We’re still getting caught up on all the Super Bowl trailers and the next one we’re covering is for The Fall Guy, which looks so dumb fun it’ll have to be REALLY bad to put me off. The latest trailer boasts all the things the film includes, ranging from “action” to “romance” to “unicorns” to “ice crimes”. There’s also a bit undoubtedly chosen for the Taylor Swift Super Bowl™️ in which Gosling’s tough-guy stunt man character is caught crying along to TSwift in his car. That the song is “All Too Well” is maybe a shot at Jake Gyllenhaal. Is Jake G catching strays?
Speaking of, though, The Fall Guy is giving me the kind of energy Road House should be and isn’t. Ryan Gosling in his post-Ken, fun rediscovery phase is delivering the sort of soft tough guy Patrick Swayze played so well (Jake G could do this, too, but he isn’t for some reason). I said the new Road House is not my Road House—maybe The Fall Guy is my Road House, instead.
Also, and I cannot BELIEVE this just occurred to me, The Fall Guy is the inevitable and natural conclusion of Barbenheimer, uniting Ken and Kitty Oppenheimer on the big screen. It’s Barbenheimer for real! We’ve even been talking about this film as part of Gosling’s resurgence as a fun guy, the clues were all there! How did I not see it? Maybe because The Fall Guy has its own legacy, or maybe it’s something about the talent of Gosling and Blunt that it’s so easy to put aside their previous work and buy into what they’re currently doing. A year after Barbenheimer dominated the summer, two of the stars from those movies are uniting to, maybe, throw down another hit. Nature is healing.
