joe: And we know that that is just patently false.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: So you can take a drink for a silent helicopter.
Greg: Is that at the end? Yeah. Okay. I’m going to also do a caveat there. I think we should just include low flying helicopters okay. And that does happen a few times.
Joe: I’ll add that to the template and we’ll call those the Tony Scott helicopter.
Greg: Yes. Potentially Richard Donner. Yeah I mean I knew as well, especially in the movie paycheck. Andre Konchalovsky and Tango and Cash.
Joe: Yes. Low flying helicopter being added to the stock drinking game.
Joe: That’s the Greg Swineherd special. Anything. Absolutely anything helicopter related. You’re drinking in a movie? Absolutely. Push in and enhance. I didn’t see one. I don’t know if you saw one.
Greg: No, I didn’t see one.
Joe: Maybe when two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos, there could have been moments. I didn’t mark it down for myself.
Greg: I didn’t catch it if it happened. Yeah.
Joe: There’s no silent suffering that an explosion with silent suffering ringing in the ears. Opening credits scene. When the title locks in place with the sound. Yes. Twice. So I heard they speak the title at the opening. He’s, valet, and someone says, oh, you’re just a fall guy. Yeah, yeah. And then they type it in the fall guy.
Joe: Right? There’s a flashback to dialog. Yes. Oh, yeah. They flashback that they’re some of they’re seeing the romance. Yeah. The romance. Yeah. Flashbacks to romance. I gave a CGI that’s not bad CGI in this because most of the stunt are real, but pretty good. Did it just make it drink more? Okay, great. Bad shots. There’s a lot. When they do have guns in this wolf, they are.
Greg: All great shots.
Joe: You know, like shooting him. He’s on a boat and they’re like, they’re hitting the steering wheel right next to him. It’s awful. Yeah. Yep. Are the streets inextricably wet? I gave this one because they have an action scene when they’re doing the oner, where they cue the rain because there’s a fight scene in the rain.
Greg: In front of the Sydney Opera House. Yeah.
Joe: So I feel like that’s there’s no need for it to be raining. So I feel like we can kind of put the caveat for that one when there’s rain and a scene that doesn’t really need to have rain in it. Okay. And then give us the room, we have a give us the room that happens. So awesome. They’re in the last stock drinking game.
Joe: There is no reference to Interpol in this movie. Oh, so a missed opportunity. Yeah. Total missed opportunity. All right, give me one of your drinking if I have a lot. But I’m dying to hear what you have.
Greg: Okay? Any time Colt Seaver does a stunt in a movie.
Joe: Okay, I have every time they quote movies to each other.
Greg: Yeah, well, I actually have it as well. Any time Colt Seaver does a stunt in real life. Oh, so not while they’re filming Ryan.
Joe: Any time Ryan Gosling is on screen, they’re basically drinking.
Joe: I have every time they reference or show scenes from other movies.
Greg: Oh, that’s a good one. That’s a really good one. Anytime he tries to get a cup of coffee.
Joe: Okay, I have that one too, I will, I’ll skip mine on that one. Okay. I have what I’m calling any time there is John woo wind in the hair. So moments when there should not be wind. Sure. And there’s a scene. So there’s a great scene when Ryan Gosling sees Jodie for the first time and kind of coming back.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: Blows up.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: Wind on the frosted tips. It’s perfect.
Greg: Wind on the frosted tips. Yeah, that is incredible. There’s a really funny scene where they kind of hash out what happened in their relationship. Yeah, over bullhorns in front of the whole cast and production of the movie. And then one of the aliens wants to add to the conversation of how difficult relationships are. And he says it got really weird for him because he fell in love with his wife’s sister.
Greg: Yeah. Anytime an alien says that he’s fallen in love with his wife’s sister.
Joe: Just finish whatever drink you have.
Greg: That whole scene, by the way. Yeah. So funny. Yeah. Clearly going for jokes. And it really delivered.
Joe: Yeah, I have, and I could throw Emily Blunt in this too, but really, Ryan Gosling comedic timing in this movie, he is so funny in just the midst of moments where it’s not necessarily even where you think they’re leading up to a joke and yep, yep, he’s just he’s perfect in that. So is she. So I would say drink for either one of those.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Was that a drinking game.
Joe: Yeah, that’s a drinking game.
Greg: Wait, what?
Joe: I’ve just any time Ryan Gosling makes you laugh essentially. Oh my gosh. Oh you have every time he’s in a stand and I have every time he makes you laugh. Oh, man.
Greg: Let’s see. Anytime script type is shown on screen there you like the title of the movie. The end of the movie?
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: The actors in the movie, they often show kind of courier font on the screen. So anytime they show a script on the screen, take a drink.
Joe: Yeah, I have any time they reference a meta moment. So moments in the movie that reference the movie itself? Yeah, there are a lot of those.
Greg: So what are some examples of those like.
Joe: You know, when they’re talking about what’s going to happen in the third act of the movie.
Greg: Third act problems.
Joe: Yeah. And she’s like, well is it, you know, are they going to get together? And they’re like, yeah, love doesn’t happen in real life. And he’s like, you got to give it a chance. And then they get together at the end.
Greg: Anytime someone says sexy bacon.
Joe: Awesome. I have every time plate glass breaks.
Greg: Oh that’s a great one. This one’s slightly dangerous. Any time somebody gives a thumbs up.
Joe: Oh, I have that one too.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I think you may need to eat some carbs before you watch this movie. And I’m going to play along with our drinking games.
Greg: This is a race. You need to carb up for it.
Joe: Yeah, any time Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a Matthew McConaughey impersonation.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Talk at the end.
Greg: It seems like that’s definitely what he’s doing, right? Yeah, yeah.
Joe: Maybe he’s the person who can’t run and doesn’t do action.
Greg: Oh I wonder all right. My last one is, any time they say problems with the third act.
Joe: Okay. Nice. They are drinking. I have a couple more. I have cameos, so we have a Lee majors cameo. Yep. And a Jason Momoa cameo.
Greg: Yep. And Heather Thomas.
Joe: So any time you see that. Yeah. Take a drink or and there’s, like, a hilarious post-it note. And then and has room where it’s like, is it Jason Momoa or Momoa or something like that. So and then my last one is what I’m calling main character teary eyed. And so they’re sad, but they’re not crying until they do tears well up in their eyes.
Joe: But they’re so they could drink.
Greg: Yeah. Which Aaron Taylor-Johnson does just during a conversation. Not even while they’re shooting.
Joe: Yeah. It’s so.
Greg: Incredible.
Joe: All right. I’ll run through our tropes so we don’t have a lot of, tropes. And this surprisingly not a lot of tropes in a movie that could be really trope heavy.
Greg: These are signs that you might be watching a great bad movie.
Joe: Yeah. So color filters for a third world country. I’m giving that because they have a color filter. When they have a moment of a sci fi film on another planet, we have redemption. As the driver of our protagonist, we have explosions on impact with a car crash. And then a conversation in the middle of a car chase or actually a boat chase that’s happening where he’s on the phone being chased by people with guns, having an awkwardly timed conversation.
Joe: Yeah. So those are the one, the ones that I came up with for that.
Greg: Okay. Okay. Joe, should we get to important questions?
Joe: Let’s do it. Let’s get to it.
Greg: Okay. Important questions that need to be asked. Yeah. In 2024 about the fall guy. Did this movie hold up when it came out?
Joe: Yes, I would say 100%.
Greg: And does it hold up now? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Two big yeses on that one. How hard do they sell the good guy?
Joe: Pretty hard in the beginning, especially because as any you know it’s a little bit for played for a laugh because it’s like kind of the pride come before fall. So he has a literal fall that he breaks his back in the opening scene. Yeah. But they sell him as the best stuntman he’s been.
Greg: They do, they do, you know.
Joe: Yeah. However many movies with the main actor have his stunt man needs, like written into the contract. I’m sure they do a pretty good job.
Greg: I agree, they sell him pretty hard as a great stunt guy. There literally is no one else in Australia where they are filming Metal Storm and this movie. Yeah. How hard do they sell the bad guy?
Joe: Not too hard.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: It’s kind of a surprise. The kind of sell the actor that he’s a stunt man for as being like a classic prima donna actor.
Greg: Right. And the producer, you know, watching him is kind of protecting him, right?
Joe: But I didn’t they didn’t sell him like the classic putting the rap sheet up on the screen. Right. You know, no, he’s responsible for the blah, blah, blah bombing in Belfast. Yeah. Or 1988 or whatever.
Greg: So totally another important question. Why is there romance in this movie?
Joe: I feel like I should pose that question to you because I don’t feel like romance really belongs in movies. I was fine with it in this one. But honestly, Greg, tell us why there needs to be romance in anything.
Greg: I think it’s one of the best parts of this movie. I mean, I would have seen it if there wasn’t romance, but as it’s happening and as they’re so amazing together. And just to put this in perspective, this is the big movie that came out after Barbie last year. So funny. Gosling took over 2023 with Barbie with his energy and surprisingly is the fall guy didn’t do super well in the box office.
Greg: But, and Emily Blunt was in Oppenheimer. They’re both part of Barbie and Heimer. But for us on this podcast, we did Edge of Tomorrow last week, our first official great, great movie. And she was incredible in that movie. There is romance in this movie because there’s hope for this world and there’s incredible chemistry between incredible actors.
Joe: Oh wow. It just this one.
Greg: I feel like they could have gotten rid of the mystery, to be honest, and had this just be an action comedy romance.
Joe: And I could see that.
Greg: The mystery kind of doesn’t make sense.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. When you break down all of the pieces that they needed to bring together to get everybody right, it’s.
Greg: Yeah. And he I mean, he says a couple times I’m just a stunt man. He’s kind of like, I think this is called like a shaggy dog story where he’s just kind of like meandering through and the crazy world is happening around him. Right? Kind of like The Big Lebowski. That’s. I think it’s a classic shaggy dog story.
Greg: Yeah. So I think Jeff Bridges might have a spot later on in these questions for me. Are we bad people for loving this movie?
Joe: Perhaps.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. Does it deserve a sequel?
Joe: I don’t know that it needs a sequel. I’m sure there could be one. And if they kind of bring everyone back together, I would totally watch it. It’s kind of. Where do they go from here with this, right? Yeah. You know, as you said, the the mystery is kind of stitched into it. The romance is the best kind of the best part of the the movie part when you take out the, the action.
Joe: So what happens. You know if they have a good enough script I guess. Yes. But yeah I’m a little iffy. You know, it’s like some movies are just perfect for what they are and you don’t need to add anything onto it.
Greg: That’s how I feel too. Although I will see the next thing that all of these people do. And if they were to do it all together, I would also see it, but I would be okay with it being a different story.
Joe: Yeah. And I would also watch Fall Guy for whenever that comes out. Sure. And like ten years. So like nothing I say is sacred about about this other than it doesn’t need a sequel.
Greg: I would have said bullet Train could use a sequel because I would love to see another bullet train, but since I liked this movie more than Bullet Train, it’s like, well, the next one’s going to be even better for me. Like, I just that everybody should just keep working and making stuff that that I love because it if it’s a different, slightly different flavor, I will probably enjoy that more.
Joe: Yeah. Well, what I want them to do with Bullet Train is to bring the ones that I’m in and Tangerine character. So those those are the my were my favorite characters in the movie. So I want them to have their Hobbs and Shaw moment. That’d be good there, whether it’s a prequel or just going on from there.
Joe: So yeah, my yeah plea for the love of God, make that happen.
Greg: Next question is, does this deserve a prequel?
Joe: No no no.
Greg: Okay. That’s weird. That’s different than usual for you, Joe. How can this movie be fixed? AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: You could go old school and bring Lee majors back. Sure. And I don’t know that I want anyone else in these characters, honestly. So I feel like as pretty perfect as it is. But I feel like you have a better answer than I do.
Greg: I mean, action comedies are pretty unsuccessful.
Joe:
Greg: In life. So the fact that this one is something that I really enjoyed, I feel like I kind of don’t want to mess with it. Having said that, what if it was remade with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz with their characters from Night and Day, directed by James Mangold?
Joe: I mean, if we’re taking the premise and then replacing the leads, I’m in.
Greg: Okay. And, back up to that would be what if this movie was remade with Tom cruise and Rebecca Ferguson?
Joe: Oh, I’m 100% in on that. I’m hoping, because I think the world of Rebecca Ferguson that she can do comedy. I know Tom cruise can. Yeah, he’s a sneaky comedic actor.
Greg: I bet she totally can.
Joe: Yeah. So yeah, I’m in. I’m in on that. I’m okay. On a little spoof of Mission Impossible World. Yeah, yeah, let’s do it. Let’s make that happen.
Greg: I think because the thing that didn’t quite work in this movie was him meandering through this world. I think they kind of cut out the world that he eventually kind of fell into and made the problems closer to the movie set. Right. I think they should go with an earlier draft of the script and make it with Jeff Bridges as the stunt man.
Greg: And so I looked up who else is in their 70s and could be a counterpart to Jeff Bridges and Susan Sarandon also, I chose to be awesome. Can you imagine how awesome that movie would be with the two of them?
Joe: Yeah, I’m in.
Greg: Also, I would, except Burt Reynolds and Sally field. All right, let’s just get the cast of Hooper back together. Sally Field still amazing. Yeah. I don’t know if Burt Reynolds is.
Joe: Yeah, I don’t know if he’s still alive. So.
Greg: So there might be challenges. All right.
Joe: I can just like, stitch people’s faces on anything. So I can’t just do a deepfake of Burt Reynolds, and we’re good to go.
Greg: They both look exactly like Ryan Gosling. Yeah. All right, Joe, what album is this movie?
Joe: Okay, so I had I actually went with the songs. I have two songs.
Greg: Okay, okay.
Joe: One because it’s kind of the theme of the movie is Kisses Made for Loving You, which they have, which is they have a remix of that which I actually like better than the original kind of throughout the movie, but it it kind of punctuates Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt relationship throughout the movie. Okay, okay, but honorable mention and what the real song really needs to be is the Steve Miller Band Space Cowboy.
Joe: Love. That could also be a drinking game that I forgot about until this moment. But every time they say the words, the space cowboy, take a drink.
Greg: Wait. And so that’s the honorable mention.
Joe: That’s that’s kind of the I don’t to it’s the better one. And also I should we should explain that they the movie that they’re making.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: The main character is a space cowboy. Yeah. And they say that a lot about him and it’s like high noon. But in space. Right. Like a reference for it.
Greg: Yeah. Okay.
Joe:
Greg: So which song should we put on our Spotify playlist?
Joe: But definitely the Steve Miller Band.
Greg: Okay, okay, okay.
Joe: Now if you’re watching the movie, you’ll get the kiss song.
Greg: Absolutely. So great bad movies music on Spotify if you want to hear the collection. All right. This is going to get so lofty, I thought I promise that makes sense. All right, so this movie is made by stunt people as a love note to stunt people. Even inside the movie, somebody says, did they give an Oscar for stunts?
Greg: Yeah. And he’s kind of like, nope. You know, I mean, it’s like there’s so many things. It’s just makers of a film appreciating key players in my favorite genre of movies. And that just makes me think about hip hop, about how rappers, their initial goal was to get a party started and really kind of celebrate the DJ who was using both hands to make records.
Greg: And so I feel like just as a genre, hip hop is the fall guy of, of genres. So I have to go back to the very beginning. Deejay Kool Herc in the Bronx. He was the one that would take two records and grab his favorite part of the song, which was the break part of the song where people weren’t singing or whatever.
Greg: And there was usually like, maybe even a break down where it was just like the bongos and the drums or whatever. He would take his favorite part of the song and have two copies of it, and then he would just make his favorite part longer. So the people who would dance the hardest during that part of the song could dance longer.
Greg: And that’s where the term breakbeat came from. The dance that people were doing during the break was break dancing, a term that he came up with. He started calling them break boys and break Girls, which were starting to be boys and girls, literally a party that his sister threw as a back to school party at their house. She said, your DJ and he’s like, all right, that’s the beginning of hip hop.
Joe: Awesome.
Greg: And the reason I went so lofty for this movie is because their whole intention was to have more fun. Yeah, this will be a more fun dance if we just have the best parts of the songs. We’re going back to school. We should have a party. So I’m going to say there isn’t like a recording of that party, but maybe like five years later there is a recording of of one of his dances.
Greg: So I will link that in the show notes at Great Bad movies.com.
Joe:
Greg: So that, people can listen to it. It’s pretty amazing. So thank you, D.J. Kool Herc, Sister Cindy, for throwing that party. Absolutely. Giving us one of the greatest honors in musical history. Okay, Joe, it’s time for us to rate this movie. Now we have a scale. It’s great. Bad movies. Good bad movies. Okay, bad movies, bad bad movies, or a worst case, awful bad movies.
Greg: Where would you rank this movie?
Joe: This is a great bad movie. Yes. It’s got all the things you’d want in it. It’s. It’s fun. It’s action packed. It’s silly. Yeah. The plot is what it is. So, yeah, it’s a great bad movie. For all those reasons that we’ve talked about. How do you rate this one?
Greg: That’s exactly how I rate it. And honestly, the only thing that would make it slightly more entertaining, I was going to say was if it gets absurdly serious, you know, or people are taking something super stupid very seriously. And then I realize that Aaron Taylor-Johnson does kind of have his, like, super evil bad guy moment.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Where he’s taking it seriously. It was like, no, they crossed that line. It is just a great, great, bad, bad. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. He’s he is perfect in this.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: As kind of like a douchebag actor who you just don’t like. He really nails that part.
Greg: He totally does. All right, Joe, do you. Anything else you want to say?
Joe: I don’t think so. I think this has been the conversation that need to be had about the fall guy. I know it just came out, but honestly, no one else really needs to talk about this movie.
Greg: We wrapped it up pretty quickly. In the lifespan of this movie. We should probably revisit this movie in a couple of years. I mean, but we did it. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. It happened.
Joe: Yeah. You’re welcome.
Greg: Live in the room and, Oh my gosh, I just looked over at the clock in my office, and, I just realized that the sand density here in my office is definitely not to my liking. So, I mean, we should just admit there’s bad sand down there. Probably recording this podcast on it.
Joe: Yeah, probably. Anyway, That’s interesting. I’ve got to go, sit in my truck and listen to Taylor Swift and cry for a little while.
Greg: So that checks out. You know what? I haven’t wanted to say anything, but I think I might have accidentally had some unsexy bacon before we started recording, so I’m not feeling so good. I think I should probably go.
Joe: That’s that. That’s probably for the best. I have to go find my password for my phone. I put it on a post-it note in my hotel room. I hope I can find it.
Greg: That makes sense, you know? And listen, when we record episodes, especially in person, you know, it’s my favorite thing. That being said, I’m no longer seeing unicorns in this room, and it’s it’s it’s gone down a notch for me. So I’m just gonna head out.
Joe: Yeah, that’s probably for the best. I’m watching Jay and Silent Bob’s right back. Seems like the appropriately self-referential movie movie to watch right after this movie, so, yeah.
Greg: That makes sense. It’s actually that that really works for me because, I mean, you know, that I love I’d love to keep chopping it up with you, but I think one of Dune’s goons dirtied my Shirley. So I’m going to go grab a fresh one.
Joe: That’s probably for the best. You’ll be seeing more unicorn friendly in a second here. Anyway, I’ve got to run. I’m going to fall through a plate glass window later, so.
Greg: Oh, no. Okay, so I guess we’re done. Which is great because much like Cold Savers in this movie, I desperately need a cup of coffee.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. After that, dirty Shirley. Yeah, I need a cup of coffee.
Greg: Okay, well, that totally works for me because I’m honestly a little worried that I’ve just kind of confessed to some crimes in this recording. So I don’t know if you can hear that helicopter coming. Our way. I am just going to grab this hard drive and hop on this helicopter so I can escape. So I’ll see you soon.